ATHLETIC SPORTS GAMES AND PLAYERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 9

ATHLETIC SPORTS GAMES AND PLAYERS

[By

MILES]

Memories of a Cup Final Mr G. H. Congreve a Christchurch businessman now in England, was ( greatly impressed by the management! and control of the final tie match be- . tween Manchester City and New- < castle United at the Empire Stadium. ' Wembley, on May 7. Writing from London Mr Congreve says: “On the 1 way to the ground, visiting fans with [ rosettes and streamers filled the car- . riages and all seemed happy and out for a day’s enjoyment. I was fortunate to have a ticket which I had applied | to a friend for—January, 1954. On ar- i i rival at Wembley after a few minutes ] I wait I was in the approach to the 1 main entrance which presented a great sight with police control and an ordI erly crowd and salesmen offering J badges, balloons, toasted peanuts, pro- < grammes, etc. The stewards at the stadium did a great job and got the! ( crowd away in all directions and very ’ quietly. By 1.50 p.m. I was in my seat ( directly behind the goalposts and what . a’sight! There are thousands on all sides. On the way to your seat you are given a community song sheet and in the centre of the playing area a platform has been erected for the conductor and his band. . . . Apparently everyone co-operates in the conduct of and match and neither police nor attendants are called on to any extent. Good sportsmanship allows everything to go smoothly At half time the combined bands, numbering 260 players give a musical display of marching, a real high-light for visitors. Before calling on the crowd to sing ‘Abide I With Me’ the conductor calls on all to | wave their programmes, handkerchiefs ! or papers en masse. The scene reminded one of falling snowflakes. After the presentation of the Cup by Her Majesty the Queen to the captain of the winning Newcastle United team the crowd dispersed in orderly manner. What a day and what an experience leaving enjoyable and everlasting memory.” Cross-Country Running. Auckland athletes intend making a large scale invasion of Christchurch for this year’s Takahe-Akaroa road relay on September 10, says Laurie King, national six mile record holder, in a recent letter. The race is rated as the major event of its type in New Zealand and King expects that all of Auckland’s harrier clubs will be represented.* His own club, Lynndale, • plans to enter three teams. Owairaka will have at least one, which will include Murray Halberg and his coach, Arthur Lydiard. “As to our own A team, it will undoubtedly be the est in our club’s history,” writes King? “In fact it seems that all our team will be capable of breaking 15 min. for the three miles, with comparative six mile times. Of our 1950 team ttie following , are still probably runners ‘this year—- , myself, who ran lap one last time very badly. I am nearly 4 min. faster than : I was then. George Wilson (pre- . viously lap two) has now run 14 min 24sec for three miles, another greatly . improved runner. E. Haskell, who ran lap four; I. Crum, who ran up the hill . last time, has run 14 min. 30 sec. and 30 min. 36 sec. this year for the. three and six miles. To add to these we have Bill Baillie and then many good runners to fight for the other two places. It is also rumoured that George Hoskins is turning out again.” i Golfers for Canada ! Kel Nagle is booked to leave Australia by plane on June 2 to play in the Canada Cup from June 9 to 12. Nagle will team with Peter Thomson. ’■ British Open Champion, who has been prominent in the American tournament circuit this year. Nagle and . Thomson, in Montreal, Canada, last August combined brilliantly to win the cup by four strokes from the Argentinian pair, Roberto de Vicenzo ■ and Antonia Cerda, with the strong United States team, Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret in third place. Boxers For New Zealand Ambrose Palmer has seven of his ' fighters