SIDELINES

Press, 13 March 1985, Page 40

SIDELINES

IT WAS not so long ago that Christchurch bowlers had no alternative but to leave town if they wanted tournament play over the Easter week-end. But then the seaside clubs came together to establish the Pegasus tournament and, more recently, Burnside has provided something on the other side of town with its Nor’wester event. This year the Spreydon and Hoon Hay clubs have joined forces to cater for bowlers on the south side of the city. Entries are still being taken for this new tournament, which will run for three days starting on April 5.

NEW ZEALAND’S rugby league representatives will have five matches in France later this year, in addition to the tests at Marseilles (November 24) and Narbonne (December 8). The other games, probably against combined selections, are in Paris (November 20), Carcassonne (November 27), Toulouse (November 29), Perpignan (December 1) and Bordeaux (December 4). The itinerary has been approved by the N.Z.R.L., which is still waiting for the British administration to forward its list of games and venues for the tour.

CHARLIE DEMPSEY, the chairman of the New Zealand Football Association, has another string to his soccer bow. He has been appointed to the world youth championship committee, by F.1.F.A., the sport’s governing body. The appointment of the Scottish-born Mr Dempsey, New Zealand’s most influential soccer administrator, gives the Oceania Confederation, of which he is president, its first direct representation on a full F.I.F.A. committee.

THE TWO CATCHES taken by David Stead for Riccarton against Lancaster Park A last Saturday took his first grade career total to 150. He began the season on 141, and since then has passed Walter Hadlee (145), Brian Hastings (147) and lan Cromb (148). The only players ahead of Stead are Peter Wallace (159), who retired at the end of last summer, and the sprightly Lancaster Park veteran, Bruce Irving, who has extended his provincial inter-club record to 167.

FOR 21 years Eric King has served the Marist senior rugby team as baggageman and general helper. In all this time he has missed only three games and he must have felt the frustrations as much as anyone as Marist has lost three grand finals in the last four years. But last Saturday Mr King got a taste of being linked to a championship-winning side. This summer he has been the Marist senior cricket team’s most loyal supporter, never missing a game and willingly lending a hand whenever required. Always an optimist, Mr King said he was looking forward to a Marist rugby-cricket double this year after the cricket team had made sure of its title at Elmwood Park last Saturday.