SIDELINES

Press, 11 August 1979, Page 12

SIDELINES

ARRANGEMENTS for tomorrow’s grand final to the CAB. Trophy competition were being discussed by the Canterbury Rugby Union this week and it was decided to invite the Christchurch and Old Boys’ players, plus wives/girl-friends to an after-match function. There was some uncertainty about how long the teams would want to stay before returning to their own club-rooms. Mr Rees Williams offered details of what happened last year when his club, New Brighton, won the final. And how long did New Brighton stay? “Until it was cut, deadpanned Mr Williams.

HISTORY repeated itself for the Trans Tours United soccer team last Sunday. In a Rothmans League match at English Park, it drew, 1-1, with Stop Out, despite having virtually all the possession in the first half and at least two thirds of the play after the interval. Last year when it was chasing the league title, United dropped a point in similar fashion to Stop Out, again being held to a 1-1 draw. Last season. United won the league on goal difference and this year is the leading contender for second place, and $lO,OOO. NORTH'S full-back in this afternoon’s inter-island rugby match in Invercargill, Mike Gunson, of North Auckland, has strong family sporting connections. His sister is Lyn Parker, the New Zealand netball captain, and her husband, of course, is John Parker, the test cricketer. One of Gunson’s uncles is Ross McPherson, twice a New Zealand hockey goal-keeper at Olympic Games. And while on the subject of sporting lineage, two players in the unbeaten New Zealand colts team have particularly good connections. Barry Haig, the first five-eighths, is a son of the former rugby union and league interrational. Jimmy Haig, and the left wing, Wayne Hill, is a nephew of Canterbury’s “Tiny.” THE MIDDLE EAST is seldom thought of as a rugby stronghold but the game is apparently alive and thriving there" Recently, the Bahrain Rugby Football Club wrote to the New Zealand union inviting any club or provincial sides on their way to or from Britain to stop off for a game. A pleasant stay was promised. The one problem any visitors might have is how to address the club’s patron, who is H. E. Shaikh Essa Bin Mohammed Al-Kalifa. THE SIXTH edition of the DB Golf Annual (Moa Publication; 155 pp. $10.95), is probably the best in a series which has recorded the major events in New Zealand golf faithfully and well. In the 1979 issue, al. the top tournaments are reported expertly, there are some fine profiles of leading players, and, as ever, the illustrations are profuse and of exceptionally good quality. The book is very well produced and the publication deserves the support of New Zealand’s vast golfing population. Of particular interest is the major profile, on Bob Charles, covering the left-hander’s career since he first won the New Zealand Open 25 years ago. Arnold Palmer, Bob Shearer and Kevin Downie are the subjects of other profiles. IN ANOTHER golf literary offering, Sam Snead takes the club player from the performances of others to the encouraging news that Golf Begins at Forty (Hodder and Stoughton, 171 pp, $17.05). This cheerful review of what the mature golfer should seek to do will appeal to many long in years and handicaps. CHRIS RHODES might be on the threshold of a new phase in his rugby career. The former Ellesmere and now North Canterbury first five-eighths was shifted out to second five for the game against Canterbury B at Rangiora last week and did so well that he won the Basil Fitzpatrick “player of the day” award. Always a busy and dauntless defender, Rhodes effectively bottled up Simon Brown, who has been one of the most penetrative backs in Christchurch senior rugby this winter. THE GREYMOUTH High School first XIII became the first holder of a new rugby league trophy, the Intercollegiate Cup, when it beat Greymouth Marist High School, 11-8, in the inaugural match at Wingham Park. The Coasters are keen to receive challenges from other schools. Perhaps there is a school in Christchurch which might be prepared to lodge a bid? If so, it would make an appropriate curtain-raiser to the annual Thacker Shield fixture between the Canterbury and West Coast club champions at Greymouth on September 30. P.S.D.