TOPICAL TATTLE

Evening Star, Issue 21632, 30 January 1934, Page 4

TOPICAL TATTLE

NOTES FROM EVERYWHERE “ I consider A. E. Relf the best professional coach who ever came to New Zealand,” said Mr D. Hay, in responding to the toast of “Old Stalwarts” at the jubilee smoke concert of the Auckland Cricket Association recently. “He was a fine player and possessed a great personality, and much credit is due to him for the present standard of the game in Auckland.” Mr Hay was manager of the New Zealand team, which toured England in 1927. • • • • A correspondent asks for the world’s long jump record. It is 26ft 2|in, and was established by Chuhei Nambu at Tokio a year or two ago. The Japanese athlete also holds the world’s record for the hop, step, and jump of 51ft 7in. • • » » Athletics in Canterbury suffered a loss recently when A. T. Anderson, the New Zealand 440yds hurdles champion and record holder, left Christchurch to reside in Palmerston North. He will probably be available for Wellington this season (says a northern writer). • • • • From Cape Town comes the news that a suggestion that a British Rugby team should be invited to tour South Africa received scant support at a meeting of the South African Rugby Board. The board agreed, however, to accept an invitation to tour Australia and New Zealand. The tour will not be made before 1937, and then only subject to arrangements which are mutually satisfactory. • • * * An attempt on the New Zealand tenmile track record of 56min 4sec, held by D. Todd since September 23, 1922, will be made by E! C. Brown, the Civil Service and Otago champion long-dis-tance runner, at the Otago amateur athletic championship meeting on Saturday next. • * * + * Although in receipt of six strokes respectively, a British women’s team found that this allowance was not sufficient in the first match of their South African lour, when against the men club champions of the four leading Western Province clubs they were defeated by 3 games to 1. The British players, in their next match, however, showed better form and defeated a Western Province women’s side by 4 games to 0. Miss Diana Fishwick, in the top singles, beat Miss L. Blackwell, the Western Province champion, by 2 and 1. * * ♦ * To the under-arm bowling of Douglas in a second grade A match the Grange second eleven owed its . win largely against University. Two of the University batsmen had been holding Grange up, and after they had been at the wickets for about an hour Douglas resorted to' under-arm in an effort to shift them. He claimed a wicket, and practically won the game for his side. « * • « The feat of E. Downes, a son of Alex. Downes (famous Otago and New Zealand bowler), in taking all ten Dunedin wickets at a cost of 41 runs in the latest series of matches may recall to old-time cricketers the fact that this player’s uncle, T. • Downes, once took ten wickets for 20 when playing for an Otago XIII. against a New Zealand XIII. in 1899. 4 ••# . • Unofficial efforts—including substantial guarantees—with a view to ing four British and four American professionals for an international teams contest during the Melbourne centenary celebrations next November are reported to have been made lately. This action, it seems, was caused by the Victorian Golf Association declining to accede to the request of the United States Professional Golfers’ Association for a guarantee to finance the travelling expenses of a < visiting American team. « « * * The ninth annual report of the Imperial Forestry Institute, Oxford, issued recently, reveals the interesting story of a shot in the dark which may revolutionise the bat . willow industry. Dr J. Burtt Davy collected catkins from a number of willow trees in East Anglia which were thought to be hybrids. While they were being dried before being pressed he noticed that the fluffy seeds were coming out from the seed vessels. He collected them together, and sent them to the Long Asnton research station, and within a shoiffc time of being planted the seedlings were through the ground. They have made abnormally quick growth, despite a dry season, and it is thought that in fourteen years’ time the wood may prove superior to that at present used, -*« * • Mr T. J. Richards, who represented Australia and England at Rugby football, and who also played in South Africa and France, has been spending a holiday in the North Island (says the Auckland ‘Herald’). For the past two years Mr Richards has been located in New' Guinea, where, he says, the game of football is immensely popular. It is played with a Soccer ball, and there are no scrums; in fact, local rules prevail. The matches are played among tribes or mining teams, and the rivalry is so keen that the games usually end up in a quarrel and the intervention of native police becomes necessary. • * * * According to an English paper, a sensation was caused in the north by the announcement that the St. Helens Club had placed three of its leading plavers, Ellaby (the England captain), Hardgrave (the New Zealand international), and Griffin, on the transfer list. It is understood that'a sudden fall in gate receipt? brought about this drastic decision. • » • • “ Few champions are beaten at their best,” said former world’s heavyweight champion, Jack Dempsey, in California last month. “Any champion in his prime is a hard man to beat. How many champions have been beaten in their prime? Not many! It is when a champion is beginning to slip and is getting old that some youngster comes along and kicks him off.” How r true! • # * • Mr P. Webster, of New- Plymouth, a New' Zealand 100. 220, and 440yds track champion over thirty years ago, is still keenly interested in amateur athletics. He is one of the timekeepers of the New' Plymouth Club (says the ‘ New Zealand Referee’). * * * * A Filipino and a Japanese fighter drew a “ gate ” of £1,500 fighting one another in Japan. The bout was between Young Tommy, the Filipino, who drew with Horignchi. of Japan. It took place during November.

