Sportsman’s Notebook First Swimming Carnival Draws Very Big Entries

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28445, 27 November 1957, Page 5

Sportsman’s Notebook First Swimming Carnival Draws Very Big Entries

Entries which were yesterday described as “terrific” by the secretary of the Canterbury Swimming Centre (Miss Doreen Brown) have been received for the first inter-club swimming carnival of the season to be held at the Spreydon baths on Saturday. The Bryce Cup, awarded for the winning men’s team in a 5 x 100yds relay, will be at stake.

i A real difficulty for the centre i this season is the large number lof swimmers competing in interclub carnivals. Recently, delegates to the centre unanimously out-voted a move for the institution of two-day darnivals, and after Saturday’s carnival a decision will be made on the future organisation of carnivals and whether entries should be restricted in some way. At present there are many swimmers competing in the carnivals who are not up to inter-club standard.

The plans for a North Canterbury Sub-centre of the Canterbury centre have fallen through because of lack of support, and another club, Rangiora, has applied for affiliation to the centre. The sub-centre was originally | mooted because it would take swimmers from the North Canterbury clubs away from the Cani terbury centre inter-club carnivals. The problem of too many entries at Christchurch carnivals, therefore, still exists, and the centre may be forced to limit each club to a certain number of members who can compete.

Belg i.- .is On Grass The Belgian Davis Cup tennis players, winners of the European zone of the competition, are reported to have settled down well to grass-court play upon then arrival in Australia last week. For both J. Brichant and P. Washer it was the first time they have played on grass courts since Wimbledon in June. Previously, Australians had expressed surprise when it was learnt that the Belgians had decided to forgo the valuable grass-court practice of playing in the New South Wales championships in favour of two weeks’ practice on cement courts in the United States under the direction of Tony Trabert. # * # Hutt Valley Cricket Hutt Valley is expected to do better than usual in { *« annual cricket match against the Wellington provincial team to be played on November 30 and Decembei 7. The Wellington Side will oe without B. D. Morrison. E W. Sinclair, J. E. F. Beck and W. M. Curtis, who will attend the colts’ training school in Auckland on the second day of the match. Hutt Valley, however, has this season regained the New Zealand representative fast bowler R. W. Blair, and T. Meale ha* returned from England.

Tenth Anniversary When the Wallabies played Newport on Saturday, two players took the field in the same positions as they had held in the same match 10 years prev They were the Australian prop forward N. Shehadie and the Newport and Wales winger, K. Jones. Shehadie is aged 31 and Jones is 35. Jor'' t ' New Zealand with the British Isles team in 1950, is a former British Olympic sprint representative and he showed earlier this year that he retains much of lr =need by recording lO.lsec for 100 yards. * * * Cricketers Leave Two Christchurch senior cricketers left for their homes last week at the conclusion of the University examinations. They are G. A. Leggat, the St. Albans opening batsman, who has returned to Nelson, and W. J. R. Haskell, the West Christchurch - University fast bowler, who lives in Wellington. Haskell will be back in Christchurch in February. ¥ ¥ ¥ Soccer Tours The New Zealand Football Association has advised that several plans are being considered for tours of New Zealand by overseas teams and for tours overseas by New Zealand teams. However, none of the plans is as yet definite. The association is awaiting further information about conditions for tours of New Zealand by teams from Austria, Jugoslavia and Israel, and by Stanley Matthew’s English side. Proposed New Zealand tours of Europe and the Far East are in a similai stage of development * ¥ ¥ Victorian Walkers The Victorian walkers who are in. the Dominion made a successful start to their tour at an evening meeting at Wellington last week. Two of the tourists, R. Gardiner and R. Chugg, deadheated for first place in a mile event, against walkers from the Naenae club, reputedly the strongest walking club in New Zealand. In Melbourne Gardiner has beaten the Olympic and New Zealand champion. N. R. Read. ¥ ¥ ¥ Golfer’s Disabilities The Australian professional golfer, Frank Phillips, who re-

cently won the Australian open championship from a field of players who include those who had just returned from competing in the international Canada Cup competition, suffers from two disabilities. either one of which would probably discourage any other golfer from continuing in the game Phillips is very shortsighted. so much so that he wears powerful glasses so expensive that a lost pair almost caused him to give up the game. In addition, he has a badly withered left thumb, which provides no gripping power, and causes him extreme agony after a hard round. ¥ ¥ ¥ Power Tennis It is being claimed in Australia that the modern ‘‘power game” is spoiling tennis as a spectator sport. Writing at the conclusion of the New South Wales championships last Saturday, the secretary of the New South Wales Lawn Tennis Association said that in the men’s singles final between A. J. Cooper and N A. Fraser, there was no applause until the fourth game. He said: “What we want are players with finesse who can give the spectator the thrill of a rally. Now a rally is too often limited to two or three strokes.”

$ * « Cricketer’s Injury When H. H. Whiting, the Upper Hutt cricket captain suffered a broken jaw from a delivery by the New Zealand fast bowler, R. W. Blair, on the controversial Petone pitch, the injury was his second in 25 years of senior cricket. The injury has prevented Whiting from playing cricket and has also caused him great difficulty in his schoolteaching work. Whiting will not play cricket again for some time and will be almost speechless until the injury heals. Until then he will communicate with his school class by use of the blackboard. Resuscitation Day National resuscitation day is to be held next Sunday, December 1, and not on Saturday, as published in yesterday’s issue of “The Press.” Demonstrations of HolgerNielsen resuscitation will be given by surf clubs on Christchurch beaches commencing at 2.30 p.m.