TOPICAL TATTLE

Evening Star, Issue 22522, 15 December 1936, Page 4

TOPICAL TATTLE

v NEWSY NOTES ON SPORT [By H.P.S.] No Difference. When in Dunedin Mr Dudley Hellmrieh, tlie Australian coach, stressed the point that the success of the Japanese in swimming was due not to the difference in their stroke from the American crawl, but to the intensive training they indulge in. Support for this contention is contained in the latest bulletin from Mr L. de B. Handley, tie New York coach, who states that Germany’s leading swimming authorities, after making a deep study of the Japanese and! American Olympic contenders at Berlin, have come to the conclusion that there is no difference between the Nippon and American styles of crawl. Bespectacled Cricketers. The Southland team which participated so successfully in Country Cricket Week contained no fewer than five bespectacled players, including J. Scandrett, who represented Otago in the Plunket Shield games last season. Another was Claude King, who at one time played for Christchurch Boys’ High School in the Heathcote Williams Shield games. Some years ago King was a member of _ the Dunedin Club, and now takes his cricket in Gore. That he is still a useful all-rounder he showed by his performances during Country Week. Cycling’s Progress. The progress of cycling in New Zealand! is shown by the fact that during the last year the number of amateur cyclists registered by the six centres of the New Zealand Amateur Cycling Association totals 1,009, comprised as follows :—Auckland 353, Canterbury 204, West Coast (North Island) 166, Wellington 133, Otago 98, Hawke’s Bay 55. The number of clubs affiliated to the association is 55: West Coast 15, Auckland 11, Canterbury 9, Wellington 8, Otago 6, and Hawke’s Bay 6. S Otago Cricketer at Home. Playing for the East Molesey Cricket Club in England last season, the former Waitaki High School and Carisbro.ok player, F. E. Smith, met with great success, scoring 950 runs and taking 96 wickets. East Molesey has one of the strongest Club Conference teams in the environs of London. Sydney School’s Tour. The present season is a landmark in English public school history, as a tour of England and Scotland was undertaken during October and November by a Rugby'team from the King’s School* Sydney. Mr R. A. 0. Martin, an “old boy,” who is chairman of the Council of the New South Wales Rugby Union, was the manager. Scots for Sydney. The Scottish Sports Federation, a young body of men, is setting itself to ensure that Scotland will send a truly fine team to the British Empire Games to be held in Sydney in 1938, by raising the needed moneys to finance the team’s journey and also in the selection of the best men. Long Service Recognised. Mr J. N. Millard was recently honoured by the Management Committee of the Wellington Rugby Union on his completion of 21 years of service as a member of the committee. For seven years Mr Millard was sole selector for Wellington, during which he raised the _ standard of Wellington Rugby to a high plane. He was presented with a blazer to mark his 21 years’ service as a committeeman, and a presentation was also made to Mrs Millard. Mr Millard played for Otago University before the war and represented Otago in 1911. In more recent years he was sole selector for New Zealand University Rugby teams. As an athlete ho was outstanding, and while attending Southland Boys’ High School put up ft remarkable record of 22ft in the long jump. Later he established a New Zealand University record of 22ft SJin, and in addition to winning the New Zealand University long jump title twice, he was the high jump champion as well. On one occasion he represented New Zealand at the Australasian championships at Wellington.

