DRAUGHTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1912, Page 2

DRAUGHTS.

CHAMPIONSHIP OF NEW ZEALAND. ! The tournament to decide the, Draughts Championship of New Zealand will be commenced on Friday next in, the rooms of the Wellington Working Men's Club. The club's president, Mr. E. Mace, is to open the tournament at 2 p.m. sharp. It is expected that there will be about sixteen competitors, hailing from all parts of the' Dominion. As, however, entries do not close till 9 p.m. on Thursday next this number may be exceeded. The play in this tourney will abo count for the sealed handicap event, as was, the case at Auckland two years ago. . A further committee meeting was held on Monday evening, Mr. W. Q. Lightfoot (chairman, of the club's chese and draughts section) presiding over a large attendance. He announced, amidst applause, that Messrs. Speight and Co., of Dunedin, had kindly donated a handsome silver cup for this championship contest, to replace the cup won outright at Dunedin a year ago by Mr. Penman, of Huntly (the present champion of Au6- > trala^ia). The cup was on view at the meeting^ and was greatly admired. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded tb the donors for this handsome trophy. Messrs. Burgess, Wright, and James Wikon were appointed handicappers, .and Mr. H. G. Albertson referee. Reports handed in. show that a good number of tickets are being sold ; the -half' crown season tickets are more in demand than the one-shilling "day tickets." The hours of play are from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The' players will thus be free in the mornings. With so many strong players competing the result should be a very open question. , The chances of Mr. Boreham (of Dunedin, Jbhe ex-champion of Australia), are naturally most fancied,, seeing that tho present champion, Mr. Penman, is spending a long holiday in Scotland. Others again maintain that Mr. Boreham's rapid advance in chesshas slackened his interest in draughts somewhat, ,and that, in consequence, Messrs. Hilliker (Dunedin), Calderwood (Huntly), Bruce (New Plymouth), and Messrs. Leggatt and "Erickson (Wellington) will be found in a neck-and-neck race for the championship when the contest is in its final stages. It is fourteen years since the -New Zealand draughts championship was fought out in thi6 city, and it is therefore not difficult to account for the exceptional interest that is being taken in the present contest, the. success of which seems, well ' assured. '