Sportsman’s Notebook LEADING WOMEN’S TENNIS PLAYER TO GO TO DUNEDIN

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28435, 15 November 1957, Page 6

Sportsman’s Notebook LEADING WOMEN’S TENNIS PLAYER TO GO TO DUNEDIN

A leading Canterbury women’s tennis player, Miss J. Davidson, will be lost to the province at the beginning of next year. Miss Davidson, aged 19, who is at present at Avonside Girls’ High School, has been accepted for a specialist course in physical education at the Dunedin Training College. The course has a third year. Miss Davidson, who held the national under 19 singles title two seasons’ ago and who represented New Zealand in Australia last year, will be a big loss to her province and to her club, United, for which she has been instrumental in winning the championship for the last two seasons. Leading member of Canterbury’s Howe Shield girls’ team for some years. Miss Davidson graduated from junior ranks this season and she has been coaching prospective members of the team. * ¥ ¥ Stretching It For the first two overs of a President’s grade match at the Polo Grounds between Lancaster Park A and Riccarton last Saturday, the bowlers were quite unable to find a length. Then a rule was produced and it was found that the pitch was 24 yards long. It was decided to continue the match under these conditions and if the bowlers had their difficulties, so did the batsmen; what looked like safe singles suddenly became frantic dashes. Lancaster Park, with 205 for two declared, mastered the situation better, beating Riccarton (114) on the first innings. ¥ ¥ ¥ Rifle Visit A team of British riflemen will visit New Zealand early in 1958, and will compete in the national championships. This has been announced by the Commonwealth Council of Rifle Associations. After competing in New Zealand, the team will fly to Australia to take part in the Victorian Rifle Association’s annual prize meeting in March, where it will compete against Australian and New Zealand teams. * « « Basketball The decision of the New Zealand Basketball Association’s executive to introduce the new international seven-a-side rules in the 1959 season has provoked a strong protest from the Bay of Plenty centre. The centre, which caters for 20,000 players, is concerned at the shortage of courts which will eventuate when the size of the team is reduced. The team will be reduced from nine players and three emergencies to seven players and two emergencies, which could be assumed to lead to a 33 1-3 increase in the number of teams, with the total playing strength remaining the same. ¥ ¥ ¥ Golf Impressions The New Zealand professional golfer, J. L. Kelly, who has just returned from representing the Dominion in the international Canada Cup tournament in Japan, says the atmosphere of international goodwill and enthusiasm among the competitors was his most outstanding impression of the trip. The accuracy of the Japanese players, said Kelly, was the main reason for their success and, although they had the advantage of being familiar with the course, the top-class players from other countries should have been able to overcome this. ¥ ¥ ¥ Rugby Veteran The last surviving player of the two teams which contested the first Rugby match between Otago and Southland, Mr Clem Beck, died this week in Dunedin, aged 94. The first match between the two unions took place in 1887. and he was a member of the Dunedin Rugby Football Club for more than 70 years. He also represented Otago at cricket just before the turn of the century. # 3jl # Low Standard The Australian tennis player, Mervyn Rose, who has recently returned from an overseas tour, has said in Sydney that the standard of doubles play in the world has fallen in the last six years. “There’s not a class doubles pair left in the world,’’ said Rose, who says that he won 20 major tournaments on his most recent tour, whereas in 1951, when he was a far better player, he could “scarcely win a thing.’’ Rose, at his peak, was one of the best doubles players in the world. & $ as Climbing A survey of climbing accidents carried out recently discloses that 1957 has been the worst-ever year for fatal accidents in the mountains. Figures are already half as high again as those for the worst previous year, 1953. The deaths to date are 385, including 43‘ in the German Alps, 111 in Switzerland, 42 in France, 109 in Austria, and 80 in Italy. The increase is attributed to the large number of amateurs who are venturing into the mountains without proper equipment. The weather has been no worse than in previous years. # * S: Speedboats The southern zone class A and class B outboard championship and the 75 cubic inch vee-bottom championship will be contested at a speedboat regatta at Lake Forsyth on Sunday, November 17. The New Brighton Power-boat Club, which is running the regatta, will have its largest representation of outboards ever at the lake. There will be about 20 outboard boats and several inboard craft at the event, and several outboards from Lake Kaniere will probably also compete. The programme will include 12 races; four for outboards, four for inboards, two championships, and two combined events. Olympic Changes The minor changes in the rules and programme for the 1960 Olympic Games are expected to lead | to more sweeping changes before

1964. The number of competitors has been reduced for 1960, with the elimination of some events in the canoeing, and the Winter Olympics, and the general plan so far has been to prepare the way for a more drastic revision later. A decision of the site of the 1964 Games will be made at the 55th congress of the International Olympic Committee, to be held in Monaco in 1959. # « Wrestling Wellington’s best heavy-weight wrestler for the last four years, Abe Jacobs, is considering entry into the professional ranks. Jacobs, aged 28, weighs 16st 81b, and has won the Wellington title four times, and the Canterbury title three times. In 1952, after only two years of wrestling, he won the national heavy-weight championship. Since then he has been unable to beat the 1956 Olympic Games representative, J. Silva (Auckland).

LAWN TENNIS