ATHLETIC SPORTS GAMES AND PLAYERS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26515, 1 September 1951, Page 4

ATHLETIC SPORTS GAMES AND PLAYERS

(By

MILES

Rough Rugby "The partisanship of the spectator* was expresed in its worst form by the hooting of the famous All Black full-back, R. W. H. Scott, every time he took a kick at goal,” says the "New Zealand Herald" when commenting on the Ranfurly Shield game between Auckland and Waikato. "Nothing could excuse the bad blood in the game itself. One even saw the sight, when Auckland was behind on points at a late stage of the game, of some Waikato players preferring to walk away rather than to pick up and throw the ball to Scott so that he could put up a penalty about halfway. The incidence of bad blood, of late tackles, heavy charges, punching, and booting, remained high until toward the end when the tiredness induced by an otherwise furiously hard-fought and extremely exciting match had taken the sting out of most of the players. Mr J. Frood, of Otago, the referee, was unruffled and vigilant, and on the whole gave an excellent display. But he could only take account of the evidence before his eyes and much that was 111-tempered naturally escaped him." Another report is as follows:—“A vociferous crowd, which was violently partisan towards Waikato, caused the Ranfurly Shield challenge match between Auckland and Waikato at Rugby Park, Hamilton, to become one of the roughest on record. 111-feeling towards the Auckland team, which had been fomented by previous differences over the challenge date, was manifested as soon as the teams took the field. Within 20 minutes a Waikato player was accidentally knocked unconscious in a tackle, and the incident adversely affected the temper of both players and spectators. When the Auckland team was boarding a bus to leave its hotel for the ground it met a hostile reaction from spectators on the street, and there was some booing of the team. This was repeated on a much larger scale when the players pushed their way in single file through the crowd to reach the playing field for the start of the match. The teams marched on between two ranks of a Hamilton band amid cheering for Waikato and hooting for Auckland." Two Promising Golfers

Two 16-year-old golfers are causing quite a stir in golfing circles in Sydney, according to the "Sunday Herald/’ Barry Warren, who plays for the Bondi Club, won three inter-club tournaments recently and has established himself as one of the leading amateurs of the younger brigade. His golf should continue to improve as he is a night worker and spends most of his spare time on the links. The other is Barry Ratcliffe, who tied for first place in his first open tournament. Ratcliffe only recovered from poliomyelitis 12 months ago, and is considered to have a promising future. He scored 74 from a handicap of eight on the difficult Oatlands course, to tie in the open. Fine Half-back

Rani Jacobs, the former Maori All Black half-back who is now playing University (Sydney) Club is leading in the Sydney “Sunday Herald competition to find the best and fairest Rugby player in the Sydney senior competition this season. He leads by three points from the Australian International front-row forward, Jack Baxter. The competition in which pointe are awarded each week on a 3 2 1 basis, will be decided when Eastern Suburbs, Baxter's club team, meets University in a deferred match today. The former All Black and Australian representative, K. Gudsell, who has been playing brilliant football in recent weeks, has scored 11 points.

A Bright interlude The game between Canterbury and the Fijians at Lancaster Park last Saturday came as a relaxation-light entertainment in a season of hard, dour Rugby football. After seeing the Fijians play in a lose, care-free style of game,. which can only be condemned as a match-winning effort, many followers of Rugby are beginning to wonder whether the Fijians have not got the right approach to Rugby, a game in which risks and open ply provide the thrills, no matter which side wins. The Fijians, by careful moulding, could be made into a good team. The ability to handle a ball is there, and so to the speed. Yet he would be an optimist who would attempt to make of the care-free Fijians a pack of hard, rugged forwards of the Otago type. Few of them would take kindly to confinement in a scrum while the ball is being hooked by th* other side, if a game of Rugby without scrums could be arranged, the Fijian would be in his element. He loves to ho.d off a scrum in the hope that the ball will become loose, and be will be allowed to chase it. Though the Fijians provided most of the fun last Saturday, full praise must be given the Canterbury forwards for not becoming too serious in their work and the backs for the contribution they made in bright, open play. The halfback. P. Vincent, and second five-eighths, P. Kearney, especially, appeared to enter into the spirit of the game. It will take a lot to convince the writer that the brilliant interception of a pass from Kearney to A. Elsom by the Fijian centre. Josefa Levula, was not something more than an accident

