PEOPLE IN THE PLAY

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28122, 10 November 1956, Page 5

PEOPLE IN THE PLAY

G. H. Mills, an Otago representative batsman and wicket-keeper for many years, is making a serious return to cricket this season. Last Saturday he made 74 for Old Boys against Dunedin. ☆ C. Angas. a member of the Wellington Lawn Tennis Club, has played senior tennis now for 21 years. Angas commenced his tennis in Christchurch, playing first for the Avonside club in 1924 and later United. After the Second World War he settled in Wellington. ☆ The former New Zealand British F.mipre welter-weight boxing champion Bos Murphy, while still retaining an active interest in boxing is also getting some enjoyment and a fair measure of success from golf. Murphy, with B. McLeod recently won a Hutt Golf Club’s four-ball best-ball bogey with a score of 6 up.

Midland, which has won the Wellington senior cricket championship for the last two seasons, was carried to an

outright win against Kilbirnie largely through the . efforts of the New Zealand all-rounder, E. W. Dempster. In Midland’s second innings he scored 71 of the 206 runs off the bat, and he then took five wic-

kets for 19 runs. Dempster had a poor season for Wellington last summer, but he should be a very useful member of the team in the coming matches.

The All Black full-back D. B. Clarke is still on crutches after having a second cartileee removed

cartnege removed from his left 1 leg three .3 weeks ago, but | he hopes that ’ on Monday, after another

g visit to the 1 Waikato I Hospital, he i will be able to ■< dispense with them. Clarke g has visited his K home since the operation and

. a has c o m - menced exercises to strengthen the leg muscles. There is every » ossibility of his being fit by Christmas, and he remains a candidate for the Northern Districts team in its first Plunket Shield season.

The Wellington Wilding Shield player, P. G. Nicholls, should gain valuable experience on a tour of England and the Continent for more than a year. He will leave for Auckland on January 18 after the New Zealand championships there. Aged 28, Nicholls has been as high as fourth ranked in the Dominion, and he should return an even bet-, ter player. ☆ A brilliant 18-year-old New South Wales schoolboy, Jim McGann, may become the first Australian to win an Olympic track sprint. Last week he won the big schoolboy championship of New South Wales with 9.Bsec for the 100 yards to break the 20 years’ old record set by the late J. Carlton. McGann is setting himself for the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

Arrangements are being made by the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association for a tour of New Zealand by the New Zealand Olympic representative, Lincoln Hurring. Hurring has expressed his willingness “to conduct a swimming forum in the various centres, especially the smaller ones throughout New Zealand.’’ ☆ The former New Zealand Empire Games boxing representative Mike Hannah has decided to continue in professional boxing after his poor showing in his last fight in Sydney. Hannah was easily beaten by R. Sanders, a light puncher, who hit Hannah so easily that the fight was stopped in the ninth of the 12 round fight. Hannah had a rest for a month and has now resumed training. He expects to return to New Zealand early this month for a match with Barney Shaw.

It was good news for New Zealand cricket when Bert Sutcliffe scored a century in the second series of sen-

senes oi senior matches in Dunedin. Sutcliffe. batting for North-east Valley against C a r i s br o o k. scored 134 not out. At the start of his innings he was often in trouble, b u t later he batted beautifully. A

’ Sutcliffe i n 1 form and eager for runs is almost r as essential for the success of New . Zealand’s 1958 tour of England, and this innings may help return him t to the acquisitive path he trod a few years ago.

Mr Clem Beck, the sole surviving member of the first Otago-South-land Rugby match—played in 1877 —recently celebrated his ninetythird birthday. Mr Beck represented Otago on several occasions up to 1888. including a game against Stoddart’s British side. He played his early Rugby for the now defunct Montecillo Club, and later joined the Dunedin Club, of which he was a member for 68 years. He is also a life member. Mr Beck has probably seen more OtagoSouthland matches than any other person in the two provinces. In his younger days he was also keenly interested in cricket, and played for the Dunedin and Carisbrook Clubs for some seasons in the first grade. . The young New South Wales test $• batsman lan Craig will receive the offer of a £2OOO a year job in" a Bendigo pharmacy when he returns to Australia with the Australian cricket team.