lined up to take to New Zealand, says the Melbourne “Globe”. He has negotiated with the Auckland Boxing Association over the deal and will leave as soon as he receives the • O.K. He expects it this week. "Amby’s” t boys for the trip are: Ken Brady, Pran > Mikus, Kev Morrison, Joe Pompei. > Johnny Wheeler, Kev Clues and Young Regan. Stadiums Ltd. has given him permission to take them. They are the topliners of Palmer’s stable, but he can’t get them fights in Australia. “They will get sick of training for nothing and quit the game unless I can arrange a trip such as this,” said Palmer. The Auckland Association will probably farm the , boys out to other promotions and so defray expenses. The experience the tourists will receive will make them better propositions for Melbourne Stadium when it reopens. Wellington Possibles With Petone and University practlb- ’ ally certain to play their Jubilee Cup match on the Queen’s Birthday, June 6, teams to / represent Wellington against Manawatu and Marlborough, on the same day will be minus some of the leading players l says a Wellington writer. In many ways the selectors may welcome this as there is quite a wealth of talent to be tried out. For the Manawatu game there would still be such outstanding backs as T. R. O’Callaghan or M. V. Hodson (fullback), P. E. Sharon, N. N. Nichols and R. L. Butler (three-quarters) C J. Loader, D. D. Wilson and J.’ G. Dougan (five-eighths), A. J. Makeham, L. R. Ferretti or J. Paul (halves). A pack consisting of L. At Clark, N. H. Farnan, D. G. Harker. I. N. McEwan, M. V. Bevan. I. M. Vodanovich, J. K. Sage and C. P. Williams, would not be far short of full strength. Jottings J. H. Mauger, who played for Ellesmere last year and was knocking at the door for a place in the Canterbury Shield team, is now playing in the Waikato District. Kevin O’Connor, one of Otago’s best forwards of a few years ago and who recently returned from England is now a medical practitioner in Christchurch. Harry Hopman rates Ken Rosewall No. 1 Australian tennis player. His ranking is: Rosewall, Hartwig, Hoad, Rose. Candy. Fraser. Cooper Worthington. Emerson. Anderson. He considers Cooper the best player under 19 m the world. American tennis player Art Larsen has been largely freed of blame for an incident in an international tournament. Larsen was boded for 10 minutes by the crowd when he smashed a ball in the direction of a 13-year-old ball boy, hitting him in the face, during his semi-final against Enriqut Morea, of Argentina. The “Careless” Boot “In the midst of the welcome trend to more open football, more try scoring, with the latest offside law allowing players more scope, there is still one disqieting aspect of Wellington Rugby—the careless boot and the careless fist.” writes “Corinthian.” in “The Dominion.” “The careless fist is the lesser of the evils. It rarely does much damage. The fact remains, however, that it is an evil and should be stamped out. But the careless boot is in the careless-driver class. It is a menace to life and limb, a scourge on the game and a discredit to the wearer and to his club. It can be fairly said of all Wellington clubs that they dislike this ‘type’ in their midst as much as anybody. There is nothing more detestable in sport than a mean and foul temper. The clubs do not want it, the spectators do not want it, the union does not want it. These ‘types’ have it in their hands to play the game in the grand spirit generally prevailing. If not, the firmest action by referees and the union is the only option.” Shield “On Loan” Waikato’s hopes of regaining the Ranfuriy Shield are still brighter than outsiders may expect. The president of the Waikato branch of the New Zealand War Amputees said at the annual conference at Hamilton last weekThere is much that Hamilton and Waikato could show visitors, but one I do regret we cannot show is the Ranfurly Shield. That happens to be on loan to one of the outlying islands.”

