Local and Overseas Items

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 May 1946, Page 10

Local and Overseas Items

Boxing in London. . British amateur boxers defeated a strong American team by five bouts to three at the Wembley Stadium last night.—London, May 30. Golf in America.

At the end of the first 18 holes of the international golf match being played at Newton, Massachusetts, Byron Kelson leads Dick Burton, the British champion, six up. Nelson scored 71, one under par, and Burton took 79. A gallery of 3500 watched .the match. —New York, May 29.

Davis Cup Tennis. Jugoslavia defeated Czechoslovakia by three rubbers to two in the second round of the European zone of the Davis Cup contest, and qualified to meet France in the semi-final.— Prague, May 30. Rugby Referee’s Record. In July of this year the Wairarapa Rugby Union will celebrate its 60th yeai’ of existence with a programme of events, including a match between Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa. H. J. (Bert) McKenzie, the secretary, holds a New Zealand Rugby referees’ record, having controlled 73 major representative games.

“Calling All Golfers.” “Replace the Turf.” On all sides golfers are constantly reminded of this all-important duty. The request-cum-command is printed on score cards, hung in locker rooms, and sign-posted on tees, but every winter yields its unwanted harvest of unreplaced divots. The reason is not difficult to determine—too many players are too casual. It may not, in many instances, be a personal sin of omission, but a divoteer cannot be absolved from blame if he is content to stalk after his ball and leave a caddie to do the needful without proper supervision. The average caddie is not to any degree interested in divots and it frequently happens that slivers of turf do not return to the bourne from which they came. If a divot is correctly replaced and firmly pressed down the hazard of a bad lie, which might be suffered by following players, is at once avoided. Carelessness in this respect is appreciated only by the birds of the air. They flourish on the easy pickings of a quick turnover, and in his way ably abet the casual offender in the creation of pock-marked areas. The tiger in his lordly manner usually drives well past these places. It is the average golfer who suffers most. He has his handicap—the just reward for a lack of skill, and after avoiding the rough it is bitter to encounter the equivalent of a penalty lie in a divot mark. The remedy is simple and effective—replace the turf, and replace it correctly. New Soccer Blood.

With the advent of peace—speaking unpolitically—sport of all kinds must tend to surge forwards and upwards, and among them Association football should benefit from the infusion of some new, but well-experi-enced players. Nobody can say truthfully that Soccer has ever been played really well here (states the Dunedin Evening Star), compared with the standard in Britain and on the Continent, and the cause of this failing must inevitably be our isolation in these far-off Antipodes. Nevertheless, history is not a record of unprecedented events, and what occurred after the first World War should be repeated here.in the next i year or two, and that is the “injection” into our Soccer circulation of a refreshing flow of new talent from the Old Country. There are undoubtedly hundreds of Britons —-. amateur players of high standard — who are looking for a new life in the dominions, and New, Zealand is assured of its quota, whether there is a Government-sponsored immigration scheme or not. Those who saw the team from H.M.S. Black Prince recently must have been impressed with the all-round excellence of their play. ’ In head-work alone the Navy players were miles ahead of our standard. Yet those are ordinary “pleasure” players by British standards, players, moreover, with very restricted opportunities for practice.

Wrestling Champion. Undisputed wrestling champion of the world, Jim Londos is scheduled to visit New Zealand this year if satisfactory financial arrangements can. be made this end. The latest development in the proposed visit by Londos is a cable received by Walter Miller, who has been selecting wrestlers for the New Zealand Wrestling Union for many years. Miller, who himself won , world wrestling titles at four weights, is a personal friend of Jim Londos, and has trained with him in past years. Londos has indicated that he is prepared to come to New Zealand, if Miller advises him to, and subject to the visit being a sound one from a financial viewpoint. There should be little difficulty in guaranteeing Londos a. suitable reward. With men of the calibre of McCready, Katan, Blomfield —to mention three British Empire wrestlers —in the country, the prospects of big open-air matches are too obvious to require mention. One thing is certain, a world title match could not be staged indoors; Londos wants more than what could be taken in any indoor arena in New Zealand.