ATHLETIC NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10594, 1 March 1895, Page 6

ATHLETIC NOTES .

[by PPEINTKK. IN “ CANTERBURY TIMES.”) The choice' of Napier for this ; year’s Championship meeting was a happy one, for it placed at the disposal of the .Association the Napier Ground Company’s fine ground —situated about a mile from tHe centre,of the,town —and. the'services of Messrs N-’ Li Gurr'and A. C. Norris, hoa secretaries respectively of the Hawke’s Bay Amateur I Afchiotic,-Cl ub and; Napier Wanderers’ Bicycle Club. _ The combined athletic and cycling, ‘meeting, held on Friday and Saturday last, reflected great credit upon those who had charge of the arrangements. On the first day the weather was magnificent, but the intense heat and hard nature of the track were very trying to some of the competitors' in the longer running events. There was a great change on the second day, when the weather was of a very boisterous nature, and rain, which commenced to fall at one o’clock, continued on till after the last event wss over. As the Aucklanders had to leave for home on Sunday night/ and as other visiting teams, with the exception of cyclists, wished to leave Napier on Monday morning, the committee had no option hut to go on. with the sports in spite of the disagreeable surroundings,'. From an athletic point of view the meeting was a success. For the majority of the events entries were excellent, and. some capital performances were recorded. Low’s performances in the Quarter and Half-mile flat races were quite up to.,the standard of previous years, the high and pole jumping were the finest seen at a championship meeting, and the racing in the sprint events was very interesting. Some of the competitors in the latter events, notably L. Broad (Canterbury), A. J. Patrick (Wellington), P. J. Nathan (Wellington) and G. A. Holder (Wanganui) ran exceedingly well, and accomplished very fair performances. The programme on-the first day opened with the 250yds Plat, which brought out a field of ten.' G. A. Holder, Wanganui, got away at the crack of the pistol in the first heat, and won very easily by four yards ia*27aec,‘the fastest time recorded in the aiaca, , In the second heat, A. Jones, Auckland, was very smart in getting away, and led throughout, finishing a yard and a half in frontof Nathan, Wellington. The third heat, Saw L. Broad, Canterbury, and E. Fraser, Hawke’s Bay, run a dead heat for first place. The final heat produced a splendid race. Auckland’s expectations were upset by Broad, who ran with excellent judgment. He was five yards behind Nathan on entering the straight, but coming with a great dash at the finish caught the Wellington man in the last half dozen yards, and won by a foot. Jones just beat Nathan for second place. Holder was close up fourth.

The Three-mile walk was the next athletic event on the programme, and for this Brady and Creamer, the two crack Aucklanders, and W. Talbut, Wellington, were tho only starters. The latter was outclassed, and retired after walking one mile and a half. Creamer, who beat hia clubmate by ten yards, fully maintained hia reputation for pace and staying power, though Brady has the better style. Next came the Half-mile flat, for which a field of eight went out. Low, champion of last year, was pronounced favourite, but thsre were many who fancied Wood and Stuart. Bui), Auckland, was the first to break the line and carried on the running for nearly a lap, with Wood and Sfcm.rt in close attendance. At the quarter Wood took up the position of leader, but half-way down tiie back stretch he gave way to Stuart, who was first into the straight. At this stage Low was coming along in spanking 'style' and going to the front won with ease by fifteen or twenty yards. Stuart, who ran gamely, beat Hunter by fifteen yards for second place. Wood was fourth. After the race one of his legs gave way and ho was unable to compete in the Mile. The high jumping was, undoubtedly, the best seen at. a Championship meeting. H. S. Bailey, who bad established a record of s£b Sin again reached this height, boating the standard by one inch. P. J. Brown, the Canterbury representative, cleared sfb 7in and gained a standard badge. He is a graceful jumper, and but for the bending of his spikes on the hard ground he would doubtless have done batter. Ae it was ho just failed to clear sft Sin, while B*i!ey almost knocked the bar down. Tae latter made three unsuccessful attempts to clear aft 9iu. Of the others Laurie, Auckland, had the best ■style, TheT2oyds Hurdles produced some-smart

hurdling, J. Moir and F< S. Harley, Canterbury, and W. H. Martin, Auckland, were the favourites. Each won his heat, Harley winning bis in standard time from R. Gore. Some disappointment was felt at the Wellington man not beiagawo to start in the final, the rule being that only the first in each heat should qualify for the run off, Harley, Moir, Martin and Roberta went out to decide the ownership of the gold niedal. Martin was quickest away, and wC s * a f ro ? u . at second hurdle, leading hy two yards at the eighth hurdle. The fatter then closed up but just failed to oa o his opponent, who won by half a yafu ia standard time. Roberts was a few behind Harley, and Moir, who jumped) very badly, was close up to Roberts. The Mile brought out eleven competitors, of whom Farquhar was a strong favourite, the Aucklanders being ysry confident of making a good show. The hard track troubled some of the com- ■ petitors a great deal, and the racer,a which was run when ; the thermome- j ter registered 84deg in the shade,. was won by A. Davis, a young runner of the Auckland Club, Farquhar was in front for more taan three-quarters of a mile, but Davis repeatedly challenged him coming round the bend into the straight in the final lap, ana Farquhar fell exhausted one hundred yards from the tape. Young Davis then went on and won easily by five yards from W. Rankin, of Wanganui. A. W. Ben (Manawatu) was third, F. C. Angell (Wellington) fourth, and M. G. Dodwoll (Wellington) fifth. The time, 4min 40jsec, was very good under the circumstances. The Weight Putting was a rather poor = exhibition. C. Louisaon (Canterbury) secured hia first championship with a put of 34ft 6in. In practice a few days before the meeting he did 36Et. Proceedings on tbo second day opened with the 100yds, those left in the. final being P, J. Nathan and A. J. Patrick (Wellington), L. Broad (Canterbury), G. A. Holder (Wanganui), A. Jones (Auckland) and E. Fraser (Hawke’s Bay). After six or seven false starts, the pistol went off, and Jones and Patrick quickly showed in front. The former led for fifty yards, then the others commenced to close up, and Patrick, Nathan, Holder and Jones were ia a bunch at the finish. Many thought that Nathan had won, but tbe judges awarded first place to Patrick. • , ' The One Mile Walk fell to Brady (Auckland). Low eaSfly annexed the Quarter Plat in 53sec, and the Three-mile Flat was won very easily by A. W. Bell, a promising long - distance from Palmerston North. I have dealt with the other events elsewhere. The meeting will come out on the right cide of the ledger, it being estimated that 2500 people were present on tbe first day and 1000 on the second. I desire to thank Messrs Gurr, Norris and other members of the athletic and cycling clubs, for the courtesy extended to me during my stay in Napier The following table shows the points scored for the Championship banner : •