Germans in Soccer. Sixty thousand people crowded Ibrox Park, Glasgow, in October to see the Germans play Scotland at Soccer football. Beyond the fact that they fulfilled expectations by winning by two goals, Scotland could deriye little satisfaction from their victory over Germany, says a London writer. For more than an hour Germany had more of the game and played the better positional football. A side capable of outshining the Scots in this manner deserves something better of fate than a 2-0 defeat. Twice in the opening half Scotland’s goal escaped in the luckiest way imaginable, and the Germans ought to have been two goals ahead at the interval. English Schoolboy’s Feat. Kenneth Elliott, a 17-year-old member of the Windsor (Eng.)' Grammar School XV., performed the remarkable feat of kicking 13 goals in succession in an interschool match. Playing against' Bee School’s second team he was called upon to take the place-kicks after another boy had failed to convert the first two tries. Fijian Cricketer's Death. Cricketers of an earlier generation will hear with regret of the death, at 57, of Ratu Pope Epili Seniloli, paramount chief of Fiji, and in his day the M. A. Noble of Fijian cricket. Ho was captain of the Fijian side which toured eastern Australia over five and twenty years ago and made a creditable showing. The team played in snowy lava-lavas and bare feet, and were a draw in more ways than one. The Ratu took over 100 wickets on the tour and was up to interstate form with the ball. He was a good bat, too, and reached three figures against Tasmania at Hobart. H. J, Tyrie’s Defeat. The defeat of H. J. Tyrie, New Zealand quarter-mile champion, at the hands of the Auckland provincial titleholder, M. C. Baker, of Thames, at the Lovelock carnival at Carlaw Park on Saturday came as a surprise to most enthusiasts, in view of the decisive manner in which Tyrie defeated the Aucklander at the national championship meeting at Dunedin last year (says the Auckland ‘Herald’). Tyrie was at a big disadvantage on Saturday in drawing the lane outside Baker, as the latter was able to use the champion as a pacemaker over the distance. Both showed signs of distress in the straight, hut it was evident that Tyrie was in the worse condition. He is a big athlete and takes a great deal of working into form.

Hawke Cup Cricket.' H. B. Massey, a former Wellington representative, performed with success in the Hawke Cup preliminary match, Wairarapa v. Rangitikei. He made 44 and took five for 12 and five for 55. Another player who had a successful match was W. Peterson, in the winter a very successful wing three-quarter in the Wairarapa Rugby representative team. He made 50 and 41 for Wairarapa. The game was played at Marton. Japan Prepares. Every four years the arrangements for the Olympic Games are on a bigger scale, and Japan, now preparing at Tokio for the 1940 Olympiad, will not be outdone. A scheme on a gigantic scale is being devised to make, the first games ever held in the Orient the greatest ever. An outlay of approximately £730,000, to be allotted for construction work, on the stadium, grounds, and so forth, has already been approved. The Olympic grounds will lie located in the outer gardens of the Meiji Shrine, one of Japan’s largesi sport centres. The Olympic village t» accommodation 2,000 persons will be built in the suburbs. Olympic Champions Forsake Status, According to advice received froil Mr L. de B. Handley, n his latest American bulletin, the Olympic springboard diving champion, Dick Degener, of Detroit, Mis Dorothy Boynton Hill (Olympic women’s high diving champion), aril other famous fancy divers have decided to forsake their amateur stapling in order to accept a lucrative offir made them for a professional exhibition tour. Father and Son. Harold Smirke, a former diving champion of Australia, who represented Atstralia at the Olympic Games at Athens in 1908, tied with his son Graham for second place in the Sydney Amatlur Swimming Club’s senior diving championship. The father had not competed since the first years of the war. 'Jhc son had earlier in the day won (lie junior diving championship of the dub (says the ‘ Australasian ’). i

To Visit Dominion. Ambrose Palmer, former heavyweight boxing champion of Australia, has accepted employment in Melbourne, and proposes to make a business trip to New Zealand early in the new year. He states that offers of fights do not interest him any more. j Tour of Australia and New Zealand. According to an announcement in Sydney, Walter Hagen and Joe Kirkwood. who toured Australia and New Zealand together in 1930, are on January 6 to leave America for another similar tour. A pleasing feature of this news is that it indicates that Kirkwood, who has for some time been suffering ill-health, is back to the game and fit again. Australians Displeased. The original announcement that Sir Julian Cahn, the English millionaire with whom Frank Ward had contracted to play cricket in the East, intended to keep Ward to his contract, jarred on many, says a writer in the 4 Sydney Referee. It was held that an Englishman ought not to stand in the way of the Australian representing his country in the entire series if he be chosen. However, Sir Julian changed his mind, and all is well up to a point. There ought to bo some body in Australian cricket, able and willing to attend to matters of this sort and see that players expected to take part in test cricket are provided with positions which will retain their services for Australia.