GAMES AND PLAYERS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25709, 22 January 1949, Page 4

GAMES AND PLAYERS

ATfILETIC SPOUTS

(By ’’MILES.”) Big and Little Baileys Although small in build for a first-class tennis player, even among juniors, and having to make up for his lack of inches with great speed of foot, agility, determination. and stamina, A. N. Bailey, run-ner-up in the New Zealand boys singles championship yesterday, is knowni to Wilding Park galleries as Big Bailey. The paradoxical nickname is necessary to distinguish him from his diminutive brother, R- T. Bailey, who at the age of 15 is among Canterbury’s best nine or 10 juniors. “Little Bailey”, has been playing tournament tennis since he was not much higher than the net. He is not so very much higher than the net now; but his opponents seem I©* find that he has a fairly good view into their court. “Little Bailey,” naturally, comes in for much good-natured ch'aff from his fellow-com-petitors, with whom he is immensely popular: but Jeff Robson, the New Zealand singles champion, capped all “wisecracks” during the recent Canterbury tournament with the remark that an opponent should be able to lob over “Little Au st ralla’s Sprinters Australia has a wealth of athletic talent for the shorter distances and it is doubtful if at any period it could put on the race track runners of the proved ability of John Trdloar, John Bartram, John Bullock, Maurice Curotta, and Edwin Carr. At the Australian championships last Saturday and Monday the two Olympic stars. Herb McKenley and Lloyd la Beach, were beaten by Carr and Bartram. The win of Bartram in the hundred shows the full strength of the Australian sprinters, for he has always been second string to Treloar, who m turn was recently beaten by Bullock, regarded as the greatest find of the last few years. Treloar is 6ft 3in high and weighs 13st 91b. Bullock stands oft 4in and weighs 14 stone—a fine type for an All Black scrum. Cricket and Rugby in Ceylon A former nominee for a Rhodes Scholarship, Mr R. J. S. Bean, is at present in Christchurch on furlough from Ceylon. Mr Bean is a former senior cricketer and footballer who played in Christchurch while taking his LL.B, at Canterbury College. Leaving Christ’s College, where he gained his colours for cricket, football, gymnastics, and athletics, in 1928, Mr Bean joined the University College Football Club. He played cricket for the Old Collegians and West Christchurch Clubs. Cricket and Rugby were both popular in Ceylon, said Mr Bean shottly after his arrival in Christchurch. An All-Ceylon eleven would probably give a Plunket Shield team a good game, and the main Rugby matches in Ceylon were about up to the standard of good club games in New Zealand. An Improved Sprinter N. R. Atkinson, the Sydenham League player, put up an outstanding performance at the big Tuatapere sports meeting held during the holidays. After turning professional, Atkinson was eligible for maiden events, being only a novice. It was therefore impossible for the handicapper to put him on a back mark, and he easily won the 100 yards handicap, the 135 yards Sheffield, the 440 yards, and the 220 yards. Glittering Money Prizes "What is happening” in the world of big Soccer? Surely the limit has been reached when we have scouts from leading clubs touring Europe with a mission to induce players to leave their native land and come over here to join Football League clubs,” writes G. Wagstaffe Simmons in “Sporting Life.” “South African newspapers in particular are very bitter about what has been happening. They have made vigorous protests against—to quote one leading journal—‘agents from England dangling glittering money prizes to players we cannot spare to go to the Mother Country to play football.’ The question is asked: ‘ls it because League clubs are out to save transfer fees that they come to South Africa to steal our players, and not pay one penny of compensation to th*e clubs that have coached them, trained them, and given them the opportunities to play, without which they could not have attained their present skill?’ ” European Boxing Crown

Dick Turpin, British and Empire middleweight champion, is to meet the Italian title-holder, Timerio Mitri, in their return final elimination bout for the European crown in Trieste next month. When the pair met at the Albert Hall in November, Turpin appeared to have earned the decision, although the neutral referee declared a draw. Cricket on Niue Island

Cricket with 50 players a side provides good sport for the natives of Niue Island, according to Constable C. Mclntosh, of the New Zealand Police Force, W’ho has returned to Wellington after two years service as chief of police at the island. Cricket, he said, was a game borrowed from the Samoans, and the game is certainly not played in accordance with the rulings of the M.C.C. As well as having up to 50 players a side the natives bowl from whichever end is the nearer. No time is lost by the wicketkeeper taking the ball and tossing it back to the bowler. Constable Mclntosh said he had seen 20 men dismissed in less than 10 minutes. Blocking was frowned on; every ball was treated as a loose one. In World’s Class