In my notes last week I selected Auckland to win the banner, with Canterbury second, Wanganui third, Wellington fourth and Hawke’s Bay fifth., This was the position of the clubs at the conclusion of the sports. ■ . The Weight Putting Championship was an easy thing for C. Louisson, whose three best pqts: were:—34ft 6in, 33ft 6Jin,and, 32ft 7in. Hepburn’s bast were —32fb 9i ; n, 30ft lOin and 30ft 3£in j Speedy’s—32ft 7in, 31ft 11.jin and Sits lOiin. ■ ; D. Wood was unable to compote, in ibo One Mile Championship owing to one of his legs giving way in the Half-mile event. In this race he looked like winning after a quarter had been covered, but the hard track told on his injured leg. As is usually the case at large athletic gatherings, there were, too many “officials in the enclosure on the first day of the Championship Meeting. I noticed, close upon sixty parsons inside the rails during the progress of the High Jump. Brown, the Canterbury jumper, strained some of the muscles of the left thigh after his second jump on Friday. He continued jumping under a severe handicap. On the second day he went out for the long jump, but was compelled to retire after one try. H. L. Bailey, W. A. Low, F, H. Creamer and H. L. Kingsley were the only last year’s champions competing at this year's meeting. They all successfully defended their titles. Low has now won the 440yda and Half-mile Flat Championships two years in succession'. ■ The -opinion among many athletes at the Championship Meeting -was that the Napier cinder track was much too hard for running on. The grass track, however, was in perfect order on the first day, and reflected great credit on the groundkeeper, Mr Faulkner. Wanganui has two capital pols-jumpers in H. L. Kingsley and A. Adsatt. Kingsley won the championship with a leap of 10ft Sin, which is one inch better than the New Zeeland amateur record, held by himself, Adsatt got over the bar at 10ft Sin, and gained a standard badge. Brady, the Auckland walker, is one of the fastest heel and toe performers I have seen. He has a fine style, and up to a certain distance is undoubtedly the fastest walker in amateur ranks in New Zealand at the present time. Creamer is a good walker, but his stylo when spurting is opan to question. The time for each quarter in the One Mile Championship was as follows First quarter 63?-sec, second 72-l-sec, third 77>.sec, fourth total time 4min 40|sec. Farquhar was leading the field at the end of the first, second, and third quarters, hut collapsed in she last lap at the bend leading into the straight. At the conclusion of the Throwing the Hammer Championship a blacksmith named Murphy, residing at Taradale, near Napier, walked into the ring and threw the missile 90 feet. Murphy, who is a strong muscular man, about forty years of age, beat the celebrated Donald Dinnie at throwing the hammer some years ago. A. Davis, who won the One Milo Championship, and ran third in the Three Miles, ia a young runner who is rapidly coming to the front. His friends consider him the slowest of the Auckland long distance representatives, bat at the meeting he showed that he is possessed of plenty of pace and good staying power. A. J. , Patrick, winner of the 100yds Championship, is twenty years of ago, stands sft 4ih ia height and weighs 9st in athletic, costume. .He won his first race ia December,*lß93—the Juniors’ Hundred, at the Wellington Amateur Athletic Club’s sports, the time being llsec. Last year ho ran prominently in sprint races in Wellington. H. B. Lusk, who acted as starter at the Championship Meeting, was very successful in getting his fields away in the sprints. ' In tho second heat of the 250yds Jones took inside running at the fust bond very sharply and blocked Nathan. Before the start of the final the starter called tho competitors together and cautioned them against such a proceeding. The two Auckland cracks, A. Jones and W. Farquhar, failed to uphold their reputations at the Championship Meeting. Some of the Auckland men the day before the sports were confident that Jones would carry oil the lOOyda end 250yds, and that Farquhar would b« first in the One Mile and Three Milea Flat, Jones could only got third in tho 230«d3, while Farquhar was unplaced in both dUtance events. There was great excitement in Napier on Saturday night over the Championship Meeting. All the athletic resorts were crowded with . athletes, the main topic of conversation being the disqualification of the two Aucklanders in the 440yds Hurdles. The excitement increased as night wore oa, and at eleven o’clock a. disgraceful scene occurred. The Secretary of the WelurigLon Club was struck by cue of the Aucklanders, and two Wellington representatives also came in for some cough handling.

Club. First.' Second. Third. Points. Auckland... 4 3 3 32 Canterbury ... 3 o 1 25 Wanganui 2 o A J2 Wellington 3 3 2 21 Hawke’s Bay ... . i 3 3 • 17 5 Dunedin 2 ‘ • — * -** 10 Manawatu. ■ ... i « . 6