! Golf Population A report before the most recent meeting of the management committee of the New Zealand Golf Association recorded that at the end of April last year there were 23.998 men members of golf clubs in New Zealand, of whom 71 per cent, were in the North Island. The total was an increase of 195 on the previous year. Hemi May Play Again The All Black and Waikato hooker. R. C. Hemi. who has been on the sideline all this season with a pulled hip muscle, hopes to play for his club. Frankton, in the Hamilton competition. He has been keeping as fit as he can by training runs, but is keen to work up the staying power a few games will give him. He considers his prospects of inclusion in the Waikato team to play Auckland at Hamilton on June 6 depend on how the injured hip stands up to the strain of club games. Gimblett Retires Perhaps the most notable absentee from the English county cricket championship this year is Harold Gimblett, the Somerset opening batsman, who in his first county innings 20 years ago scored a century in 63 minutes. 11l health has forced him to leave county cricket, and he has joined a league club in South. Wales. Writing in “The Spectator” John Arlott said that had Gimblett consented to become a number five batsman, he might have been a regular England player for 15 years. “In the event, his temperament demanded the challenge of opening the innings where he would hook, drive and cut any bowling in the world with amazing daring,” said Arlott. “His aggressive confidence was guided by a superb natural eye and powered by remarkable muscular development of the forearms and solar plexus. Thus, if he avoided error during his first few overs, he would continue through a long innings at a rate of scoring only equalled among his contemporaries by another Westcountryman. Charles Barnett. In terms of Test selection, Gimblett may be reckoned the most unluckv player of his time, and the nervous ill-health which has closed his cricket career has been another tragic misfortune.” High Praise. In a feature story “Moari personalities in sport” published in “Te Ao Hou” Paul Potiki writes as follows of Mick Kenny, who was badly wounded when serving with the 22nd Battalion in the Second World War:— “Mick was a full-batk, and what a good one, too. Like his brothers, Mick began his career with the Johnsonville Club, and at the age of 19 was described in the New Zealand Rugby Almanack as one ot the five most promising players of the year. Mick was one of the bigger full-backs, but he was as agile as men half his size. He was the epitome of coolness, a prodigious kicker with either foot, and he specialised in the bone-crushing tackle You have all heard of Bob Scott, no doubt, and perhaps of Herbie Cook, the man who on the Kiwi tour was said to be better than either. Well, Kenny was the clear superior of both these players before the Kiwis were chosen. e He was the by-word of the New Zealand soldier. You will find many knowledgeable footballers who would unhesitatingly insist that Mick Kenny (1942-43) was the greatest full-back we have ever produced—Scott and Nepia included ...” A Vital Ma tch 1 After four matches have been played : Christchurch and Technical have unbeaten records in the Canterbury Rugby t Union championship and a meeting , between the teams on the oval at Lan- ; caster Park today may give some indi- , cation of what may happen in the re- } maining six matches to be played. It cannot be said that either team has been seriously tested. Christchurch has beaten Marist 17-5. New Brighton . 17-8, Sunnyside-Spreydon 33-6 and Bel- _ fast 12-3, and Technical has had wins „ over University 11-9, Albion 19-9, Sunj nyside-Spreydon 10-6 and Linwood j 28-8, but there is nothing convincing ; enough in the form of either team to > suggest that it has a mortgage on the j championship. Old Boys, University, t Marist and Belfast are all capable of [ springing surprises, especially if bad ; weather does not interfere. With the , first representative team to be picked ; to play in the next two weeks the form ; of players in today’s oval game may influence the selectors, for in both i teams are several highly favoured men on both sides. Especial interest may centre in the choice of wing-three-quarters and it would not surprise to find the Christchurch wing, J. Osborne, preferred to M. J. Dixon, whose form last Saturday suggested he is far from his best. From last year’s splendid pack there are bound to be some alterations, for P. Eastgate, All Black front ranker, is not available and others have not yet reproduced last year’s form. With two new Canterbury selectors in Messrs N. J. McPhail and J. Morton it is not to be ex- ■ pected that all last year’s ideas will be adopted. Cricket’s Gunter “Now that we have lauded Hutton, Tyson, Cowdrey, the selectors and the other heroes who enabled us to weather, with -some cheerfulness, the dismal gap between two home cricket seasons, perhaps we can honour one whose genius helped make the game what it is,” writes a correspondent to the “Daily Telegraph” in London. “I refer to that sixteenth century mathematician Edmund Gunter. He divided the mile into eight furlongs and the furlong into ten chains. Obviously, when cricket was first played, two men stretched Gunter’s chain across the centre of a meadow and said: ‘That’s the length of a pitch.’ Recalling your recent correspondence pointing out that the pitch is also called the wicket and that the wickets are planted at either end of the pitch, I intend to avoid all confusion by inquiring this season about the state of the gunter. I shall talk about a wet gunter, a sticky gunter. a fast gunter and so on. If some enterprising member of M.C.C. will propose that a portrait of Gunter be given a place of honour in Lord’s pavilion I shall feel that we have gone some way towards acknowledging a debt that all we cricketers owe.” ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS Prig, Riccarton.—ln 1938 Henry Armstrong won the world’s welter-weight title from Barney Ross and defended it 21 times before losing to Fritzie Zivic in 1940. Ranking For Holman Johnny Holman, who was previously unranked has been awarded fifth place in the “Ring” boxing magazine’s list of world heavyweight boxing title contenders as a result of his surprise technical knockout win over the former champion, Ezzard Charles. Holman. a 27-year-old negro, is ranked behind Tommy Jackson (U.S.A.), whereas Charles, who is now 33 years old, has gone from fourth to sixth place. Holman and Tony de Marco, the American w'ho won the world welterweight title by stopping Johnny Saxton in the fourtheenth round, are named as the fighters of the month by I the editor of the magazine.