SIDELINES

Press, 12 March 1982, Page 15

SIDELINES

WHEN the man-made Lake Ruataniwha, near Twizel, is officially opened on April 24, the picnic rowing regatta planned will end with a rather unusual event. The last of the 12 open events scheduled is an-inter-provincial relay on the 2000 m international course. A single will row 500 m up to a pair, the pair 500 m to a four, and the four will row to a waiting eight which will complete the distance. All clubs affiliated to the South Island Rowing Association will be invited to contest the regatta. THE FORMER New Zealand bowls representative, Wally Wilkinson, has quickly made his presence felt again at Beckenham, the club he returned to this season after two years at Linwood. Wilkinson has won ell the four open titles at Beckenham and, in a departure for him, he did hardly any skipping, filling the role only when his pairs partner, Cliff Bowman, was unavailable. Bernie Johns has also completed a “grand slam” at Christchurch, while Sonny Calder (Linwood) and Malcolm McLeod (Cashmere) went close with three wins and a second. THE NEW ZEALAND Junior hockey team has a formidable task facing it in the Junior World Cup finals in Kuala Lumpur from August 15 to 28. The pools and draw have not been decided but the other finalists are Malaysia, Pakistan, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Argentina, Canada, Kenya and India. Because it won the Australasian zone qualifying tournament in Hong Kong last October, New Zealand is sure to be one of the top seeds for the finals. The draw and pools will probably be announced next month. The New Zealand team will be selected after the national colts’ tournament in Napier in May. RUGBY UNION will be played at Carlaw Park, Auckland, ; for the first time when the Ponsonby club meets the Counties I champion, Ardmore, next month, and again when Ponsonby I plays Beziers, from France, in June. The matches are being i organised by the All Black lock, Andy Haden, on behalf of the i Ponsonby club. Haden said that be found the Auckland Rugby ' League administrators most helpful in making arrangements. But what of Ron Don’s attitude to all this? “Ron appreciates our position. While he would have liked the games played at another venue, he realises our situation,” Haden said. The big attraction to Ponsonby is the quality of the Carlaw Park floodlights; evening kick-offs will draw much bigger “gates.” MARLBOROUGH'S hooker, Kevin Sutherland, received a long sought-after reward for his endeavours in another sport recently. Sutherland won his first “red coat” when Wairau took the premier coxless fours title at the national rowing championships at Lake Waihola. There is an interesting family tie-up between the two sports; Ivan Sutherland (Kevin’s cousin) coaches the Wairau premiers and his older brother, Ramon, coaches the Marlborough rugby team. AND the stroke of that Wairau coxless four, "Sam" Le Compte, came out of temporary retirement for his fourth "red coat.” Earlier he had stroked another coxless four, Avon, to victory in the 1978 nationals before winning two pair-oared titles with Ivan Sutherland in 1980. Another former Avon man, Tony Brook, was also in the Wairau crew at Lake Waihola, thus picking up his fourth "red coat.” LES WILSON, the captain of the Northern New South Wales Emus junior cricket team which played in 5 Christchurch, had a quick change of sporting priorities when j he returned to Australia. No sooner was he back in his home j town of Tenterfield than he was packing his football gear ■ and heading south to have a trial for the Sydney rugby league club, Balmain. Wilson is highly regarded as a cricket I prospect in New South Wales and, at 19, he has shown ! considerable promise and versatility at stand-off half, centre j and loose forward in rugby league. • CANTERBURY HAS lost one of its selections for the\ national coaching school for promising young rugby players at Lincoln College at Easter, but gained one in his place. Mason Dalzell has joined the police force and transferred to Wellington and Tom Goughian, a lock (as also'is Dalzell), who was considered the outstanding j player of the South Island under-18 team last winter, has moved from South Canterbury to Christchurch to _ attend Lincoln College.