SPORT IN BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 23352, 23 August 1939, Page 5

SPORT IN BRITAIN

WOODERSON AGAIN BEATEN [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, July 27. ATHLETICS. Ever since S. C. Wooderson beat the world’s half-mile record last August, followers of athletics have been anxious to see him and A. G. K. Brown in opposition at the distance. Brown, it will be recalled, won our half-mile championship three weeks’ago for the first time, but it was as a half-miler that he first distinguished himself as a public schoolboy. It was hoped that Wooderson and Brown would meet at Birmingham last Saturday, the occasion being the annual inter-club competition for the Waddilove Cup. Hope did not blossom into fact, for the mile champion preferred to run in a special I,oooyds handicap at a London meeting. His running confirmed what we all tnought —namely, that he has fallen _ away a little from his best form since his abortive attempt to win the mile of the century at Princeton. He finished fourth, the winner, E, A. Sears, the Essex champion, getting home from the 25yds mark in one-tenth of a second inside Cyril Ellis’s British record of 2min 11.2 sec for the distance. Wooderson, ns one might expect, has many invitations to compete abroad. All these for the moment are being declined. Brown won the half-mile at Birmingham fairly easily in Imin 58.4 sec. At the same meeting C. A. J. Emery covered two - miles in 9min 21.6 see. Three days later he ran the same distance at Manchester in 9min 3.4 sec, thus adding this British record to that for three miles he set up in the championships three weeks ago. BOXING. Tommy Farr is showing the keenest interest in the welfare of his fellow Welsh boxers. He has been giving particular attention to his tall young countrymen, George James, who holds the Welsh heavy-weight championship and is regarded as a probable challenger in the near future for the British and_ Empire title. On Monday he again met Jim Wilde for the Welsh championship. The contest ran a surprising course, for James appeared to have benefited little from his coaching by Farr, and it was Wilde, who did most of the attacking, handing out considerable punishment to his opponent. Unfortunately for the challenger he sustained a cut eye early in the bout. James began to play on the injury, and with such effect that in the eleventh round Wilde turned to his seconds and asked them to throw in the towel. On his showing in this particular engagement James has a long way to go before he can bo considered in the same class as Farr and Harvey, whom promoters are still trying to g.et into the ring for the championship held by the Cornishman. FOOTBALL. As the Arsenal were the first club to adopt the “ three-backs ” game now almost universal in professional football, st> now are they credited with being the first to_ revert to the older method. There is no doubt that the plan of playing the centre-half in a purely defensive role, with the inside left and right helping to make with the centre and wings what is known as the W formation, was extremely effective. But after gaining considerable league and cup success through it, the Arsenal have come to the conclusion that the public demands something more entertaining than matches won by a rocklike defence, with an occasional snatched goal. The Highbury club had a relatively poor season financially in 1938-39 There was a negligible profit, which did nothing to wipe out the big overdraft incurred in connection with the ground improvement. Perhaps if Arsenal showed more open football in the campaign which opens in three weeks’ time the public would again flock to watch them, as_ they did in the hey-day of their triumph. In any 1 case, the rumoured change of mind on the part of the management will bring joy to those who regard football as something more than a struggle for league points. GOLF. A. D. Locke and his financial backers must be fairly disappointed with the results attained by the South African during bis stay in this country. He failed to win either the British or the Irish open, and last week-end Alfred Padgham beat him by 4 and 3 over the Temple Newsam course in Yorkshire. In the Irish open at Newcastle, Co. Down, Lock© finished third to A. Lees and R. A. Whitcombe. As was the case in the English open, that brilliant young amateur, James Bruen, went off in tremendous style, but he failed to keep it up, and an 81 for the final round left him high and dry in the sixth position. Reginald Whitcombe made a gallant effort on the last day to overtake the leader after an indifferent 76 in the first round. Then a 69 followed by two 72’s, which gave him an aggregate of 289, two strokes worse than that of Lees. The latter, who is a sturdilybuilt golfer, is attached to the Doro and Totley Club (Derbyshire). His golf has no fireworks, being played with the dourness one associates with his native county, Yorkshire. ROWING. The passing of W. H. Eyre lias left a gap in rowing circles. He had reachedthe ripe old age of 91, and until last month had not missed a Henley for nearly 70 years. As an oarsman he achieved considerable distinction. How he and other members of the crew were overturned in the icy Thames and ran miles back to the boathouse is one of the classic stories of rowing. Hard training was his motto, and more than anything else was responsible for the victory gained by G. H. Vize and himself in the Wyfolds at Henley.