Boxing Championships The Canterbury boxing championships, which will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday. should show the real strength of the sport in Christchurch, and there is every indication that more than one New Zealand title-winner will be found in the 35 who will compete. Most of the aspirants for championship honours have had several fights at meetings held by the Canterbury Boxing Association this season, although few have met the men they will be called on to fight this time. Especial interest will centre in the light middle-weight class, in which W. Mitchell, one of the best boxers seen In a Christchurch ring for some years, will meet S. Hoyt. The few appearances Mitchell has made make him look like a boxer of class. T. Burns (middle), W. Ellery (welter), N. Clarke (light), and B. McLaren (bantam) all look like winning titles. Cyclists for Helsinki

The Australian cyclists Russell Mockridge and Hec. Sutherland may remain overseas to train for next year’s Olympic Games at Helsinki. They are now preparing for the world amateur cycling championships to be held in Italy this week. Mockridge will compete in track events and Sutherland will tackle the road championships, Both are Empire Games champions, Mockridge the track and Sutherland the road champion. The Olympic Games will be held at Helsinki, Finland, next July and August. This would save the Olympic Federation their fares abroad if they are selected next veai English Cup Competition

Technical has won the Hurley Shield championship, and Thistle has been put out ot the Chatham Cup by Northern at Dunedin, so the only remaining interest ,n the Canterbury Football Association’s senloi first division will be the English Cup, which commences to-day. Very few teams have won the three competitions. Hurley Shield, Chatham Cup (Canterbury final), and English Cup, in the same year, and the last-named trophy in particular has been shared in past years by teams other than the reigning champions. A typical case was in 1948, when Technical won the New Zealand final of the Chatham Cup, the emblem of Dominion club supremacy, yet Western in that season won the Hurley Shield championship. and Thistle the English. Cup knock-out competition. Although Technical was successful in local and South Island finals of the Chatham Cup and won the championship in succeeding years, Western won the English Cup in 1949 and was bracketed with Wigram in 19S0. Footing the Bill ’ The Australian Olympic Federation is proposing a team of 90 athletes, observers, and officials for Helsinki, as a build-up to the 1956 Games in Melbourne. It is estimated that the cost for each member will be about £BOO. The executive of the New South Wales Olympic Federation nas decided not to conduct an art union in competition with member associations. The federation had previously considered running an art union next year to raise funds to send the Australian team to the Olympic Games. Rowing, yachting, swimming, and water polo Intended to conduct lotteries to raise funds. Rowing is seeking several thousand pounds for its champion eight-oared crew, yachting wants representatives; and the water polo organisation plans to send a team. Regulations make it difficult for any organisation to conduct an art union with success. The executive feels that competition with the smaller groups would divide support. > Broadcasts of League Games

The New Zealand Rugby League is not satisfied with arrangements for radio coverage of the Kiwi team's matches in England and France which start next month. At a recent meeting of the Board of Control it was decided to write to the 8.8. C. and the New Zealand Broadcasting Service asking for an extension of the service. Four minute commentaries of club games which would be heard in New Zealand about 8 a.m. were not considered sufficient in view of public interest in the tour. The same was felt about the present arrangement for a 13-minute commentary on test matches. It was considered that there should be a direct broadcast at least of the tests. Invitations from English League Clubs for members of the Kiwi team to visit them during their stay in England were received at the meeting. The Ben Rhyder Sports Club, whose ground, clubrooms, and fadUties at Ilkley the Kiwis will use for training, has issued a challenge tor a Sunday cricket match soon after the team's arrival tn England on September 16. The club also wrote that it had a masseur and physiotherapist available for the Kiwis if they wanted him.

