Fairweather strengthens basketball Olympic hid

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33957, 25 September 1975, Page 30

Fairweather strengthens basketball Olympic hid

(By

ROD DEW)

John Fairweather, a 6ft 4in Canterbury forward, was included yesterday in the New Zealand men’s basketball team for the forthcoming Olympic qualifying play-offs against Australia in Melbourne and Tasmania.

He replaces another Canterbury player, Robert Cooke, who has been forced to withdraw because the trip to Australia clashes with university examinations. Cooke, one of the surprise selections, is the second player to withdraw. Earlier, the talented Maori forward, Ngatai Smith (Hamilton), announced that he was unable to play because of personal reasons. His place was taken by Neville Corlett (Auckland), at 18 one of the most promising guards in the country. Fairweather, who has been one of New Zealand’s leading forwards for a number of years, was not originally available for the team be-

cause of university examinations. However, he has now been able to make alternative arrangements. His late inclusion will, in many respects, strengthen the side. He is a splendid rebounder and a very accurate shooter. This season he has not prepared himself quite as well as in previous seasons, but he still managed to score more than a century of points in the recent New Zealand championship tournament.

He still has plenty of time to sharpen up his shooting before the team leaves for Australia on November 1. Fairweather was a key member of the New Zealand Games team this year, but he was not available for the matches against the touring American Chico University side.

With Fairweather, Stan Hill (Auckland), Stewart Ferguson (Canterbury), John Macdonald (New Plymouth), and Dave Taylor (Nelson) as a likely starting line-up, the New Zealand team will be capable of presenting Australia with a formidible chal-

lenge. However, the bench strength has undoubtedly been weakened by the clash of timing with university examinations.

New Zealand had wanted to play the three qualifying matches against Australia late in September or early in October, the president of the New Zealand Basketball Federation (Mr M. A. Henshall, of Christchurch) said yesterday. However, the Australian club championships had been set down for October 11 and Australian officials were not prepared to play the matches before this. “All along we have made the point about possible clashes with university examinations. But Australia, as the host country, had the right to dictate when and where the matches would be played. On reflection, we might have been better to press fop the matches to be held later in November, but the difficulty was that we didn’t know when the university examinations were,” Commenting on the list of players not available, Mr Henshall said that some of

them would have been a long way from being automatic selections had they been available. The New Zealand team will play one match against an invitation side of resident Americans in the new Hutt! Valley Stadium on October 4. Two matches against leading Australian club sides have been arranged before the first match against Australia in Melbourne on November 6. The other two matches will both be in Tasmania, on November 8 and IL