FIELD OF SPORT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 152, 9 April 1930, Page 2

FIELD OF SPORT.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. r (By “Onlooker.”) The final position of competitors for the Polo Cup in connection with the Ashburton Amateur Cycling and. Athletic Club’s evening meetings is as follows: —K. G. Nicoll 22, J. Dickinson 21 1-6, R. Shearman 20, S. H. Truman 15J, H. T. Weston 15, I. Bonifant 11, It. Mcllraith 9. The position of the leaders for the Cup was so close that any of the first five could have won it at*the concluding meeting of the season. The Mid-Canterbury Primary Schools , Athletic Association will hold its annual sports meeting in the Domain on Saturday. „ • An energetic committee has been preparing for the occasion for several weeks past and with fine weather, success is assured. A tremendous amount of preparation has been involved and the organisation of thft programme ha 3 little to be desired. As in former years, the massed drill and inter-schools games will be a great attraction. Over 2ROO entries have been received, and to onable “the run-.ning-off of heats expeditiously, one event will be held each minute. The massed drill disulav will be conducted bu Mr S. Webb (Director of Training for the Canterbury Education Department). This meeting is the red-letter day for many pupils, and it is hoped that a larger percentage of parents will be in attendance to see their children compete Considering the amount of work that lias been put into the effort, and taking mto account te e worthy cause in which it is presente , it behoves the public to support the meeting.

The much talked of Kirk-Wmdeyer Cup match will be the sole tome for a time, (says a northern exchange). The Australian teams will arm© in a dav or two and no doubt will avail themselves of as much practice as they can get, and so g et used to the local conditions. There is mucn_ speculation regarding the personnel o the New Zealand team. Horton and Black seem to be certainties Dr.Rass as a result of his deveat last week in his club championship, seems to na e lost favour. Although A. D.S- Duncan did a 72 against G. F. Colbeck m the Tuson Cun. he was playing very scratchy golf and will have to show an iir provement. .Sliirleyites still pm their faith on their local champion, L. MMacfarlane, and maintain that he is a “moral” to be in the team. His performances for the dast month averaged round about d, and on several .pensions he has broken /0. He lm* been devoting every spare minute to hard, intensive practice and there will be no fitte’- man in the competition than Macfarlane. He has only to maintain his present form to convince the critics what a good golfer he is.

The Hinds Athletic Club’s annual meet in o' was again a popular and successfuffixture. In most events the entries were large, and comprised some of the best runners m Canterbury, but the scratchings were numerous, due no doubt in the amateur events to the discrepancies in the handicaps of quite a number of the competitors. The members of the local amateur club supported the meeting well, m eetm with a great measure of success, filling first place in all events except the two 100 vards events, in which they had to be content with second and third placing in both events. The evening meet-

ings ow the Domain Oval, beside having aroused the interest of the local public, have been responsible for bringing out some promising runners, and considering that this is the first season most of them have put on running shoes, the amateur club officials should feel that the effort of reviving the club has been worth while, and next season, with an early start, can look forward to again having a team worthy of representing the County at the country cluk’s championship meeting. “Onlooker” finds some of the handicaps for the Hinds meeting, last Saturday very difficult to reconcile with the performances and marks on which the iiandicapper has had the local runners at the evening meetings and at the dub’s afternoon meeting on March 22. H. Wilton’s mark in sprint events was a glaring mistake, as over 100 yard# he has been receiving one and two yards from Ronifant (who has filled third place on numerous occasions), and lias never been placed excepth in the 100 yards district race on March 22, when he was third (Bonifant was not an entrant). At Hinds, Wilton was asked to concede Bonifant four yards when he has never beaten him all the season, with a start of at least a yard. In the 100 yards open, he was on eight yards, with J. Dickinson, who has been standing him up round about six or seven yards all the season. J. Dickinson’s marks on Saturday were also not consistent with his past performances, as at the local meeting he won off eight yards, and yet on Saturday lie was again off the same mark, and the only alteration to the other competitors’ handicaps were that Cordery, Bamford and Hall were all let up half a yard, and the rest of the field, whom Dickinson beat on the ■22nd were again all on the' same marks; and in the 220 yards he was let out from 14 yards to 17 yards.- R. Shearman was another local runner unaccountably well treated in the •quarter-mile event, seeing the local liandicapper has seen him run third once and finish first on another occasion over this distance during the season. With a start of 30 yards in a race with the limit 42 yards, it was not surprising to see Shearman win as he did. The two distance events, The half-mile and mile, were easy for Mcllraith, who has heeq such a consistent runner up to H. T. Weston, who has never given him more than 10 yards in 880 yards until Saturday, when he was asked to stand Mcllraith up 30 yards, while the other local runners were only getting up to 10 yards from him, while most of the season he has given them 20 to 30 yards and finished ahead of them. The mile was n repetition of the half. The field, had no chance of heating Mcllraith off 150 vards, especially in the time registered —4.25 4-5.