ATHLETIC NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 9091, 30 April 1890, Page 2

ATHLETIC NOTES.

[contributed.] There is no groat amount o£ news from Sydney. Christchurch men who have seen some of the championship men on the other side profess to believe that our team should do more than hold their own in bo! h the sprint races and long distances, except the 220yds, which they expect the famous Macpherson will very probably secure. There appear to be plenty of men getting into training, including the cracks, and as the Christchurch men are doing the same, the representatives of Australasia should fight out some tough finishes. Offers of good quarters at Botany Bay, with the use of cinder track, &c., have been received, and will probably be accepted. Ax, the half-yearly meeting of the South Canterbury Amateur Athletic Club, held at Timaru on Monday week, Mr G. F, Cluleo at last laid down the office of Hon Sec, which he has held for so many years, and so successfully that he has become more like an institution in tbe athletic world than an ordinary officer of a country Club. The Club itself is not by any means an ordinary one, and when we get some real union and esprit de corps established among amateur athletes all over the Colony, its history should be written and circulated widely. For, founded years ago by young and athletic, station owners and farmers, who sought a method of bringing about some kind of annual social meeting, and took this truly British method of securing it, the South Canterbury A.A.C. has a history. The Insty cadets and men from the back country used to put some fun into the proceedings, and pretty rough fan it was at times, when they had got the fleeces safely off the merinos and had time to let off steam. Mr Glnlee watched over the fortunes of the Club in those days, and worked hard for it, as he has done in the quieter, and perhaps less jovial, bnt none the less successful days that have succeeded. Nine - tenths of the prosperity of the S.A.A.C.’s prosperity, it is hardly too much to say, are due to his untiring work for it, and for that and his interest in the institution of the N.Z.A.A. Association, no less than for his quiet, very courteous, though firm, decided ways, he has earned the respect of every man who has ever run at Timaru, or rubbed shoulders with him elsewhere. It is pleasant to think of him as being still an office-bearer of the Club. The Club, I notice, have been offered a re-lease of their ground for fourteen years on favourable terms, by Messrs R. and G. Rhodes ; also, that the following events have been thrown open to members of other Clubs affiliated to the Amateur Athletic Association, viz. -Half-mile Flat (handicap), Two Miles Walk (handicap), Two Miles Running (handicap), and 250yds (handicap). At the Cambridge University sports early in March, held with a bitter North wind blowing, A. B. Williams, who had 4yda in the 120yds Handicap, was third in the second heat, a yard behind the second man. The time was 12jsec, so that the old Christ’s College runner can hardly be up to his old form. Perhaps the cold tells on him. A wrestling match took place in the ■ Theatre Royal, Melbourne, on tbe after* noon of April 5, between Ross and Miller for .£4OO, in the Gneco-Roman style, best three out of five falls. Miller weighed 15sfc 41b, and Ross 14st 21b. The men wete well matched. Miller won the first fall in" 14min 32sec. Ross won the second fall 'in 13tnin 30see. In the third round Miller got the hammer-loek on the American. Ross’ second called “ fall,” and ran to pull Miller off. Miller held on till interfered with. The referee gave him the fall. Time —9min 45sec. A medical examination showed a partial dislocation of Ross’ shoulder, the doctor advising him not to go on. The match was then awarded to Miller.

The fourteenth annual contest for tha National Cross-country Championship was decided over an open course at Sutton Cold held on March 1. Nine clubs entered for the event, but of these one failed to send a team. Four only ran their allowed complement of twelve men, the total held of runners numbering" eighty-two. The course was pretty much, over roads, and far short of the stipulated ten miles. A very close race resulted. The Salford Harriers, last year’s winners and holders of the Northern Counties’ Championship, agaijj won, beating the Worcester Harriers by the narrow margin of two points, the scores being 93 and 95 respectively. The Birchfield Harriers were third with 96 points, the Finchley Hamers, South Londo’n Harriers, Clydesdale (Glasgow) Harriers, Coventry Godi va Harriers, and Haddington Harriers (Dublin), finishing in the order given. E. W, Parry, Salford Harriers, was first man homo, and he was closely followed by W. H. Morton, of the s’-me club, W. J. Fowler, Finchley Harriers, third.