TOPICAL TATTLE

Evening Star, Issue 23651, 10 August 1940, Page 1 (Supplement)

TOPICAL TATTLE

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£SOO For War Effort. ' The Wellington Wrestling Association decided at its last meeting to lend the Government £SOO free of interest for the duration of the war and 12 months afterwards. jAt the end of the present season the executive will probably consider whether further assistance can be given to the Government. Wisden’s Five. The “ five cricketers of the year,” as chosen by the 1940 1 Wisden,’ are: Leary Constantine, the dynamic and dramatic West Indies champion; Bill Edrich, of Middlesex; Douglas Wright, the spinner from Kent; Brian Sellers, who has led Yorkshire to championship honours five times in seven years; and Walter Keeton, who, after a very serious motor accident in 1934 had put him out of the game, returned to it in 1938, and in 1939 made the season’s highest score with 312 not out at Lord’s. Dne-day Cricket. Following the decision of the Cridket Committee of the ; South Australian Cricket Association that no premiership competition will be conducted under the district cricket by-laws', it is >. probable that a series of one-day matches will be substituted next season. Death of Otago Pilot and Sportsman. Air Force casualties have included many leading sportsmen, and added to the list is the name of Pilot-officer Ray , Kean, D.F.C., of Dunedin, advice of whose death as the result of an aircraft accident was received by his father, Mr Michael Kean, during the •week.- Pilot-officer Kean left to join the Royal Air Force two, years; ago, and before that he won for him§elf. a fine reputation as a footballer And a cricketer, and as an admirable type of young. New Zealand sportsman. The promise he displayed at Sf. Kevin’s College as a footballer and cricketer was more than fulfilled when he came to Dunedin, and for four years he served the Kaikorai Football Club ably on one wing, his brother, Noel, playing on the other. (Ray was a speedy and resourceful runner, and he gained a place in the Otago B fifteen in 1937. As a cricketer he made many useful scores for the Carisbrook senior eleven, and after going to England he enjoyed more than a measure of success with Air Force Rugby and cricket teams. Eis brother, Vince, is a pilot officer ■with the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and he, too. has an excellent sporting record, having held a New Zealand Universities boxing title on one occasion. ’

Champion Wheelman for A.I.F. Recently Hubert Opperman, the noted cyclist, entered the Melbourne Town Hall recruiting depot and enlisted in the A.I.F. He was passed as medically fit. He thus follows in the footsteps of his father, who served with the A.I.F. in the 1914-18 war. Regarded by experts as tha greatest endurance cyclist of all time, “ Oppy ” twice represented Australia in the Tour de France, won the 80l d’or 24-hours tandem paced race in Paris in 1928, the Paris-Brest-Pans race of 725 miles in one stage in 1931, and other important contests. He holds the 24-hour motor-paced record and world unpaced record for 24 hours on the road and track (says the ‘ Sporting Globe Pax Smith to Rest. P. G. F. (“Pax ”) Smith, of Auckland, winner of the national amateur golf title in 1928 at Dunedin, has been advised to restrain from strenuous physical activity for some time. Smith recenty enlisted with the New Zealand Scottish Territorial Regiment. Medical examination revealed a few defects, and he has been told to rest_ before coming up for another examination. On a plus’ 1 handicap, and holder of the Akarana Club’s championship, he will for some time he “ just one of the gallery.’’ Old-timers Meet. Last Saturday, the ‘ Sports Special ’ photographer was instrumental in bringing together two famous old-time Rugby players who had not met for 54 wears. These were Isaac Jenkins, the Southland stalwart over a period of so faianv years, and Clem Beck, who played first for the Montecillo and later for the Dunedin Club. They were opposed to each other in 1887 when Jenkins played for Southland and Beck for Otago in the first game between the provinces, and thev had not since met until they were photographed at Carishrook last Saturday for the ‘ Sports Special.’ M Bombshell ” Boesch.

At varying times the writer has received greetings from Paul (“ Bombshell ”) (Boesch from various parts of the United States, Honolulu, Japan, and Manila, and the globe-trotting drop-kicking ■wrestler is now enjoying the same popularity in Australia as he did when in New Zealand—and here he was one of the most popular men ever to wrestle in this country. At Sydney Stadium recently. Boesch defeated Little Wolf by two falls to one. _ -The match, which was very rough at times, went 10 rounds, it being agreed by the management that the bout should cpntinue until either man had secured two falls. The Indian took the first fall in the sixth round. Boesch evened up tyo rounds later, and in the tenth gained the deciding falL