Fairweather, Phillips Dropped By Selector

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32382, 22 August 1970, Page 10

Fairweather, Phillips Dropped By Selector

(By Our Basketball Reporter)

The province’s top centre, 6ft tin J. Fairweather (Checkers), and the young Rangiora guard, G. Phillips, have been dropped from the Canterbury men’s basketball team to meet North Queensland in Cowles Stadium this evening.

Fairweather is not ’ available for the Canter- ; bury team to contest the ’ national tournament in < Invercargill at the end 1 of this month. ( Earlier,-he was told that he 1 might not be required for the j game If J. Culliford, T. Guthrie, K. Hessell and P. Stigley 1 returned from the New Zea- 1 land Universities tournament in .time. Instead of making them- : selves available for the N.Z.U. team, the four players decided to put Canterbury first ( and returned to Christchurch on Thursday, two days ahead of schedule. , MISSED PRACTICE Phillips, who was to have made bis sebut for Canterbury against North Queensland, failed to attend the team’s practice earlier this week. He has made no explanation to the Canterbury selector-coach (Mr G. D. Dempsey). “I have always made it quite clear that players must let me know where they are and what they are doing if they are going to be absent from practice. I have been waiting several days for an explanation from Phillips. I haven’t heard a word," Mr Dempsey said. By eliminating Fairweather and Phillips, Mr Dempsey has reduced his team to 10 players—a far more manageable number. And he is now left only with players who are available for the national tournament. With Fairweather missing,

the team will not be quite as strong in the centre on offence. However, Mr Dempsey said: “If we can win without him here, we can win without him in Invercargill.” Mr Dempsey has had some difficulty deciding on the type of game his team should play against Northern Queensland. Very little is known of the strength of the tourists—not even their heights are known. It is doubtful if the 2,1,2, zone used against the Czechoslovakians will be employed this time. R. Millard (Y.M.C.A.), who will replace Fairweather as the starting centre, is not completely familiar with it A. R. Hounsell (Old Boys), who is available for only the last day of the New Zealand tournament, is unlikely to be used in the starting line-up. LUXTON HAS CHANCE At present it is envisaged that Guthrie will come into the first line-up as a guard in partnership with the captain, Culliford. Canterbury’s New Zealand representative guard, Hessell, will move into the front line with an other New Zealand representative, Stigley. Millard will be in the centre. However, the Old Boys’ forward, K. Luxton, has been in Impressive form lately and he might yet force his way

into the starting five. This would allow Hessell to return to his normal position and would put Guthrie, whose recent improvement has been minimal, back on the bench. The North Queensland team originally expected yesterday, will now not arrive until this afternoon. The party of 13 players is: J. Dhu (captaincoach). P. Healy, P. Davis, W. Smith, H. Grienke, J. Renouf, Z. Zampaurutti, E. Lenti, K. Gutteridge, B. Beveridge, D. Reynolds, J. Eathorne, G. Brodie. After tonight’s match, it will travel to Greymouth for a game against the West Coast region on Monday and return to Canterbury for a match against New Zealand Services at Burnham on Tuesday. Its last two matches before competing in the national tournament at Invercargill between August 31 and September 4, will be against Otago at Dunedin on August 27 and an Eastern Southland invitation team at Gore on August 29.