SWIMMING

Evening Star, Issue 21013, 29 January 1932, Page 5

SWIMMING

NOTES AND NEWS

[By Hooker.]

FIXTURES

January 30.—Kiwi Club’s harbour race.

January 31. Sagar Cup competition, at St. Clair. February 2.—Otago Centre’s fourth carnival.

. February 6.—Otago Centre’s Batt Cup harbour race. February 13, 15, 16, and 17.—New Zealand national championships, at Timaru.

Club Hours.—Monday: St. Clair Life Saving Club , and St. Kilda Life Saving Club; Tuesdays and _Thursdays, Kiwi Amateur Swimming Club; Fridays and Saturdays, Dunedin Amateur Swimming Club. Club hours are at the Municipal Baths from 8.45 to 9.45 p.m.

TO-MORROW’S HARBOUR RACE. The water' has not been sufficiently warm lately to entice many swimmers to do a lot of training in the harbour, and the competitors in the Kiwi Club’s harbour swim to-morrow afternoon are likely to have an arduous swim, although the course is only one mile. The race will commence at 2, and will be swum over _ a triangular course, starting and finishing at the Harbour Board punt. Added interest will be given to the contest by reason of the fact that it will mark the first appearance of the intermediate champion, Reg. Geddes, in an open-water distance event. Geddes has the stamina and is well adapted for distance swimming, and it seems likely that he will be well in the running for fastest time honours. Opposition ip this direction will be forthcoming from Arthur Thomas (who registered fastest time last year), M. Taylor (a solid and consistent performer), and W. Hunter (last year’s Fogg Cup winner), while among the other garters will be P. E. Mathieson (who swam exceedingly well last season and may be hard to beat to-mor-row), Miss P. Taylor (who has not failed to finish in any harbour race that she has contested), B. Leslie, (an improving young swimmer), Miss J. Taylor (who was fourth in last year’s race), Miss P. Lang (who has done well in the club and centre harbour races in past years), Miss M. Boulton (who has shown herself to be one of the most promising of the club’s ladies this season), and D. Pickard (one of the most likely of the club’s new members). There will he about a dozen starters! and given good weather and favourable conditions, an interesting race should be witnessed.

CENTRE’S FOURTH CARNIVAL. With a view to assisting in raising funds for the despatch of the Otago seniors to the National Championships at Timaru, the Otago Centre is staging its fourth carnival of the season at the Municipal Baths on Tuesday night next, and some keen racing and interesting competition should be witnessed. Among the events to be decided is the 220 yards Otago men’s backstroke championship, among the starters for which will be the present champion, C. Durand, H. Isaacs, F. Pearson (who registered smart time for the 100 yards at the Kiwi carnival recently), and J. Durand. The intermediate girls’ diving championship will also be decided, and this event will resolve itself into a tussle between Misses 0, Ferguson and M. Bewley. A novel event will be the eight-a-side relay • championship of Otago, in which teams froth the Dunedin, Kiwi, and St. Clair Clubs will be entered. Dunedin has an unbeaten record in both championship and handicap events this season, and the club is able to draw on so well balanced a team that it should be hard to beat in the eight-a-side race as well. The 50 yards handicap has drawn a good entry, and the 33J yards handicap under 17 will mark the appearance of most of those youngsters who performed so well in Wellington last week. The diving handicap has attracted the usual good nominations, and a 66§ yards backstroke handicap and 100 yards interclub handicap has already attracted good support. Entries will dose tonight.

SURF COMPETITION AT ST. CLAIR The season’s activities have been well maintained at St. Clair, and on Sunday the annual life saving competition for the Sagar Cup will be put through More than ordinary interest attaches to this year’s contest by reason of the fact that not only will four teams be entered by the St. Clair Life Saying Club, but the newly formed St._ Knda Life’Saving Club, which is seeking affiliation with the Otago Centre will have two teams in the field, and the Oreti Surf and Life Saving Club is also sending up a team from Invercargill. Given good conditions, the competition should be worth witnessing. SPLASHES. The New Zealand intermediate and junior championship meeting at Wellington was the forgathering ground (f quite a number of those who have been prominent, both administrative point of view, in doimnion swimming over a long period or years. The officials present included Mr W. E. D. Bishop, president of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association for many years; .Mr Charlie Bryant, wht has acted as starter at championship meetings for many years past and whose tact and efficiency invariably bring about good despatches; Mr Pete Coira, one of the mainstays of the Wellington Centre, and a man whoso opinions carry a lot of weight, especially in regard to diving.- The same applies to Mr Len Annand, who has been attending championships regularly longer than any of the others, and whose services to the sport are recognised throughout the dominion. A member of Canterbury’s winning water polo team for something like eleven years, he has done ns much as anyone in Qanterbury on the administrative side, as ho served on the Canterbury Centre for twenty-one years, and is now a member of the council.

As a coach, both, of diving and swimming, he is, of course, well known. Representing the Wanganui Centre was Mr Claude Bullivant, another old Canterbury polo star, whose interest nowadays centres on the doings of his son, a most -promising intermediate swimmer. Among the Wellington officials, too, are quite a few who were well known in the water polo world of another period. * The brilliance of Roy Calder, ex-New Zealand champion diver, has always been recognised here, and it was gratifying during the course of the intermediate and junior championships at Wellington to hear bestowed on the Otago man very high praise by Mr P. Coira in making some general remarks on diving to the public. Mr Coira said that Calder was undoubteldy “ the best diver New Zealand had produced, and was so consistent that he was convinced that the Empire Games representative would not disgrace himself in any field of international divers in the world. The speaker said that he was satisfied that if New had the facilities for rigid platform diving the time would come when the dominion would turn out divers fit to compete anywhere in the world. An enjoyable sideline to the championship meeting at Lower Hutt was a water polo match between teams drawn from the Otago swimmers and one representing the Hutt Cluft. Hutt was strengthened by the inclusion of Dick Pelham, the ex-New Zealand 440yds champion, but the game was well contested throughout, Hutt winning by 4 goals to 3. .. Should the intermediate and junior championships be retained as a separate meeting, competition is likely to bo keen for the right to stage next year s gathering. Otago Centre has already made application, and it was stated in Wellington last week that Canterbury, Nelson, and Southland Centres would also probably be applying. Entries for the Otago Centre s Batt Cup harbour race close to-morrow. By this week’s mail from Sydney came some clippings from Len Wright, well-known Otago sporting enthusiast, who saw Andrew Charlton in action at the Manly baths in some of his races against Noel Ryan before a huge attendance, and according to one paper, Charlton swam in the 880yds championship heat as well as ever ho did, easily winning in lOmin 38sec, only 6sec slower than his previous best in Australia. Charlton was like a machine, his crisp strokes hardly raising a splash. Rvan’s time in the heat was lOmin 41 l-ssec. In the final Charlton did lOmin 22sec, as against Ryan s lOmin 45 l-ssec. The previous Australiau record was Arne Borg’s 10mm 26isec. Charlton left the 220yds behind in 2min 24 2-ssec, and the 440yds in smin 4 l-ssec, Ryan’s time for the 440yds being smin Csec. _ The world s half-mile record was lOmin 20 2-sscc, to the credit of Clarence Crahhe. At the same meeting New Zealander W. Cameron was a yard ahead halfway through the 100yds New South Wales championship, but he bumped the corks and dropped back, finishing out of a place, P. Hooper winning in 5G 2-sscc.