DISAPPOINTING RESPONSE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29931, 19 September 1962, Page 7

DISAPPOINTING RESPONSE

Series Of Sports Displays

Although the announcement of the New Zealand Empire Games team is less than a week away, a series of sports displays held in the Cowles Stadium to raise funds for category B competitors in the team from Canterbury met with a disappointing public response. The attendance was a mere 70, and the gain to the federation’s funds was small. The performers were of high quality and deserved a greater audience. This was particularly so in the case of four Canterbury wrestling champions I. B. Roberts, B. Hadcroft, P. Moore, and R. Kavanagh—who had taken part in the New Zealand championships at Invercargill last week and arrived back in Christchurch after an all-night train journey. Roberts, winner of the national light-weight title at Invercargill and an Empire Games nominee, wrestled Hadcroft, and Moore and Kavanagh contested the other bout. Other displays were given by gymnastic groups from the Christchurch Teachers' College and the Y.M.C.A.— with an interlude by three agile clowns—and five men and two women members of the Cam-am-ju club demonstrated judo throws and holds. Exhibition bouts in boxing were given by P. Fitzsimmons, the New Zealand and Australasian lightweight champion two years ago, T. O’Donnell, B. Pope and W. Smith, and a Christchurch oarsman, T. Just, worked up to 36 strokes a minute in a demonstration on the Canterbury Rowing Association's ergometer. The display was arranged by the Canterbury Amateur Sports Federation, and among those attending were the Mayor (Mr G. Manning) and Mrs Manning. The federation existed almost entirely for one purpose—to raise funds for Canterbury competitors selected for Empire and Olympic Games, said the president of the federation (Mr H. C. Blazey). To this end the federation would hold a further sports evening at the stadium next Monday—at which indoor basketball and soccer would be played—and conduct a house-to-house appeal on September 29.