ATHLETICS IN AUCKLAND.

Auckland Star, Issue 291, 9 December 1925, Page 13

ATHLETICS IN AUCKLAND.

POOR SUPPORT FROM PUBLIC. THE ABSENCE OF BETTING. The nieague support accorded by the public to the Auckland Provincial Athletic Sports championship meeting on Saturday at the cricket ground was distinctly disappointing to those enthusiasts who are endeavouring to cater for Auckland's athletes, and if running, cycling,, walking, and other field sports are to get back to the plane they enjo3'ed ten or twenty years ago, then the officials have a pretty, hard row to hoe. So little interest is taken by the public in amateur'athletic meetings nowadays that one begins to look around for the reason. It cannot, be that we have not the same class of runners, walkers, cyclists, etc v that we could boast a few years back, because a glance through the records will show that with one or two exceptions the records of twenty years ago have since been beaten. Probably if the true reason could be found it would turn out to be the absence of betting. This may not make pleasant reading or show that Aucklanders patronise sport for the sake of the sport, but those of us who remember the amateur sports meetings in the Domain of 15 or twenty years back, would have some difficulty in finding any other reason for the decline of public interest. Without going into the pros and cone of whether betting is an evil we do know that our greatest sport of all, horseracing, would not last twelve months if the totalisator and bookmaker ceased operating to-morrow. There is no doubt about that, and the position is just about the same withi. athletics. Those of us who remember -the days of "Teddy Reynolds," idol of bjke riders, W. T. McPherson, sprinter, "Tommy" Roberts, "Mat" Rosengrave, and George Smith, champion hurdlers, Jack Picker-, ing, Stanley Rowley, speed merchants over short distances, and walkers of the calibre of Dave Wilson, Frank Creamer, Brady, and others, can Tecall how we came along in thousands to- the' Domain to see these men in action. The names of our best athletes were household words, and their performances are. still talked about. They did not appear in their wonderful contests before an attendance of a few hundred people such as attended on Saturday last. All Auckland turned out those days, and the bookmakers had big doubles on the two sprints. Trainers had their teams

of athletes and trained each man thoroughly, because it was possible to back him with the bookmakers to win hundreds of pounds, and some big wins were recorded. It was not wholly the athletes who attracted the crowd, but the facilities, offered to have a "little bit on." We probably have just as good athletes to-day as we could produce twenty years ago, but we haven ? t the bookmaker, and when the latter retired, so also did the public. Occasionally the visit of a team of Americans will draw a fair crowd, but with only local talent appearing, there is always a certain loss to be faced by the controlling body. There is no better sports meeting during the year than the Auckland provincial championships, and yet on Saturday last the gathering did not produce sufficient gate receipts to pay for the hire of • the ground. Certainly the Auckland A.A.A. was unfortunate in mooting a counter-, attraction in the A. and P. show, but the latter did not greatly interest the Auckland public appa: -ntly, and when all is considered it is doubtful if it affected the attendance at the sports. Early in the New Year a team of American athletes are booked to appear in Auckland, and again the A.A.A. is in the unhappy position of having fixed a date "frhen the Thames Jockey Club will be holding races at Takapuna. Under the best circumstances the local athletic body would have been hard put to it to show a profit, but with racing being held at Takapuna on the same afternoon, the outlook is far from bright. The public appears to have lost all interest in athletic sport-s,-and it is going to take a lot of hard work to get the support the sport genuinely deserves.