SIDELINES

Press, 3 September 1982, Page 15

SIDELINES

MINOR ASSAULTING of cricket umpires at Lord’s became an international incident a year or so ago. but that was nothing compared with the unhappy experiences of a man in Western Samoa. It seems there was a village tournament in Apia, and in one exciting match, Satupaitea needed one run to level the scores with the last pair together. They tried to scamper a run, but the umpire gave a run out and victory to the opponent, Solosolo. A burly lock forward he might have been, but that did not save him. He was beaten about the head with a bat, and later died. Two players have been arrested; police are still looking for a third. It couldn’t happen here, could it? KEN BLACKLER. one of Canterbury's leading rugby legue referees, had a clash of commitments for this Sunday. Soon after being chosen to control the club championship grand final between Addington and Hornby at the Show Grounds, he learned of his appointment to the Wrangler Cup game involving Runanga (West Coast) and Kaiti (Gisborne-East Coast) at Greymouth the same day. Blackler opted for the Show Grounds encounter, and has been replaced by another Canterbury official. Rod MacKenzie. for the cup fixture. Tony Drake has also been accorded double recognition — on Sunday fie officiates in the Gore cup final between MaristWestern Suburbs and Papanui. and next Wednesday night he will be in Auckland controlling the first international between the Junior Kiwis and Australian Schoolboys. RIGHTLY SO. the lads in the Rangers thirteenth grade A (under-13) soccer team are proud of their achievements on a recently completed North Island tour which included matches at Rotorua, Mount Maunganui and Tokoroa. They won their first game by the odd goal in 11, but their next five games were never in doubt — 3-0, 3-0, 4-0, 16-0 and 5-1 — to give them an impressive tally of 37 goals for and only six against. The top goal scorer, Stephen O’Connor, a dependable midfielder, David Wardle, a solid defender, Nigel Hale, and Brian Cassell were outstanding players in an excellent allround team effort. SURF LIFESAVING carnivals in the coming season, apart from those to the Fresh Up South Island championships and the Wales Bank national titles, mill certainly be close to home. They are scheduled for Sumner (December 5), South Brighton (December 19), New Brighton (January 16) and Waimairi (January 30), with the only “away" trip over the hill to Taylors Mistake, for the traditional "K Day" carnival, on February 13. The hard-luck story is that of the Kotuku club, on the West Coast, which had its first carnival in 11 years last season wiped out by storms, high seas and the closure of Otira Gorge. It seems likely to get a carnival in the 1983-84 season. ONE OF THE most telling of all yachting quotations is recorded in “Blake’s Odyssey," the book of Ceramco New Zealand’s epic journey in the 1981-82 Whitbread Round-the-World race. It comes not from the crew of Ceramco, but from Conny van Rietschoten, the skipper of her great rival, Flyer. The hardy Dutchman did not reveal until after the event that he had suffered a heart attack on the second of the four legs. Reflecting, van Rietschoten said: “If the worst _ had happened, and I had died at sea, then my crew' would have put me over the side as is the tradition. Perhaps Ceramco would have seen me drifting by, but that would have been the only indication they would have had that all was not good with Conny.” JUDGES FROM throughout the country are attending a seminar on figure ice skating in Invercargill this week-end. The seminar, which is being run by three of New Zealand’s top-graded judges, Jeanne Begej, Wendy Clucas and Pam Hewinson. all of Canterbury, is being held in conjunction with the national figure skating championships. ANOTHER AUSTRALIAN rugby side is to visit New Zealand this month. The Australian secondary schools’ representatives will have matches against Northern Regions (at Pukehohe on September 12), South Island schools (Dunedin, September 15) and New Zealand schools (Wellington, September 19). The national schools teams have met twice before, for a 7-6 win to New Zealand at Auckland in 1978, and a 21-19 victory to Australia at Canberra last year. TED BROSNAHAN. the cricketer-rugby player whose death at the age of 89 was noted in our columns this week, has another sporting claim to fame. In common with virtually all his Marist rugby club-mates in 1923, he switched to rugby , league and earned representative honours in that code as j well. He was full-back for South in the very first of interisland games, in 1925. when North won, 27-9; and for ( Canterbury against two outstanding touring teams. Canter- . bury lost. 47-10, to the 1924 Great Britain side; and 57-17 and ( 58-10 to the mighty 1925 Queensland team. THE MOST interesting entry for the Eastern Suburbs Rugby i League Club’s seven-a-side tournament at Hampshire Street i tomorrow afternoon comes from the Christchurch Deaf Club. One of the players, Michael Collett, performed successfully i in Eastern’s premier B side this season, and two others, i Malcolm Clausen and Alan Stewart, have rugby league ; experience with Eastern and Linwood, repectively. The Deaf i Club VII will be opposed by rivals from all of Eastern’s 1 intermediate and open grades, and it is also hoped to attract an “oldies entry.” . 1