GAMES AND PLAYERS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25086, 18 January 1947, Page 4

GAMES AND PLAYERS

ATHLETIC SPOUTS

(By MILES.) Swimming Champions Not for many years has. so much interest been taken in swimming as is being shown in the Canterbury championships, which commenced at the Christchurch Tepid Baths on Wednesday and which will be continued l to-night and on January 22, 25, and 29. The first evening’s events showed a wealth of talent available for selection for the team to represent Canterbury at the Dominion championships, to be held at Nelson next month, and competition is so keen that it is not by any means certain that many of last year's champions will again rise to representative form. The series of trial games for the selection of the water polo team is creating the greatest interest, and for a change this is regarded as a special feature of swimming. With Messrs G. R. Laurie, M. Rattray, and A. Stokes, long experienced in the mysteries of water polo, the team * will be picked on its merits as a water polo team and not. on the swimming ability of the different men. Often -speed in straight racing has been a part-guarantee for "inclusion in the representative team, but the two sports are as far apart as Rugby football and track running. Water polo is a sport in which specialisation is necessary. In the straight swimming, Canterbury will put a very in the field, and in the free-style events the Chambers brothers, Noel and Colin, holders of Canterbury and New Zealand titles, will form a solid lead for others, some not so well known as these young stars. R. Hatchwell, New Zealand and Wellington 100, yards champion, H. Goldsmith, Canterbury 50 yards and 100 yards title-holder, and Len Newell, at one time Canterbury and New Zealand distance champion, are well in the running for further honours. With C. Cliff, New Zealand and Canterbury champion available for the backstroke, L. Shaw and B. McNeilage (breaststroke), and L. Donaldson, W. Anstis, and D. Begg all competitors In the diving, the Canterbury team will be specially strong. The women swimmers may not be quite so good as in some previous yeirs, but a creditable showing should be made by well-known performers in Miss R. Dixon, Miss M. Duncan, and Miss Ola Hobson (free-style), Miss E. Brittenden (backstroke), and Miss E. Benson (breaststroke). At Napier last year, Canterbury won the Yaldhurst Shield, awarded to the province scoring most points in all events, and there is every prospect of another victory. The Canterbury championships now being held provide a full-dress rehearsal for swimmers at the Dominion championships. “You Have a Go!” Jack Mayson, of Auckland, cheerful and loquacious on and off the court, was one of the most, popular competitors at the recent New Zealand lawn tennis championships. He still plays a fine game, too, and came close to stopping the progress of Owen Bold. In this match, which was close and tense, MAyson amused the gallety with some of his "asides.” Once, after missing an easy smash at an important point, he handed his racket solemnly to a ball-boy with the remark, “Here, son, ydu .havd a go.” .' Cricket, Competition

To-day the first two-day matches of the seasoh In' the - Canterbury Cricket -Association’s senidr .-competition will be played. The six rounds of one-day matches were played only' in an attempt to make up ground lost at the start of the season through the bad weather, and the return to two-day games will be welcomed by the majority of. hricketers. The longer matches come at a most interesting time. Three series of senior matches have yet to be played before the first round is completed, and the five teams at the head of the table have some hard games ahead of them. The two leading .teams, Sydenham and Lancaster Park, have yet to meet, and Sydenham has also to play East Christchurch, which at present has 22 points to Sydenham’s 26. Old Boys and St. Albans, teams which each have 25 points, have to meet, and St. Albans has also to play East Christchurch, which has as its third hard game the match against Lancaster Park. These ,meetings of the leading teams will lend the competition more than usual interest. Query Answered

A correspondent, “WJH.C.”, asks for a full list at the performances In test matches betweeh England and Australia of D. G. Bradman and W. R. Hammond. The following facts indicate that Bradman's record as a batsman is far superior to that, of Hammond, but that Hammond, as an all-rounder, has done quite as much for his country’s cricket as the Australian captain? The figures the correspondent asked for related to matches''played only before the war. They are:—Hammond, 29 matches, 50 innings, 2684 runs, average 57.1; Bradman,* 27 matches, 46

