ATHLETICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 167, 27 July 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

ATHLETICS.

The Wellington "Times"' states that T. B. Webster, the crack Taranaki sprinter, will join the Wellington Club, and represent it in Auckland if selected. This is good news, as followers of athletes have wished fop some time to bring Smith and Webster together.

"Sprinter" states that last year'j i sprint champion, Claude Hiorns, will I defend his title at Auckland in Be? I cember. Afterwards it is more than j likely that Hiorns will take up his' residence in Sydney, and another sprinter will be" lost to Canterbury. Speaking of the oonvng contest' between Oxford and Cambridge, and Harvard and Yale in America," tie | "Athletic News" says: "From tlesa j observations it will be seen that we I are strong in some events, but below •the average in others. As compared ; with the team of 1899, we are decidedly weaker; moreover, we have the dis^ ! advantage of the journey and of com-. bating with a strange and trying climate. So that we at least, do not go lout expecting to win an easy victory; I yet we do not despair of victory. Th<| I "events we should win are 100 yard%" I one mile and two miles, and if we ari. jto win the rubber the remaining two, | events, must be found in the high. ! jump, long jump, and half mile. How* i ever, there is always a delightful ug,. I certainty about sports, as those who I (witnessed the Harvard-Yale meet-, I ing at Queen's in 1899 will remember. iOn that occasion no fewer than four | events went the opposite to what had I been expected. History may repeat, itself: only if it does, may the result also repeat itself! Otto Cribb, whose death was recorded from Sydney on Wednesdaylast, after a mill at the Gaiety, hailed i from Christchurch, his real name be- ; ing Simpson. He was taken to Australia to learn the fistic art by Mr Martin Taylor, the well known "bookmaker, after what was probably the hardest fight he ever had—twentythree rounds of bare knuckle rough and tumble with a lad of hia own age.' Neither could put the other out of court, and the fight ended when the hands of Cribb's opponent gave way. In Australia Cribb held an unbeaten record, and after defeating everybody in his division, went to San Francisco, where he fought a 20-round draw with Thurston. suffering his first defeat at the hands of the samfli fighter a month later. Cribb then returned to Australia about six -woekf ago.