THE SPORTING WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 14512, 2 November 1910, Page 4

THE SPORTING WORLD

[From Our London Correspondent.] September 16. ATHLETICS. Sportsmen generally will be sorry to hear that ono of the best sprinters the British Empire has had for a long time has decided to embrace professionalism. This is R. E. Walker, of Natal, who jumped into fame by sending up the British flag as a signal of his victory in the 100 metres race at the Olympic Games two years ago. He followed this up by winning the English championship at 100 yards in 1909, and only just missed the honor again this year. Walker aims at a match with J. Donaldson, of Australia, for the ICO yards championship, and favors Johannesburg as the venue. After that his plans are somewhat unsettled, but ho may run the winner of the Holway v. Eastman match. He also talks of a trip to Australia and the United States, and matches with Postle and Cartmell. While ono naturally feels sorry that such a nice little fellow and good sprinter as Walker has decided to leave the amateur ranks, he cannot bo blamed for looking to the main chance. He has naturally wasted some valuable time through running (from a business point of view) during the last three years, and the bait of possibly £I,OOO or more must bo a big temptation. Such a sura might easily start a young man on a sound business career, and everyone will wish Walker success, Walker won the Olympic short sprint (100 yds) in 10$ sec, a very slight south wind being against him. He also had the worst station, being next to the turf, where the track was naturally looser through the many runners who had been over that portion. Judged on his English form, ho is a sound lOsec man for 100 yds when at his best. This is a long way below the time Donaldson accomplished when beating Postle and Holway at Johannesburg last spring, though the light atmosphere of the Transvaal is t ertainly better for sprinting than the conditions usually prevailing in this country. It will bo necessary for Walker to improve to stand any chance against Donaldson, Holway, and Poetic at 100 or 120 yards, or against Cartmell at 220. Ho is only twenty-one and a-half rears of age, however, and providing ho lakes real care of himself ho ought to come on a lot yet. The writer knows for a fact that the South African was really ill during the winter, but his running in July proved he has started to come back to his best form. The “ going over ” of Walker, on top of the like action of A. E. Wood and W. T. Ciarke (Marathon runner) lately, shows what a great future there is for pedeistrianism if only some efficient body will take up proper control. With Walker no longer available, and Bobby Kerr (of Canada) nearing the end of his career, one wonders where the British Empire will find a real champion eprinter for the nest Olympiad. The English governing Association docs nothing to encourage talent beyond promoting an annual championship, and it is no wonder wo have so few “ even ” timers in England. The most promising athlete about at present is V. H. D'Arcy, of the Polytechnic Harriers, who has improver! wonderfully this season. Ho won the level “ 100 ” at the South London Harriers’ sports last Saturday, and was “ clocked ” to do lOsec. The course was grass, in splendid condition, with a slight rise for twenty yards and then a slight fall for eighty yards That D’Arcy is an even-timer for 100 yards the writer * doubts, but ho may possibly reach that high standard when he improves his starting. Providing all goes well with him, ho may prove a worthy represents- ( tive of the Old Country by 1912. ; ( Another good performance at Kennington Oval last Saturday was G. W. Haley’s win in the level 440 yds. He won nicely | by 2yds from L. J. Do B. Reed (champion) in which for a man who has only lately taken up the distance is very good indeed. WRESTLING. It was hoped that the Gama v. Zbysco match at the Stadium last Saturday would give a further fillip to the game. Tho tactics of Zbysco, lowever, spoilt the affair and put a damper on things generally. The big ratn simply lay on his chest for 2£ hours and acted on the defen sivo, evidently desiring to tire out his rival. The public called on Zbysco to do some work repeatedly, but he took no notice, and finally tho referee ordered an abandonment for a week. Since then Zbysco has announced that he cannot meet Gama tomorrow, as tho illness of his mother demands his return to his home. Gama will thus win by default —a very unsatisfactory state of things. ROWING. E. Barry is back in London again, and looking very well after his trip to South Africa, He says he was never feeling quite