N.Z. SWIMMING POOLS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27796, 22 October 1955, Page 3

N.Z. SWIMMING POOLS

Many Fail To Reach Standards

A survey that is now being made of swimming pools throughout. New Zealand should make it quite clear that the dimensions, facilities and equipment of pools in most centres do not meet international or even national championship requirements. The only pools that could be used for international competition are the Centennial Pool in Christchurch and the Ney. market Pool in Auckland. reached by the members of the sub-\ committee making the survey will be made known at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association this morning. The onus is on each individual centre to provide facilities up to the required standard for the New Zealand championships. Although the championships are allotted on a fixed rota, the council will in future deprive any centre that cannot measure up to these minimum standards of the championships.

A case in point is the pool at Greymouth. The championships have been allotted to that centre for this year, but if certain major improvements are not made to the pool in the next 10 or 12 weeks it is probable that they will be held elsewhere. Sufficient money is said to be available to make the necessary improvements, but the work is only now being started. If centres are deprived of the championships because their pools are inadequate it is considered most likely that they will do more to improve their facilities. Similarly, if the council continued to allot the championships strictly to its rota the present conditions would still prevail in 50 years’ time.

Apart from those in Auckland and Christchurch the only pools suitable ' for national tournaments are 33 yards 1 long. While most centres have pools of ! this length, some cannot conform to other standard dimensions. Pools in Auckland. Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill and Nelson meet the 1 minimum required depth of eight feet for spring-board diving but those in seven other centres, all of them on the championships rota, do not. For this reason, it may be necessary for the association to reduce the minimum depth to 7ft 6in. At the present time Auckland and Christchurch are the only centres with a sufficient depth of water for tower diving. The minimum depth for this is 14 feet and the Centennial Pool provides an adequate depth of 16 feet. The only roofed pool that is used for national championships is in Dunedin and -it cannot be used for tower diving. Although the Newmarket and Centennial pools are equipped with towers, they are not covered, and are therefore subject to certain climatic conditions. Tower Diving Even a light wind can have disastrous effects on the performance of a tower diver, who requires absolutely still air, especially for balancing. A pool now in the course of construction at Wellington is expected to be up to tower diving standard as far as depth is concerned. When it is completed that event will probably be reintroduced to the national championships. Tower diving, as a national event, has been discontinued by the council because the use of two pools only has resulted in a lack of competition among the centres. Ideals aimed at by the association are filtrating plants in each centre, heating plants in the southern centres and scum channels in pools to minimise movement of water. The Riddiford Pool in Wellington has a heating plant and recently filtration equipment has been installed. Otago, Auckland, Southland and Christchurch also have both these and heating installations are planned for several other pools. Plans for filtering, heating and pool lay-outs have been drawn up by the association and are available to all centres. Even with a heating plant ,a sufficient temperature is difficult to maintain in some southern centres. An air-conditioned, roofed building over a pool would prevent heat loss. An estimated £2OO would be required to present an overseas visiting team of swimmers in any New Zealand city and this would have to come from admission charges. For that reason such a tour would not be practicable as neither of the baths of international size are roofed and one wet night would mean a substantial loss to the centre concerned. Seating accomodation, too, falls far short of what would be required for an event of that nature. The Newmarket Pool will accommodate from 4000, to 6000 persons and the Centennial Pool, designed to seat from 1200 to 1500, will at present seat considerably less than that number. Makeshift seating has to be provided at all other pools to hold spectators for national events.

Highland dancing competitions. Of similar broad scope was the Christ’s College Rifles sports meeting in 1883, a gathering which included all the usual athletics contests as well as such an odd association of items as boxing bouts and egg and spoon races. One of the greatest days for athletics was in January, 1896, when the ‘“Australasian championships” took place. Athletics has continued on the Lancaster Park programme down the years, and many notable performers have been seen there—from the outstanding distance man, A. Shrubb, and the American sprinter, A. Duffy, in 1905, to such as Roger Bannister in the 1950 Centennial Games.

Rugby football was almost a minor sport when Lancaster Park was opened, but no self-respecting resident today is without some knowledge of the great Rugby occasions the park has seen. So too with cricket. But other sports have not lasted so well or so long.

Pioneer Bicycle Club It was oh Boxing Day, 1882, that the members of the Pioneer Bicycle Club, meeting as usual before the post office in Cathedral Square, sprang nimbly into their lofty saddles and rode, in double file, down to Lancaster Park. There races were held on .the new cinder track, and again the programme was a strange one by modern standards. The diverse items even included a tricycle race. Five years later the club had two English cyclists, Wood and Brown, ana the first day of the two-day meeting drew 6000 spectators. In 1889 two