ATHLETICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 288, 2 December 1905, Page 12

ATHLETICS.

The Amateur Athletic and Cycle Club's carnival will be held on the Domain on Saturday week. A number of men are training for the various events on the Domain each evening, and a good day's sport is promised. Owing to their being very few amateur cyclists in training, the- cycle events will be run on a cash basis. 'The wrestling and boxingcontests will fill up the intervals, and altogether the meeting should prove attractive to the public The steeplechase event will, be open to amateurs whether members of the club or not.

The seventh annual meeting of the Auckland Amateur Sports Club, held last Thursday night, showed that the active membership of the club had. been well sustained, though' the hoped-for wiping out of the club's bank overdraft had not been possible owing to the unusual slackness in the payment of members* subscriptions. The overdraft now i<! some £28 t while the amount owing from the unpaid subscriptions of members comes to about £40. It. is to be hoped that members who are deriving the advantages of the club will assist the institution by speedily paying their long overdue accounts. The report further made reference to the success of the steward (Mi , . G. W. Smith) as a member of the New Zealand Rugby football team, at present in the Old Country.

Hector Burd's absence from the post on the second day of the Australasian championships was due to a slight accident which befell him on the first.

According to an American exchange Arthur Duffey was robbed of all his valuable," including the handsome gold watch presented to him on his last visit to England, and 20 silver cups, recently, while stopping in New York City. A well-known follower of athletics (and an ex-champion of England) said to "Prodigal," of the "Referee," the other day: "Your union should certainly do all in ita power to send Nigel Barker and G. A. Wheatley for the. English Championships next year. Their resolute finishes would probably be too strong for all opposition—Barker at 220 yds and 440 yds, and Wheatley in the 880 yds."

A. Kaaffman, a San Francisco heavy- ; weight, who hae carried everything be- , ' fore him in the amateur ranks, has joined- the professionals. His first contest for money was against H. Foley, a boxer with a good reputation, and of considerable experience, and' so easily did Kauffman defeat his opponent that he is regarded as likely to obtain the championship before He defeated Foley in the first round, and attention is drawn to the fact' that Kautfmann has won all his bouts in the first round. The latest aspirant for heavyweight honours is only 19 years of age. The Marathon amateur roiad running race, over a course about 18 miles and a-half in extent, was won on October 15 by the Birehfield Harriers (Midland , Counties champions and National exchampions). The Athletic Society of ; Montrouge took second place, and the Stad Francais third. There was no j limit to the number of men running, but only four men in each team scored, ilie first three men finished as follows:— Pietro Dornado, Patria de Carpi, lhr. 54min 20sec, 1; Bonheur, Society of Montrouge 2h 0m ss, 2; G. Wjgginton, Birchfield Harriers, 2h 2m 355, 3.

The total change of officers of the N.Z.A.A.A. Council should prove to be the commencement of a new era in the association's history (says "Sprinter" in the "Canterbury Times"). In Mr W. G. Atack as president, the association has no mere figurehead, for there is, perhaps, no man in colony with a longer and more varied experience of sports' government. Mr Atack was for. many years chairman of the League of New Zealand Wheelmen in its palmiest days, and it is owing to his cttv."ts that the League was able to ride the storm wheu the great .cycling slump set in. He has been prominently connected with rowing, swimming. and bosdng, and is one of the oldest members of the N.Z. A.A.A. Council. Mr Sandford, the new-ly-elected secretary is a young man of considerable ability, who has earned a reputation as secretary of the. Union Rowing Club. He has not had ■ any great experience in athletics, but, 1 think, the Council has chosen wisely by appointing him. I understand Mr .J. E. Green, the late acting-secretary, has undertaken to supervise the Council's correspondence, .and generally break Mr Sandford in to the work required of him before finally relinquishing the secretarial quill.

Clifford Earp, the racing motorist, has written to the Blackpool Corporation asking for their co-operation in a further attempt to lower the world's record for the flying kilometre, and today they have to give their decisionHe, on July 29, on Blackpool promenade, after several attempts, succeeded in tieing with the wood's record as established by Barts at Ostend last year in 21 2-ss. Earp made English record for the same distance at Blackpool hist year, beat it at Brighton this year, and then beat the Brighton time at Blackpool again in July. He feels confident he can lower the world's record.