Sportsman’s Notebook SOCCER COMPETITION STARTS TOMORROW

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29791, 6 April 1962, Page 17

Sportsman’s Notebook SOCCER COMPETITION STARTS TOMORROW

What could prove to be the most interesting local soccer competition for many seasons opens tomorrow. Interest will stem from two sources —the large money prizes offered for the sponsored tournament in which the competition winner will compete, and the reduction from 10 to six of the number of teams in the premier division.

Understandably, those sides which have been relegated have lost some of their better men to the six teams which have retained premier division status. While this will be regretted by the clubs concerned, it will be welcomed for the good of soccer as a spectator sport.

As the winner of the Hurley Shield competition will take part in the later Rothman’s tournament, competition will be especially keen. The local competition winner will gain £lOO from the tournament sponsor. and could win up to £550 if it wins all its later matches. The Turley Shield will be decided on two rounds of matches, and should be completed by mid-June. Tomorrow’s matches will all hold interest. The Hurley Shield holder, Technical, with several key players on the injured list, will meet Shamrock, which has prob[ably the best defence in the competition. Western, winners of the English Cup and the local Chatham Cup semifinalist last season, will meet Rangers. Rangers have recently gained K. Olley and M. SHardlow, two of Western’s most consistent players in the last eight seasons. In the other match, Nomads, who have reported a number of good gains this season, will meet City. ¥ ¥ ¥ Water Polo Coach The New Zealand Water Polo Board at its recent meeting in Christchurch, held at the time of the national championship meeting, appointed Major W. H. Dyson as the Dominion’s official coach. Major Dyson was a New Zealand representative player from 1951 to 1953, and playing for the Manawatu team in the B grade at the national meeting this year, he dominated all matches with his powerful range of shots at goal. The board hopes that he will be able to develop a typical New Zealand style of play, instead of the Dominion constantly being about six years behind overseas developments. ¥ ¥ ¥ Empire Gaines

Just before the Empire Games in November, a world-wide conference on physical education will be held in Perth. Representatives of overseas countries competing at the Games will attend. Similar conferences were held at Melbourne and Cardiff —the success of which were proven by today's crop of record breakers. Each representative will spread knowledge of his country's physical fitness progress, and learn what has happened in other countries. The conference will examine the scientific basis of physical fitness and attempt to apply such knowledge to modem athletics and to the education of the young people of the Commonwealth. ¥ ¥ ¥ Basketball A record number of 234 teams, including some from sub-associations, have entered for the Canterbury Basketball Association’s annual tournament which will be held tomorrow. The tournament will mark the

opening of the 1962 season, and will be run in seven grades. Senior reserve and second grade matches will start at 9.30 a.m., and all other grades will start at 11.30 am. All teams will play at least five games, with 550 10-minute matches being played throughout the day on the 44 courts available. Sacred Heart B, runner-up at the South Island Catholic tournament, will play in the senior section, and the form of this team will be watched with interest. Teachers’ College, bottom team in the senior grade last season, has a complete new team, and is reported to be a weaker combination than last season. ¥ ¥ ¥ Sprint Meeting The world’s foremost sprinters, F. Budd and J. Hayes, will meet for the first time over 100 yards at Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday, April 13. Both are negroes and both have run 100 yards in the world record time of 9.2 sec; Budd last season and Hayes this season. Budd has not been beaten on indoor and outdoor tracks over distances less than 100 metres since he finished last in the 1960 Olympic Games 100 metres final. Only 19, Hayes recently recorded 9.2 sec, 9.3 sec and 9.4 sec in successive weeks. For his 9.2 sec 100 yards the three official watches showed 9.2 sec and the two emergency watches 9.lsec.