innings, 3480 runs (a record), average 91.42. Hammond, as a bowler, took 36 wickets, to Bradman’s one. Hammond took 38 catches to Bradman’s 15 (Hammond has since equalled the record number of catches taken). Bradman scored 15 centuries (a record) pnd Hammond nine. Bradman twice scored centuries in three successive tests (equalling J. B. Hobbs’s record); Hammond performed the /feat once. Hammond scored two centuries in one match (equalling a record), Which Bradman had not done. Bradman scored three or more centuries In a series three times (a record); Hammond once. Bradman held the second wicket partnership record (451 at the Oval in 1934, with W. H. Ponsford); Hammond the third wicket record (262, with D. R. Jardine, At Adelaide in 1928-29); Bradman the fourth wicket record (388, with Ponsford, at Leeds in 1934); and Bradman the sixth wicket , record (346, with J. H. Fingleton, at Melbourne in 1936-37), Bradman scored 974 in a series (in 1930), which i> a record, Hammond scoring 905 in 1928, the best total by an Englishman. Bradman captained Australia in nine tests, Ham* mond in four (both exclusive of the game set down for Manchester in 1938, in which not a ball Was bowled). Bradman has seven ficordS of 200 or more (a record), Hammond four. * Bradman had a record patting average fo rail English-Australian tests, Hammond won the toss four times out of four against Bradman in 1938, The two began their test careers in the same match—at Brisbane in 1928, Hammond then being 25 years of age and Bradman 20. Hammond played in 27 consecutive tests, Bradman in 18. H; E. Cook in England 9

H. E. Cook, who with R. W. H. Scott, did yeoman, service for the Kiwis Rugby team in its tour of England, has arrived in Manchester to play for the Leeds Rugby League Club. Cook was a passenger in a flying-boat and landed at Ppole, Dorset, on December 31. The Leeds Club was booked to meet St. Helens ort January 4, but the authorities were not prepared to take any risks in playing the New Zealander, who has not had a gftmp sinca last September, and who had not played League football. Cook also has to accustom himself to the difference between p lay in the full-back position of Union and League, and soon .after his arrival he was being taught the mysteries of the £ur t !T b . all « ule C Perhaps the most difficult rule in Rugby League that a Union player has to learn. The Leeds Club is captained by Ike Owens, whom Cook played against during the tour of the Kiwis in England. Cook is 23 years old, stands sft 7Jin, and weighs 13st 71b? Points in Rugby . ‘ ‘With the New Year an international board ought to meet to consider certain l he Rl !£ by game and to revise them from the prehistoric to the modern. Consider, for mstanoe. the value of the drop goal, which ie vers much out ?^ nr Aff Ortlo » to ? the ? methods of scaring. After ail, a try is the main object of the modern game, and it generally requires a good deal of team work to obtain it. I would like to see the drop reduced to three points, and a trv increased to four points, with the adw° R° ints for conversion.” writes Wilfred Woolier, Cardiff and Wales renWon?tor iV F’ in " Ne ws-Chronicle." also O 2ns id erB three points as too great a reward for a penalty goal when £? r ; * grievous infringement the referee is empowered to award a penalty try He also objects to what he terms the absurd prostration to Victorianism" when a player flattens himself in the mud to prop up the ball for a kick at • Woolier suggests that the ktok?J should have an open shot at goal, the same as is done with a penalty kick The writer also advocates the curbing of the activities of wing-forwards by stopping any player going past the centre of thf scrum until the ball is cleanly out Medically Uhflt

•2P\, of the lnost powerful athletes to visit New Zealand in many years A L ° f Los * n S e l es '_ who arrived by Pan American clipper from San Francisco at Auckland, was rejected lor military service by the United States Army and graded 4F, the lowest grading in the medical category. Hershey’s massive appearance scarcely suggests a weakling The reason for his rejection from the army arose from football injuries suffered While a member of the Stanford University team. Hershey has joined his fellow-Amerjcans, John Fulton and D Campbell, who arrived last week, in a tour of various centres, beginning to-day and ending at Auckland for the New z , eal ? n<) a L nat » u £ athletic championships a ? ‘ he February and the beginning of March, Hershey is the fields events man of the team. He holds the American record for combined left and right arm shot puts, and was national junior champion of America in lfi<s He averages about 52ft-pi H s with the' shot Put. and more than 155 ft with the discovering of Wicket It is likely that a protection for the wicket at Lancaster Park will be made available for the representative matches next season. This year the start of the game against Otago was delayed because

y° s v S ry wet ’ -'though thg go ?‘! «»><««■»• The rules state that the wicket may be covered ? f a mate h. ”ter which areas of 3ft 6in from each popping crease A , ?JL»V e fi COVe y ed / Tlle Canterbury Cricket ! tO goOd gates ih the 1 matches at Christmas and New Year t<r fin^ es healthy . a nd with the westher experienced during the holiday periods the last few years the of a cover seems well ’warranted, A type of cover was tried a few

years ago, but difficulty was experienced in getting the water which collected aw»3 num the wicket. The matter is beini considered by the association and Lancaster Park Board of Control, and th< type of cover to be. used wil! probabU follow the pattern of those used widslJ in England. These have low frames, a pitched roof, with tarpaulins, and 8M ttenng and hoses to run the water ftWNJ from the wicket. The frame will prob ably be made in four sections, for e* B * k, of handling, with each section on whetlfc