THE SPORTING WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 14554, 1 May 1911, Page 6

THE SPORTING WORLD

[From Oue Lokdon CoaaispoNDENi.] March 24. WELSH ATHLETIC CHAMPIONS. Wales took part in many international football matches before attaining tho • "nt high standard on the "Rug;. ■ d " Soccer " field. Much the eai; : of thing is going on in regard to i:oss-country running, and in spite of the fact that the Welsh team is badly beaten each year, Taffy still goes ou supporting tho international race. This is the right spirit, and the man, club, or country' who can take defeat without growing discouraged is sure to attain success at some time. Wales will be the scene of this season's international cross-country race, which promises to be more exerting than usual. Being at home will give the Welshmen some small advantage, and judging by the result of the Welsh championship last Saturday, the home team will be a level one. Saturday's race ended in favor of E. Paul, of Cwmbran, and the sixth man reached the winning post within 65sec of Paul, consequently the Welsh team wll not have a long " tail." —Good Runners. — England will have to take the field without E. S. Neave, the Southern champion and last year's National winner, who does not feel nqpual to running. This will even up matters considerably and make the race more open. Ireland appears to have a good team, and in Scrgt. O'Neill and F. J. Rider, possesses two splendid runners, who will go near taking premier honors. A. E. Wood, now a professional, only just beat O'Neill last year, the Irishman subsequently winning the ten-mile flat championship. Franco also has a chance for individual honors with two such fliers as J. Keyscr and P. Bouin in the field. Tho latter has already run up for the international race, and K<\ysor was second to Neave in the National of last yen r. England's best man is F. S. Hibbins, the new National champion, and the writer thinks he will prove equal to beating the field, in spite of his being new at I tho game. —Professional Running.— Some of the best long-distance runners England and Ireland can produce at the present time toed the line in a professional Marathon race at Dublin a few days since. The event was decided at tho Rotunda Skating Rink, twelve laps to the mile, so that tho winner accomplished a real good performance under tho euronmstanoe. W. T. Clarke, of England, showed the way for about eighteen miles, when P. White, of Dublin challenged the winner, and eventually won readily in 2h 37inin 3oscc—not bad time for 26m 36oyds on a small track. Clarke finished tho race in 2h SSmin 22soc, and then came J. AV. Kitchener, of England. C. AV. Gardiner, who boat Dorando at the Albert Hall about eighteen months ago, ran well for a time, but gave up at twentyone miles. BOXING. International boxing matches are quite the rage now, and it is surprising bow much more interest the public take in bouts when the princitials represent different nationalities. Tho event of the week was tho Sid Burns v. Ray Branson, and the 11. Duncan v. J. Clabby matches at Olympia on Wednesday. Each was at twenty rounds, the first-named match giving most sport. Burns was a hotter boxer than the American, but the visitor made up for this bv bis harder hitting. Burns, however, took the punishment well and looted a winner on points, when Branson was disqualified in the nineteenth ro""d I'"'- hitting low. The other bout was far from satisfactory, tho men resembling a pair of goats having a butting match for most of tho time. Clabbv showed no form to warrant one thinking he has any nretensions for middle-weight championship honors, and had Duncan displayed more enterprise, the Britisher would not have had sn much the worst of it during two-thirds of the contest. Towards the end Duncan woke up and fought back, with the rosHt that he did much hotter, though Clabby was quite entitled to the verdict. —Aggressiveness and Otherwise. — A notable feature of the matches was the aggressiveness of the Americans nnd the look of it in the Bririsho'-s. Invariably it was the visitors who did t'.e attacking, whilst the homo boxer was content to act on the defensive. The iior"l effect of being the aggressor ■s considerable, and our boxers must leara to r~cogi-is.'» that the best defence is a good attack. The old frame of boxing f"r noints is all right for amateurs, but it does not pay when engaging in a serious international match. Our men p.re often nothing but ,! tappers," whilst the Americans hi; as though they meant it, and this often I to the defeat of the moro scien- I title hover. ;

