ATHLETICS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 January 1925, Page 10

ATHLETICS

E. G. Sutherland, the ex-New Zealander, won two Scottish championships at Glasgow on June 15;, the long jump with 21ft Din and the pole' vault with 10ft. In addition lie was second in the high jump with sft Sin (whining jump sft Bfin) and third in the 120yds hurdles. At this meeting E. H. Liddell, of Edinburgh University, who rail so well at the Olympic: Games, won the three short distance events, the 100 yds in lOsec, the 220yds_in 22 3-usec, and the 440yds in 51 l-ssec. Most of th© British athletes at the Olympic Games attended a service ol the Scottish Presbyterian Church m Paris. Thev were drawn to the service because the* flying Scot. E. H. Liddell, who smashed the world s 400. meties record, covering the distance in 4 < 6-o sec was the preacher. Liddell is a Scottish minister’s son, and is trainino- as a missionary. This is a. description of his run in the 400 i metres: “Every man was off his- mark simultaneously as if they had been shot out of their holes by some maciune. model l set up a terrific pace.. He ran as if he were wild with inspiration; like some demon. And as he flew along, to the accompaniment of a r e ar ’ nerts fell to wondering whether -Liddell would crack, such was the pace he set out to travel. Liddell, yards ahead, came round the bend for thestraig , and as he did so lie pulled the haiclei at himself, for Fitch was nearer; there was Butler, too, and Inibach had to he reckoned with. It nas the last 50 metres that meant the making, or breaking of Liddell. It was then Liddell or Fitch The Scotsman had so surely got all Ins teeth into the race that the American could not loosen his hold, and Liddell got home first by what, considering the foi midable opposition, was almost a remarkable margin.”

AMERICAN BASEBALL

ENGLISH IMPRESSIONS

The New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox, who are touring Europe in order to make comeits (oi perverts) to America’s national game, Slaved their farewell exhibition match M Stamford Bridge, writes the special correspondent of a London paper. Ihe Kino- and Queen, together with the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry, were present, and seemed heartily, to enjoy the weird and wonderful noises an epic hullabaloo —of the ™any American “fans” present, whose object was to fan the lire of strife between the representative, nine of th© two biggest, American cities. , The stands were crowded, and there were thousands of spectators cm the terraces—almost as. many as there would have been if Chelsea Reserves, had been playing at home. . Baseball has been defined as glorified rounders. But, if that were all there is to it, the game would nevei have become an epidemic-in the unite a Stales. The crowd-compelling fascination of the game lies in th© fact that it permits barracking; not only on the part of the spectators, hut also from the members ancl official supporters ot the two sides. , For those who have not heard ana seen baseball as it was played at Stamford Bridge, the following comparison will give some idea of the utterly unEnglish nature of the game. Suppose Gentlemen v. Players was on at Lords, and A. E. R. Gilligan was howling to Hobbs. If the doctrine of verbal interference were accepted in theory and in practice as it is in baseball, then point and tbs other fieldsmen within sight and hearing would he allowed to jig up and down in order to put Hobbs ott his stroke, while jeers and counter-jeers would be raised by managers and coaches and by the rival sections of the spectators. On the othe.r hand, e Players ancl their sympathisers would have a right to try and baulk the, bowler by derisive yells and personal obloquv of all kinds. The "root of the American system, no doubt, is to be found in the belief that every member of a team ought to do his best all the time to demoralise his opponents, and that spectators, haying paid - for their seats, have a right to carry criticism to its furthest possible limits —even to calling the umpire all sorts of names, when his decision is against your own pet side, and throwing lemons into tlio arena to show w hat you think of the players (the lemon is a vegetable brickbat, a similitude or sour contempt). . To invent a new and irritating cry is to earn immortality in baseball. lor example, we were informed in the official programme that Mr Hugh Jennings, the guiding spirit of the New York Giants, was the genius who made the great coaching cry of “E-e-e Yah! famous The writer felt, reading this information, that lie could improvise better veils than that, hut his efforts elicited outraged looks from a clump of American spectators among whom lie sat. All yells, it is clear, were not within the orthodox ritual. He was frowned upon as if he had sung “Bravo!” instead of “Amen” at the close of a hymn. Americans who attended cricket matches to give the benighted English a leg-up are apt to make the same mistake. One of them heard ancl -inwardly digested the cries of “Well hit!” and “Well fielded!’ at a county match, and when an unlucky fielder came a cropper in attempting to stop a boundary, he cried “Well fell, on the same model, and could not understand why he was laughed at. The result of the game was as follows: The New York. Giants, won by eight runs to five, owing their victory to superior pitching. There was some good hitting* and very few errors were recorded. The teams were not at their best, so an expert informed the writer. The damn ancl chilly November weather was to blame, no clouht, for a falling-off imperceptible to the untravelled spectator. Then there were no pea-nuts — and in America you measure the excitement of a match hv the .exact depth of pea-nut shells (4in, say, or 7Jin) in the relinquished spectators’ quarters.

Jim Thorpe, the famous Indian athlete and Olympic decathlon champion of 1912, to whom King Gustav of Sweden said : “You, sir, are the most wonderful athlete in the world,” may still be seen in action in minor baseball in the United States. In his day Thorpe was a great American footballer, and a member of the New York Giant*’ baseball team.