Reporter’s diary

Press, 10 March 1988, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Cyclist's... THE daredevil cyclist shown bumping down the railway pedestrian bridge steps in yesterday’s "Diary” was not Billy ("Scorcher”) Jones but Jack Arnst, one-time road cycling champion of New Zealand. Mr Les Arnst, of Christchurch, said he recognised his uncle Jack on the bicycle and thought one of the figures standing at the top of the steps was Jack's brother, Dick. The date was between 1906'and 1908. ~. identity SPORTS big part in the life of the Arnst family. The cyclist. Jack, raced successfully in Australia as well as New Zealand. He also beat the South African world cycling champion in a match race. Jack Arnst was killed just before the end of World War I. His elder brother, Dick, was a world champion sculler, shooter, and cyclist. Their nephew, Les Arnst, rode his first race in 1919. and his last race in 1975 at the age of 74. He first tackled the Timaru to Christchurch road race in 1921. It was also his last race, in 1975. when he rode a time 75 minutes faster than his time 54 years earlier. Close encounter MRS Brit Marie Hammarskeold, a Soroptomist from Sweden on a friendship tour of New Zealand, was "bidding local Soroptomists farewell on the Greymouth railway station on Tuesday. Suddenly she rushed along

the platform to embrace her next-door neighbour from home in Sweden. Miss Pia Bergstrom, a Rotary ’Exchange student spending a year in Timaru, had spent a week with a family in Greymouth. The coincidence was taken further when they found their seats on the Tranz-Alpine Express to Christchurch were across the aisle from each other. Mrs Hammarskeold knew that her neighbour was in New Zealand, but did not know where.

More on broomball DETAILS about broomball, the game related to ice hockey, continue to come in. Some of them are contradictory. The view of Robert Carroll, a visitor from New York State, is that it is a “poor man’s hockey. The homemade, improvised, outdoor rink is smaller, the boundaries often marked with a low snow mound. The puck is a rubber ball about 13cm in diameter.” Mr Carroll said the sticks

used for games on Lake Champlain in his home state are made from ordinary household brooms. The straws are cut short and the stub wrapped with tape. “Sometimes the goalie wears protective equipment but no-one else does. Players are on their honour, and no referees are used. When the weather does not co-oper-ate and the lakes and ponds are not frozen, the game goes on anyway. Played on a wet field, it is then dubbed mudball.” Spaced out A Christchurch man who bought a typewriter was intrigued to read on the accompanying sheet: “We certify herewith that this portable typewriter has been made of the best materials by proven spacialists using modern production methods.” That seems reasonable. Space technicians would be unlikely to use anything but modern methods.