An unfortunate incident following the Wanganui Regatta was the destruction by fire of a number of oars and sculls, the property of the. three local clubs. The damage occurred while boats and oars were being returned by rail to Wellington, and was caused by sparks from the engine igniting the scrim in which the. blades were packed. The Star Boating Club had two oars and two sculls so badly burnt that they w'ere unfit for further use. A number of other oars were partially . burned. The Petone and Wellington Clubs sustained the loss of three oars and two sculls respectively. Other oars belonging to these two clubs were partially burned (says the ‘ Evening Post ’). • • » • Few boxing contests in Australia have roused as much interest as did the second meeting of Ambrose Palmer and Dave Shade, the American who is still able to draw a house after seventeen years in the boxing ring (say an exchange). _ Palmer had won their firft bout, and it was anticipated that the second would be the fight of the year. So it was, up to the sixth round, by which time the Australian, showing considerable improvement, was demonstrating that he was capable of outspeeding and outstaying - his lighter and older opponent. Then, as Shade was retreating toward the ropes. Palmer lunged a left at the stomach,It landed low, they clinched, and when they moved apart again Shade fell, and was given ...the verdict on a foul,-. It was a narrow escape for the American, who has never been knocked out, and the crowjd expressed considerable resentment at the early ending of whjjj# looked like being a really great bout. * * * * London ‘ News of the World ’ states that sport in the Soviet is booming as never before. Money is being lavishly spent on stadiums and equipment, and. it is calculated that over £6,000,000 has been spent this year in construction and another two millions in sporting ’equipment. During the last fewi years £24,000,000 has been spent on sport. A new 'stadium is being built in Moscow _to hold 160,000 persons seated, while stadiums to seat 100,000 are being built in .Leningrad and Kharkoc. The U.S.S.R. Supreme Council of Physical Culture is issuing special badges to those who pass the standard tests for running, swimming, skating, ski-ing, etc. These badges nave been already awarded to over 850,000 persons, and many more thousands are engaged in passing for them. Over six and a-half million persons belong to sporting organisations. Sports are conducted under the constant superintendence of special sport “ physicians A and under experienced instructors. In January and February gigantic winter sports festivals are to take place in Moscow and Leningrad. It is estimated that over 3,000,000 of the Soviet Republic participate in ski-ing and skating. • • * * Young Corbett HI., the Italian. Californian ex-world’s welter-weight champion, who was knocked out in a round by Irish Jimmy M'Larnin during May last year and relieved of tho, crown, is returning to the ring as a middle-weight. He is a “ southpaw A (says an exchange). * * * ■ , There was a novel rowing race ai Cambridge University a few weeks ago. An eight composed entirely of Cam. bridge College coxswains opposed Newn. ham College, one of the women’s colleges at Cambridge, in an eight-oared race. The coxswains from the men’s colleges won by-over five lengths. The umpire followed the race by way of the towing path in a two-seater-'sports car, into which were crowded thirteen additional spectators! - *. . - - * ■ The sport of fencing is now flourish, ing in England and Australia, according to members of the team from the Cornwall who met the Christchurch Swords Club in a match this week (says the ‘ Sun ’). There are hundreds of clubs in England, and competition between the Army and Navy is particularly keen. Every large city in Australia also has its fencing enthusiasts, there being a particularly flourishing club in Syd« ney. Recently a team from the Corn, wall fenced against the Sydney Swords Club. The match was one of thirty-six bouts, and lasted over two, evenings. So closely was it contested that at.the end not only the bouts won by each side, but also the hits scored through, out the match, were exactly equal 1 * * * ■» Jules Ladoumegue, of France, former holder of the world’s mile and 1,500 metres track records, has turned his attention to tennis. The easy style of the French junner has attracted everyone, and it is generally agreed that with a little more practice he will become a first-class player. Ladoumegue is one of the tragedies of the athletic world. One of the greatest distance runners yet produced, the infringement of his amateur status has kept him from competition with the other brilliant distance men of the day, Reccali, Lovelock, Bonthron, and Cunningham (says an exchange) . * ♦ * * The first Sunday officially-sanctioned golf match in Scotland was played last month over the Damahoy course. It was an exhibition foursome in which Jack M'Lean, Scottish and Irish open amateur champion, and Mark Seymour, Scottish professional title-holder, were participants. A large crowd followed the play. Even public Sunday golf is still taboo on a great majority of links in this centuries-old homeland of tho game. * * * * D. O. Hay. a member of the Geelong Grammar School cricket team, which lias been touring in New Zealand, is held to be the best schoolboy batsman in Australia. Last season his aggregate of 746 runs for five matches created new record figures. • • • • The Victorian Cricket Association has decided to recommend Mr W. J. Johnson as manager for the tour of New Zealand. He should have a good chance, especially as Messrs R. J. Hartigan and S. H. D. Rowe are not available (says the Sydney ‘Referee’). Mr Johnson has done a lot for cricket. Ha played for North Melbourne for many years, and was captain for • fifteen years. For some years he has been a State selector, and was a test selector until recently replaced by W; M. Woodfull. He was dead against body-lina bowling. In 1930 he visited England and saw most of the games in which th* Australians were engaged. « * * * Miss Pat. Norton, who raced th* English swimming champion. Miss Joyce Cooper, to a very close finish in the 100yds free-style championship pf New South Wales recently, is only fourteen, years of age, and this was 1 r firs|| appearance in a senior championship (states an exchange). Her time was Imin 4 2-ssec, and she swam witli perfect style and really splendid judgment. Last summer she won the State 50yds junior championship in 30sec, the 100yds intermediate title in Imin 8 3-ssec, and was second in the 220yds intermediate in 2miii 50 2-ssec, astonishing time for one only thirteen years of age.