Reporter’s diary

Press, 23 February 1989, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Many happy

returns HAPPY 115th birthday to the game of sphairistike which is one of the most popular modern sports for professionals and amateurs alike. Sphairiswotsit, you cry? Very well, then, lawn tennis. The game, which evolved from a French twelfth and thirteenth century handball game called jeu de paume, was invented by a Major Walter Wingfield, of North Wales, and patented on February 23, 1874. In a letter in “Field” on March 21, 1874, G. D. Fitzgerald wrote: “I have lately seen a new game played which will be a great acquisition as an out-of-door amusement at country houses. The game is called Sphairistike, or lawn tennis.” The name never (surprise, surprise) caught on, although the game definitely did, and it soon became the more memorable lawn tennis. Cheque's in the mail TODAY’S success story: Yes, another triumph for New Zealand Post, who

with a bold display of efficiency delivered a letter in Hamilton, two years after it was posted — in Hamilton. The Press Association reported that the letter, which contained a cheque for dental work had been posted by Mrs Anne Kalnins on February 28, 1987, and arrived at the dentist’s last week.

Out of the mouths ACCORDING to the “Sydney Morning Herald,” one Australian has learned not to rely on his offspring to keep him up to date with the progress of cricket matches. He missed hearing Border’s dismissal so asked his four-year-old son how the Australian captain got out. "He went up the steps between the chairs,” was the obvious reply. Rangi Ruru uniform CALLING old girls of Rangi Ruru: has anyone still got one of those oftbattered, well-travelled navy-blue felt hats, which were part of the school winter uniform until

By

1968? Or perhaps an even more elusive sample of blue bloomers, which were used for sportswear for many years, still lurks in someone’s drawer at home. If you have, Mrs Lesley Wyles (phone 844351) would like to hear from you. The school uniform through the ages will be shown in a static display of memorabilia and in a fashion parade during Rangi Ruru’s centenary, March 8 to 12.

Coal shovelling... MR Piet Groot is listed in the “Guinness Book of Records” as the world record holder for shovelling coal — 29.4 seconds to fill a half-ton hopper at the Inangahua A. and P. Show, 1985. Mr Groot cannot come to the Belfast Country Fair this weekend, but 10 other West Coasters will compete in what the organiser, Mr Sam Hanafin, says will be one of the few times that a “real” coal-shovelling contest takes place outside the coal towns of Huntly, Reefton and Westport. Special equipment, in the form of a huge set of scales, has been brought from the coast for

the event. Former miners now living this side of them thar hills are challenged to have a go and show they haven’t gone soft.

... for cot death research THE coal-shovelling contest, scheduled for 2 p.m. this Saturday, is of course only one of the many attractions at the two-day Belfast fair. The event has been organised by the Belfast Golden Oldies Rugby Team, in conjunction with the Cot Death Fellowship. The venue is Blakes Road, off Belfast Road, behind the freezing works.

Tho thorry to hear it BELATEDLY we report on a menswear shop in Riccarton which apparently had a sign in its window in the last weeks of operation which read: “We’re clothing.” Ofcourseur

TWO positive sightings in Christchurch of the Morris Minor (bow when you say that) with the registration plate: "IMACAR.” —Jenny Setchell.