SIDELINES

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 16

SIDELINES

GRAEME ANDERSON, the former Nelson Bays referee who quickly gained recognition when he moved to Christchurch last winter, is clearly a referee with a U future Recently the Canterbury Rugby Union had to K nominate its top two or three referees for national » appointments. Tom Doocey retains the top spot, but i/ bracketed together as the No. 2s are Alan Bateman, who F was second to Mr Doocey on the Canterbury “big five” panel last year, and Mr Anderson. SEVERAL HUNDRED BOYS will once again receive specialist rugby coaching at Rugby Park next week when the Cantabrians club holds its annual May holidays clinic. More than 50 coaches and prominent players, including most of the Canterbury squad, will carry out a programme drawn up by Jerry Rowberry. One coach who might be taking a few notes of his own is David Clark, a Queenslander who will be visiting Christchurch this week-end with his state’s team and is staying on for the clinic. The three-day clinic will begin on Monday and, in a reversal of past years, older boys, from 14 to 16, will attend in the mornings and younger ones, 12 and 13, in the afternoons. IF SHAUN EDWARDS is included in the Wigan team to oppose Widnes this week-end he will become, by 48 days, the youngest player to appear in a British rugby league Challenge Cup final at Wembley Stadium. Edwards, aged 17, is the son of Jackie Edwards, himself an outstanding young, footballer with Warrington before his career was cut short by injury. Shaun Edwards signed for Wigan when still only 16, that club beating several others in a race to enlist the services of the England schoolboys rugby league and rugby union captain. The youngest previous Wembley finalist was Reg Lloyd, Keighley’s left wing against Widnes in 1937. THE INFLUX of three Kiwis, Mark Broadhurst, Gary Prohm and Gordon Smith, has been a major factor in Hull Kingston Rovers winning the British rugby league championship. It has been a long time between celebratory drinks — Hull K.R. previously won the round-robin title in 1923 and 1925. ALL COMPETITORS at the Olympic Games amateur boxing tournament in Los Angeles will be required to wear headgear. The historic decision was made at a recent meeting of the International Amateur Boxing Association, after which the president, Colonel Don Hull, predicted that the professional side of the code would eventually bring in similar legislation. The association’s action is reported to have ended a bitter struggle between Western nations, which wanted headgear introduced, and their Eastern counterparts. MORE NEW NAMES will be included in the British rugby league programme next season. In the wake of Fulham, Kent, Carlisle and Cardiff, entries have been accepted from Sheffield and Mansfield for the winter of 1985. Sheffield is to be based at Owlerton, a speedway and greyhound racing stadium, and Mansfield will share Field Mill, the ground of the Mansfield Town soccer club. A CANTERBURY ATHLETE, Shirley Peterson, set a world record in the women’s 55 age group for the 200 m at the Oceania veterans championships in Canberra last week. Her time of 29.4 s was well inside the previous record of 30.05 s set by the West German, Liesi Seuberich, in 1982.