[ BILLIARDS. „ 1 j The outstandng event of tho weel i in tho billiard world was the wonderj ful unfinished break of 2,196 by Georgj Gray. This he made at the rate cl about 7imiu for each 100, and the chief characteristic of the break was tho Aus? tralian's calmness. Whilst the companj was cheering itself hoarse over tha beating of the old record (1,576) anq tho pjissing of the second thousand; Gray appeared quite unconcerned. Hq is a real marvel, and after he has had a few months' practice with ivory balh] ho will probably show as much superi. i ority over all our best as he has cloafi I with composite halls. There lias boon a lot of talk abouj a match between Gray and Stevensoq with ivory balls, and the Enslisbma* says ho is willing to play in May, bir| Gray names September as a suitably time to decide the question. It is hardly likely Gray will come straight off matches with crystalate balls and, tackle Stevenson with ivory. A wa.l out of the difficulty would be for tbq rivals to contest half a match witij ivory and the other half with composite balls, luman also wants to play Gray, and the latter says the Londoner can have two matches, one with ivory and one with composite balls. On form it does not look as though Storenson or luman stand even an outside chance against Gray, and the writer expects to see the youth conceding our best a third of the game before very much longer. In man managed to beat Stevenson in their heat of the Hurroughs-YYatts tournament though the scratch man took the lead on the afternoon of tho final day. Inman would not be shaken off, however, and by making a nice break near the finish, ho ran out tha winner by a little over 300 points. RUGBY FOOTBALL. The Scottish Rugby men lived up to traditions in the match against England, and in spite of beatings by France, Wales, and Ireland, managed to givo their rivals a real good game for the famous Calcutta Cup at Twickenham on Saturday. It w-as th« thirty-eighth match of tlie series, and tho victory (13 points to 8) of the home side broke the sequence of Scottish wins in England since 1897. Tho Scottish selectors made several changes from the side which met Ireland, and the alterations led to good. Scotland held hef own forward, and also at half until Henderson hurt his shoulder and had to go full-back. It was at three-quar-ters that the home side were superior to the Scots, .the home players, being always looking for opportunities to attack, but the Scottish " threes " stood in a straight line and were obviously on tho defensive. England looked like winning by a good margin untd time was nearly up, when a pass from' Ponlton to Birkett went wrong, the ball bouncing off the latter's shoulder to Simpson. The Scottish centre was off like a flash, and punting over the fullback's head, regained possession, and scored between the posts—a fine bit nf play. It may bo added that A. D. Gotley, who captained the winning side, played splendidly, which must be satisfactory to him on the eve of his departure for Rhodesia. THE TURF.

Mcrcutio, the winner of the Lincolnshire Handicap, was splendidly ridden by Trigg, who nursed his mount nicely whilst Brandimintine was out on his own and threatening to bring off a 66 to 1 chance. At the right moment, however, Trigg called on Mercutio, and the issue was soon settled. Mr C. Hibbert, the owner of the winner, is a big bookmaker, and he is said to have won £"20,000 over the race, as in addition to backing his own, he fielded against other horses, one of his bets being £14,000 to £2,000 against Spanish Prince.

i Lutteur 111., favorite for the Grand i ?vV ; -H, easily won the Open SteepleI c)::-. .' at Hurst Park on Saturday. He j gaw his backers a fright, however, as he misjudged one of the fences and pecked badly. This threw Parfrement ou to tho horse's nock, but the jockey managed to push himself hack into the saddle, Lutteur 111. finally winning nicely. Tho mishap did not make any difference to the support of Lutteur for the National; indeed, it was thought it would make him careful and show greater respect for the Ainjiroo fences. r Judging from what happened~pr the.' big nice to-day, it would appear as though Lutteur IH. has lost his old ability as a safe jumper, for his chance was extinguished before he had gone more than half way by a fall. Tho favorite was not alone in this, for only four of the twenty-six starters finished the course—strong proof of the trying nature of the Aintree Mr F. Bibby ran both Caubeen and Glenside, the former being the favorite of the two. In spite of Glenside being on tho sick list last week, he proved the best of the pair in the race, and came in an easy winner by twenty lengths. It was hardly a popular win, the downfall or tho favorites being disappointing. LV GENERAL. Firing Fox, for which M. Blanc gave 37,500 guineas on the death of the late Duke of AVcstminster. has just died at the .Tardy stud. The borsc won £40,006 during his two racing seasons, and after going to the srwd begat such fliers at Ajax, Adam, Jardy, and Aal d'Or. A German swimmer named Pontz has just set up a new world's hank-stroke record of 2min 50 3-ssec for 200 metres. Cacklor broke a bono in his fore-log whilst having a gallop at Sandown last Saturday, consequently Mr Smith had to scratch his second string, as well as Jerry M., from the Grand National—a hard piece of luck. The success of Capt. A. C. C. Luther and Mr 0. E. D. King against Capt. B. Macnaughton and Capt. C. E. Reynard in the Military Doubles Racquets Championship yesterday entitles the Yorkshire Light Infantry pair to meet Major J. Pnckle and Capt. A. Bcrger, Army Service Corps, in the challenge round.