TOPICAL TATTLE

Evening Star, Issue 23092, 19 October 1938, Page 4

TOPICAL TATTLE

■EVBY NOTES ON SPORT

[By H.P.S.]

Ground Problem. The Wellington Cricket Association will have 94 teams in its championship competitions this season, and has only about 50 wickets available. Here is a problem for the Council of Sport to • tackle. Rare Cricket Feat. \ Arthur Fagg, one of Kent’s: opening batsmen, scored 1,000 funs in .July. Only four other players have ever accomplished the feat—K..S. Ranjitsinhji (Sussex), in 1900; D. Denton (Yorkshire), in 1912; J?. C. Mead Hampshire), in 1923; and E. Tyldesley (Lancashire), in 1926. 0 Cyclist’s Endurance Effort. Rene Menzies,. the French cyclist, has realised his ambition to cover 100,000 miles H Starting out on. January 1, 1937, he completed his 100,000 miles, finishing at Tottenham Court road/ after 587 days’ riding. Honour for Hadlee. W. A. Hadlee, member of the 1937 j New Zealand cricket team, and n Canterbury Rugby representative this year, was elected club captain of the Christchurch High School 01d_ Boys’ . Cricket Club at the annual meeting. ’ The position amounts to the highest office in the club, since there is no president or vice-president. Hadlee’s Rugby form this season has often been splendid, although it was not assisted onceofAwico by his choice as a wing three-quarter. He plays best at five-eighths or centre, 1940 Rugby Tour of Africa. Writing to a friend in’ Christchurch, from Johannesburg, Mr j. Prosper, a former Canterbury Rugby representative, says: “.New Zealand Rugby critics would do well. to stress as . strongly * as possible that 100 per cent, fit and tough players should be selected for the 1940 tour of South Africa. The hard grounds and rugged opponents here must surely take their toll otherwise. I doubt whether any of the-sides the British team have met here has had to play short through injuries. : This gives the South Africans a big advantage. Therefore, see that the 1940 All Blacks are big and tough and husky.’* Hawkes Bay in Earjy.l By its agreements with other r provincial Rugby unions, the representative programme of Hawke’s.Bay for the winter ,of 1939 is already .clearly defined. .Home fixtures will be played with, Canterbury, Wellington, iWairarapa, Manawatu. and Poverty Bay. in. addition to thq usual return match with . \ Wairarapa, the Hawke’s Bay .team will, on the bi-annual northern: tonjr, visit Wanganui,' Taranaki, and Auckland, making- altogether . a total . of■ nine matches for the season, orAwjq-.fewer than dijring the year just concluded.

-Tennis Player’s Clean. Sweep. j r ■’ Donald Budge’s victory in thfe_ recent American lawn : tennis championship ’makes him the first player, in history ,td’ win the world’s four - major titles—tjie Australian, French, English, and American —in the same'year.'''tin", addition to leading the United States to victory in te Davis/ Cup,-"'Budge also won. the British and American ' doubles ! and combined doubles, giving' him practically a clean sweep.,: , . : r r v. ; “ I’m No Clown.” John Spellman, the well-performed American wrestler; who appeared in New Zealand last year, has arrived in South Africa to “ help .clean up the game.” “Im no clown, and I don’t try to use my face as though I am a contortionist on the variety stage. .When I get on the mat it’s a wrestling match, and that’s what the public wants. If they want any other kind of spectacle then let them go to the zoo and stand in front of the monkey cages," said John. Locke’s Feat. Playing in an exhibition golf match in Australia this month against George Naismith, Bobby Locke, the South. African open champion, thrilled a gallery, of a thousand people by obtaining an eagle 3 at the ninth hole, a distance, of 575yds, on the Victoria Club’s course. -He followed his drive, with a magnificent; brassie shot to within 2Jft( of the hole and then sank his putt. Women’s Cricket Progress. Miss Marjorie Pollard', secretary, when asked now women’s cricket has progressed in 1938, replied: I know of 20 new women’s cricket clubs, and that is proof, if you like. I know of , leagues that have been started in the north, eachi with nine or 10 clubs. ... Also, most counties have had a pretty good programme of matches, though, of course, we do not contemplate starting out on, a series of competitive intercounty games, The districts East, South, West; North, and played matches with each , other.” Later in the interview Miss Pollard added that the Women’s Cricket Association . now numbered approximately 250 affiliated clubs. . Bookmaker’s Odds. ; * What are the'odds against naming • the winner of the English Derby of 1940? An enterprising bookmaker la England has just laid Mr Adair Dighton 250 to 1 he could not name it. Tha odds have been accepted, and toff backer has. nominated a March-foaled chestnut by Blenheim, bred .on tha - same lines as Donatello 11., being from a Clarissimus mare. Compton’s Natural Ability. Penis Compton, Arsenal, footballer and test cricketer, is a natural ball player. In-addition to football and cricket-, he is a crack hand at squash rackets, tennis, golf, billiards, and hockey.

No One Wants It 1 , The United States Lawn Tennis Association and Mrs Ijglen Wills Moody are having a little game. Some tuna;, ago the association sent Mrs Moody a cheque for 1.309,45d0l to cover th<* .■- cost of her trip to England. Mrs Moody returned the cheque. ..Not. to be outdone dn politeness,, the-association onca more sent the- cheque, to Mrs Moody* And there, at-the moment, the mutter rests.- - • ■ ■ / ■, . Sporting Personalities Wed. Two notate figures in the world «l sport were married in Paris recently. Miss .Diana Fishwick, of golfing fame, and Brigadier-general A. C. Critcmey, millionaire British sportsman. The ceremony took place at the British Consulate in Paris. Before leaving the Consulate Miss Fishwick said smilingly that the .ceremony was worse than sinking a putt on the eighteenth g'eeu.