Mander, Roberts Joint Olympic Trial Leaders

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30480, 30 June 1964, Page 15

Mander, Roberts Joint Olympic Trial Leaders

[“The Press" Special Service] NAPIER, June 29. The two Olympic representatives—P. G. Mander (Christchurch) and R. H. Roberts (Auckland) — were equal on points after the first two races in the Tokyo yachting trial series sailed off Napier in steady rain today. Each scored a first and

a third. The Canterbury Finn champion, B. de Thier, is sixth on points; he was runner-up in the elimination series which was won by Mander in a fleet of 23 skippers. De Thier withdrew from the first race after breaking the mast in F. G. B. Simpson’s boat. The trials are being conducted on a swap-boat basis. Withdrew This afternoon Simpson capsized and withdrew when sailing Roberts’s boat. Progress points are as follows: P. G. Mander (Christchurch!, and R H. Roberts (Auckland), 1415 points (equaH 1; T. J. Speed (Auckland), 892. 3; N. R. Everett (Auckland), 813, 4; B. E. Treleaven (Christchurch),

688, 5; B. de Their (Mount Pleasant), 348, 6; F. G. B. Simpson (Christchurch), 269, 7. Results ofracing, showing finishing times, were:—

First Race.—Mander, 1:28:54, 1; Everett, 1:30.6, 2; Roberts, 1:31.47, 3; Treleaven, 1:32.7, 4; Speed, 1:36.9, 5; Simpson, 1:37.41, 6. De Their did not finish.

Second Race. —Roberts, 1:18.3, 1; Speed, 1:19.32, 2; Mander, 1:20.36, 3; Treleaven, 1:20.58, 4; de Their, 1:21.35, 5: Everett. 1:22.5, 6. Simpson did not finish. Struggle For Lead

This morning In the first race Mander jumped to the front early in a 15-20 knot sou’-easter but lost ground to Everett in the two leads to the triangle. He regained first place on the second beat into the wind and opened up a gap of more than a minute on Everett.

Roberts, Treleaven and Speed sailed the whole race in third, fourth and fifth positions. De Their, with a shaky mast at the start, was forced to retire half-way through and relinquished sixth place to Simpson.

The wind almost died at the start of the second race; then veered to sou'-west.

Roberts alone gained a decided advantage from the change in the first weather leg. Towards the tail of the fleet he was on a westerly tack when the wind pushed up to 10 knots. He came through fast, and rounded the first mark close behind Speed, de Thier, and Simpson.

Crept Up On the first lead he moved into third place and crept up, to round the leeward mark just ahead of Speed. He held a slim lead on the next beat extended it to 15sec on the leeward runs; and on the final beat to the line opened up a gap of I.smin. Speed hung on for second but de Their, sailing Everett’s boat dropped to fifth with Mander and Treleaven moving through. Everett tailed the field with Simpson who capsized beating on the fourth leg. It had been hoped to sail three races at the week-end but they could not be got in because of lack of wind. Five races remain to be sailed in the series.

“Surfootball” At Sumner

A large crowd of 300 spectators saw the Sumner Surf Life-Saving Club’s Rugby team draw with Taylor’s Mistake, 6-all, at Clifton beach on Sunday afternoon. The match .was one of the annual “surfootball” matches played between surf clubs in the off season.

A. McPhail and P. Marshall scored tries for Sumner. W. Newton and M. Saunders were Taylor’s Mistake's try scorers.