New Zealand Empire Games Team Returns

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28661, 11 August 1958, Page 10

New Zealand Empire Games Team Returns

(Aeu Zeaiana Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 10. Sixty-four members of tha New Zealand Empire Games team arrived back at Whenuapai at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday. Between 300 and 400 relatives, friends and enthusiasts gave them a happy welcome. The team arrived two hours and a half later than the original scheduled time.

There was a short ceremony •when Mr H. I. Austad, chairman of the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association, welcomed the team. Mr J. Meltzer, the manager, and Mr G. W. Jackman, the assistant manager, said farewell to their charges and thanked all the team managers and the chaperon, Mrs P. S. Ellis, for their co-operation. Several of the men arrived back with an imposing array of badges and hats. The Auckland runner, W. Baillie, who appeared to be the “Character’* of the team, came off the plane attired in a Nigerian outfit, carrying two immense Chinese lanterns and wearing a much-decorated fez. “It has been a memorable experience,’’ said Mr Meltzer. “We had our trying moments, but it has been an extremely happy trip.” There had been complete cooperation between the administration and the team itself. “I feel that New Zealand’s standing is very high as a result of our visit,” he said. Several of the team were ill on the trip home, as they were when flying to Britain. Most of the older members, like the bowlers.

said that they did not suffer from the Calcutta tummy” as did the younger members. They thought this was because the younger ones ate ice-cream and drank aerated water while passing through the tropics. Fencers Busy

While the rest of the team headed off for their homes or hotels the three fencers, B. A. Pickwortb (Auckland), R. J. Binning and P. L. Temple (Wellington) faced some tasks concerned with the Games.

At Pickworth’s home, where his twenty-ninth birthday was being celebrated, the three were closeted with a tape recorder giving their impressions of competitors, weapons, judges and rules at Cardiff. The tape, made by the New Zealand Fencing Association, will be circulated to all its centres.

One of the main problems the New Zealanders struck was the new international ruling on the reduction of the time limit for bouts. Both men’s and women’s events have been reduced by two minutes, the men now have eight minutes and the women six minutes to complete their bouts.