Jottings Llanelly, the Welsh Rugby club, is hoping further to strengthen its already formidable team by playing 'Jack Kyle, Ireland’s stand-off half, next season. Kyle, star of the British Isles touring side in New Zealand, has qualified in Belfast as a doctor and is expected to practise in the Llanelly area. The English Lawn Tennis Association is perhaps the wealthiest tennis body in the world because of its profits from the Wimbledon tournament. The profits from the recent Wimbledon championships were about £30,000. Alfred Valentine, the West Indian slow left-arm bowler, who is included in the West Indies side for the Australian tour, has, as a reward for taking 33-wickets in teste against England last season, been given £650 by. the Jamaican Government to enable him to take an engineering course in England. Valentine has also received about £1250 from admirers. Duties of No. 8 In “Lets Talk Rugger.” B. H. Travers outlines the duties of a back-row forward. He saysA'Tt is apparent that the backbone of tre defensive lattice is built round the back row of the scrum. . . • It's useless to base a back-row plan on a weak tackler. ... No matter how good an attacking player a back-row forward is, the game now demands that he shau be at least sound on defence. If he s picked as a brilliant attacker and his defence is suspect, he'll cost the team more points than he can score himself. . ■ • Weakness in the back-row defence is very costly over the season. Thus all back rows should be selected with due ®tt™7 tion paid to ability on defence A team can still win without a brilliant attack Ing back row, but it will rarely win with a weak defensive back row. .. . The scrum half is never given a task in de fence as his first and fund «™ e "‘ a ‘ to be always ready to set his own backs in motion by sending out passes to clear the ball from the scrum or ruck. The Team Spirit

A correspondent writes as follows;"A Reefton team of 16 table tennis W we y e rgiffs viritTfuch ?^ S e he proba?>!y do more than championship or competition rnee ings to further the gam*. ® s H th ®£ rt 8 ” played in such excellent spirit, ®na as fhe players are away from home together, the team idea is well to the fore. A Boxing Flop

The Australian bantam-weight cbamoion Jimmy Carruthers, stopped the Mexican. Enrique Morales, in the seventh round of their 12-round bout at Sydney Stadium last Monday. Carruthers outclassed Morales in every department, and won by a wide margin of points. With the Mexican helpless before Carruthers onslaught, the referee, Bill H e e nn ® b « r l?.' stopped the contest one minute M sec onds after the start of the seventh round A section of the crowd of about 11,000 had begun to leave at the start of toe seventh round. It was toe first time that toe Mexican had been stopped in his career of 50 professional fighte. Vic Patrick, famous Australian light-weight, wrote as follows after toe match: "Enrique Morales is toe biggest boxing flop ever to be brought here. He can't box, can’t fight, and hasn t any ringcraft whatsoever. Stadiums Ltd s American representative could not have had any idea of Morales's form If he had he would not have sent him out. Morales could not even throw one good punch. The only time he really connected was in toe fifth round, when he hit Carruthers with a right to the body—and this punch was only a wild swing. He has no direction and no timing. I cannot imagine how he has had so many fights without learning anything. Carruthers was weU below his best. It was probably his worst display since turning professlonal. how can a boxer impress when hq’Jjrias such a spoiling opponent?” Jack Iverson May Play Australia may have the freakish spin bowler, Jack Iverson, to counter-balance the West Indies’deceptive spinner. Sonny Ramadhin, after all, writes Ray Robinson from Australia. Iverson, who anonunced his retirement after the England tour ended last March, said that he might be available against West Indies this coming season. The Australian attack, which looked like being weakened by the double loss of Iverson’s •• spin and Lindwall s speed, may now be at full strength as Lindwall says he will not accept any offer from League clubs until after toe test* against the West Indies. Answer to Correspondent

inside Back.-J. A. Hooper, 1937 (South Africa) and 1938 (Australia), was the last Canterbury inside back before T. W. Lynch.