Dave Sands, the aborigine, whose brother Alfie is campaigning in New Zealand at present, would be light-heavy-weight champion of the world if he could get Freddie Mills into the ring, It is felt in Australia. The Australians work It out this way: it took Mills eight rounds to knock out South Agrican Johnny Ralph recently. Just before this, Australian Alt Gallagher drew with Ralph—and seemed unlucky not to get the decision. In 1946, Sands knocked out Gallagher in thyee rounds, and Sands is a much better fighter now than he was then. A better line on Sands’s form may be gained when he meets Bos Murphy in a few weeks’ time. Champion in the Making

Kevin Clarke, a 17-year-old schoolboy, cleared sft Ilin at a sports meeting held at Perth last month, and equalled the West Australia junior (under 19 years) record set in 1941 by John Winter, high jump champion at the Olympic Games held at London. Clarke, who only began jumping last year, has had little coaching, and good judges expect him to cause sensations before the athletic season is finished. Australian Cricket Visit

An Australian cricket team will visit New Zealand late next season after the close of the Sheffield Shield programme, according to Mr W. H. Jeames, secretary of the Australian Board of Control. An Australian test team will tour South Africa next year, so that the New Zealand trip will be a consolation prize for those who have missed the headlines. The last Australian team to visit New Zealand played at the end of the 1945-46 season. The board also agreed to permit a team from the Newcastle City and Suburban Cricket Association to visit New Zealand m 1950, subject to conditions to be submitted later. Novices as Punching-bags

The Boxers’ and Wrestlers’ Association of New South Wales is organising a campaign for" strict official inspection of boxing and Wrestling gymnasiums. The move follows complaints that young sparring partners and preliminary boxers are being knocked about and sometimes seriously injured in some Sydney gymnasiums. Members of the association say inexperienced young boxers are encouraged to spar against heavy-punching champions. Some of the youths become punch-drunk, partly deaf, slow of speech and dull-witted. Others are disfigured for hie with fact scars, cauliflower ears, flattened, broken noses, and puffy lips. Umpires in English Cricket

*V- e t ll ’teresting newcomers to the English first-class umpires list for next season are S. J. Staples, of Nottinghamshire, and W. F. Price, of Middlesex both former England cricketers. Sam rJ ap + l es one °£ the best s Pin bowlers ™,£ he h 3 st 2 ry - of , the Nottinghamshire Sovki- and A1 *u rin l hxs career took 1400 , Alth ° u « h °nly of medium pace us ually manage to extract something from the hardest pitch. He claimed It African test wickets during the tOU J J he Union in 1927-28; wo-? Pr J ce , , first Played for Middlesex in 11 .y® ar s later was chosen for England against Australia in the fourth >H eds ’ He A w aß a reliable wicket-keepex-batsman. After he had performed the remarkable feat of catching seven men in Yorkshire’s first inntjgs ft LoTdf "I fn W th I ? l n n H m £ t him and exclaimed: stx thrilled by your performance, Mr Price, that I.nearly fell over the balcony.” T O whi ch Pr £e gravely replied: If you had. madam, I. would have caught you, as well.” Plunket Shield Averages

oorrespondent has pointed out that the performances of the Wellington batsmen m the first innings of their match P^ a Ti St Otago were omitted from the calculations qn which the Plunket Shield baled 86 ®’ published on Wednesday weS

E. w. Tindill made 225 rum, at an average of 45. not 204 at an average of J Beta averaged 42.9 in making a ton 214. mstead of 49 in a total of Tabone made 205 at an aver- ? £ 3 U’ mstead of 203 at an average hLfff, r ’ L - Mooney, who made his score, 89 not out, in his first innings against Otago and whose figures were not published, averaged 49.5 “ runs lnnlngs * once n °t out, he made 198

. The correspondent also pointed out that inf H o UyW rt Od .J^ u % k ’ and) took 11 wickets ?l o and that W. Overton (Otago) had 318 runs, and not 281, scored off him. This reduces Hollywood’s average to 25 9 runs a wickat. Overton’s average is 26.5.