OUTSTANDING ATHLETE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22139, 19 June 1935, Page 18

OUTSTANDING ATHLETE

FOOTBALLER AND CRICKETER C. J. Oliver, the All Black eontrethreequarter, must rank as tho most brilliant athlete Canterbury lias over produced. He has been playing representative football for 11 seasons and is now at the height of his form. Second to none for consistency and versatility in cricket, his performances are similarly outstanding, lie started playing senior cricket in 1922, and last season topped the batting average for Canterbury in club cricket, making some phenomenal scores.

Ho won Ins New Zealand cricket enp in 1925, touring Australia and later visited England. English enthusiasts will be amazed that one of those cricketers who toured their country with Tom Lowrv's New Zealand eleven of 1927 should come over again as a Rugby footballer eight years later. Charlie Oliver was brought up in a sporting atmosphere, for his father, J. Oliver, was a Rugby enthusiast in his day and also played for the Merivalc Club. Keenness and natural ability were encouraged and put along right lines at the Waltham School, the training ground of several other New Zealand representative footballers, one of whom was \V Elvy. Oliver was captain of tho school at both cricket and football. On leaving school he was apprenticed at the Addington workshops and joined up with the Merivale Club. His allegiance at cricket was given tr, tho Svdenham Club. He joined the M erivale Rugby Club in 1920 and played in the fourth and third grades. Then in 1922, at the age of IG, he played for the seniors in the five-eighths position. Since then Oliver's record in big footbail has been remarkable, even allowing for the fact that it has only been in late years that his real ability has been appreciated and used. Even last season, after Oliver had played three seasons with outstanding ability as centre for Canterbury, the New Zealand selectors still persisted in regarding him as five-eighths where Dominion football was concerned. Consequently, he was not given the chances his ability merited when the tests were lost to Australia. Oliver is one of the most popular footballers in the South Island. '