SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 10933, 16 May 1899, Page 3

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

Mr Stoddart, tho famous Middlesex cricketer, who captained the last English teaim which visited Australia, only completed his thirty-fifth year a few weeks ago, so that, though giving up cricket, he has not yet passed his prime. If Stoddart is going to give himself up to golf, as reported, ha will assuredly become a prominent figure on the links, for he is one of the most all-round Sportsmen of his generation. That he is a brilliant exponent of Rugby football—one of the smartest of three-quarters—everyone knows, for he has won international honors ; but it is not so generally known that he is also a keen hockey player, a good shot, and a fine horseman, while he is one of the best amateur billiard players of the day. Our London correspondent, writing at the beginning of April, said, in reference to the Towns-Barry match : been training at Putney under the mentorship of his friend Tom Sullivan, is in excellent health, and is confident of being able to turn the tables on Barry, whose victory over him last September was, Towns thinks', entirely due to the fact that his boat became ■waterlogged through injuries received from driftwood. The London man is, however, equally confident of victory, and declares himself to be a far better man than when Towns beat him by half a length in 1897, after one of the toughest races ever seen on the Thames. A fortnight after Towns and Barry settle the question of supremacy Tom Sullivan and William Haines, of Old Windsor, will scull over the same course for £2OO a. side. Sullivan has put on a lot of superfluous flesh since he so easily defeated Sam Emmett, and, in spite of a good deal of double sculling exercise with Mr Spencer Gollan during the winter and daily spins with Towns during the past week, is still much above his rowing weight. He has, however,-plenty of time to get fit, and will, I think, beat Haines, who, judging by his recent form in his match with Wray on the Tyne, is many removes from the first class. ” The cricketing honor of the colony has been redeemed, and the affect of the disastrous visit to Australia of the New Zealanders has been Softened. A .match New Zealand v. Australia, played on the Waikare in the middle of the lonely Tasman Sea on the vessel’s last trip to Sydney, was brilliantly won by the Maorilanders. According to the ‘New Zealand Times,’ the victors were lead in by the Hon. J. G. Ward, ‘ and an old English player captained the Australians. Marter was top scorer in each innings for the New Zealanders, but the victory was really due to the splendid bowling of Carson, second engineer (a. survivor of the Wairarapa wreck, and an old Grange player). The Cornstalks took their beating badly, and one of them, a wealthy Victorian, actually wanted to fight it all over again “ on the turf,” but the New Zealanders were content with their victory “at sea.” Such a game, it may be imagined, created great excitement on the floating city. A Sydney cable states that Mr Firth has declined to resume the treasurership of the New South Wales Cricket Association, giving the urgency of private business as the reason.