BREAKING: Shire Dad Performs Late-Night “Rain Dance Shot” - Wakes to Nippers Cancelled and Region-Wide Parental Euphoria

Finn Seabrook | Local Correspondent | Sutherland Shire Gazette

23 November 2025

CRONULLA - Some Shire parents erupted in quiet, exhausted celebration this morning as heavy rain swept across the region, cancelling Nippers and granting households an unexpected reprieve from the weekly ritual of cold-water suffering.

The soggy miracle has been unofficially attributed to local dad Mark Fletcher, 38, who after a night out with the dads declared he would be “doing one shot for the weather gods” to avoid standing knee-deep in freezing surf at 8am.

Witnesses confirm the group laughed, clinked glasses, and shouted “Let it pour!” before Mark - wearing a polo shirt and the confidence of a man who had no business being out past 10pm - raised his tequila and performed what onlookers are calling “an involuntary rain dance.”

“It was just a joke,” Mark said this morning from the safety of his lounge room, wrapped in a towel he didn’t have to use. “But then I woke up, checked the Nippers WhatsApp, and saw those magic words: Cancelled due to weather. I genuinely thought I’d unlocked a spiritual gift.”

Across the Shire, parents report similar feelings of profound relief.

One mum described the cancellation as “the first good news I’ve received since Term 3.” Another said she “heard the rain at 3am and smiled in her sleep like a Victorian ghost finally freed from its earthly chains.”

Experts say this particular Sunday downpour could not have come at a better time, with households bracing for the emotional and logistical carnage of the December social calendar.

“It’s like the universe knew we needed one day,” said a Como dad, watching the storm with the reverence of a man who narrowly escaped both sunscreen duty and sprint-roping toddlers through sand.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued no official confirmation of Mark’s weather-altering abilities, though locals insist they may call on him again before Presentation Day.

As one relieved parent put it, staring lovingly at the rain-soaked windows: “Finally, a Sunday where we can sit, breathe…and not pretend to enjoy seaweed.”

Nipper cancel rain dance