right while on the Zambesi, and that the change of living upset him considerably. He also expresses tho hope of having a return match with Arnst on the Thames. The most pleasing statement byBarry is his opinion of nis conqueror, whom he terms “ a real good sport,” who will be very popular should he come to England, li Barry and Arnst row on the Thames it will do tho sport a lot of good, and after the hard fight Barry gave Arnst on the Zambesi ho ought to make a closer race of it when at home. FOOTBALL. Splendid gates were a feature of last t Saturday’s big football matches, and the - popularity of tho “ Soccer ” game is un--1 deniable. Some of the crack teams are I taking considerable time to find their form, I Aston Villa (League champions), for ini stance, not yet having won a match, and I only picked up one point in two engagel ments. Newcastle United, the cup holders, ' is another crack team which has com- | menced badly, but after losing two games : the club managed to beat Oldham (a promoted team) on the latter’s ground. Only Sunderland has earned the highest possible number of points among First League teams, while Nottingham Forest, Notts County, Bradford, and .Middlesbrough r.ro tho only other unbeaten (teams. Turning to the doings of the Second Division teams, Chelsea accomplished a very smart performance by beating Barnsley at Stamford Bridge by 5 goals to 0. It will be recalled that the beaten side met ' Newcastle in tho final for tho F.A. cup last April, and tho Yorkshireraen are hard to beat, consequently the pronounced win I of Chelsea leads the supporters of that I team to hope tho First Division will bo i regained. j CRICKET. _ Fine batting by P. F. Warner and brilliant bowling by* Hirst led to the defeat of the M.C.C. South African team by a side got together by Lord Londosborough for the conclusion of the Scarborough festival. Only 1 run represented the difference after the first innings, and the scratch side then made 216, so that the tourists had no impossible tusk, the wicket being splendid, j Hirst, however, took seven wickets for 28 ' runs, so that the total only amounted to 120. The season was brought to a close yesterday with tho Kent v. Rest of England match. Grand weather prevailed on the first and second days, but the third day’s play was marred by rain, and tho fourth by dull weather and bad light. P. F. Warner again batted well, Iris 126 being the feature of the first innings of the Rest. Mead (of Hants, 63) and Sharp were the nest highest scorers, the total reaching 401. Hirst and Buckenham proved a tough proI position to the Kent batsmen, and the first 1 effort of the champion county stopped at ! 218, of which K. L. Hutchings made 81. | Going in again, the Rest made 247 for six, j and then applied the closure. Sharp and • Hobbs were the most successful, tho former | scoring 103 not out, and the Surrey crack I 61, the good form of these “test” batsmen | being pleasing. The attack of the Rest proved too good I for the Kent men in their second innings, ! which only produced 189 runs, the scratch side thus winning easily. Hutchings again , topped tho score sheet with 48, and his i was a nice innings, one hit for 6 to the Eavilion arousing great enthusiasm. Hirst owled well, taking three wickets for 39, and Smith claimed five victims for 93. IN GENERAL. During the course of the International Water Polo natch between Wales and * ‘Scotland, at Newport, the homo captain

hurt his shoulder and had to retire. Tho visitors then withdrew one of their players the sporting action of the Scotchmen giving much pleasure. The game proved an oven one, and ended with the scores 2 all. H. Vardon and J. Braid met in a couple of 18-hole matches (match and medal play! on the Williarawood course, near Glasgow, a few days since. Vardon showed splendid form, and won both matches, creating a new course record of 72 in the morning Inman beat Diggle by no fewer than 2,651 points in their match of 16,000 up, but the Reece and Harverson affair was much closer, tho latter only winning by 16,000 to 15,850. J. Price won a fifteen miles running match at Gos'orth on Saturday in lb 21min, which is a best on record for an English professional. W. T. Clarke, another examateur, was 600 yds behind, with C. W Gardiner third. C. Dawson has fully recovered his eyesight, which he attributes to Christian science. Tyldeslcy finishes up at the head of thr batting averages with figures of 46.22, and J. T. Hcarne tops the bowling table with 119 wickets at a cost of 12.79 each. Bombardier Wells knocked out Sergcanl Sunshine in the sixth round of their contest last evening, after being nearly beaten himself in the third round.