SPORT IN BRITAIN

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4328, 24 August 1937, Page 7

SPORT IN BRITAIN

LONDON, June 17. ATHLETICS. At long last there seems a fair prospect of a solution of the unhappy dispute which has overshadowed athletics in Ireland these past 10 years and more. When the North of Ireland was recognised 15 years ago as a separate entity for the purposes of government it was obvious that before very long the club and athletes of the area would object to government by the Irish Free State. When the Northern Ireland Association was set up it quite naturally met with fierce opposition from the existing body which claimed^ still to control the whole of Ireland. Years of wrangling ensued. The Amateur Athletic Association of this country sought to act as mediator. A conference followed, and, after a discussion lasting many hours, the Free State agreed to recognise the North of Ireland as a separate entity. All seemed well, but, alas, the two bodies could not agree as to the flag under which Ireland should compete when a joint committee chose an international team. Finally the International Amateur Athletic Federation took a hand and notified the Irish Free State body that it must relinquish the right to control athletics in the North of Ireland. The National A. and C.A. was, however, obdurate, and refused to obey. Now the climax has been reached, and the I. has expelled the N.A.C.A. from membership, which means, of course, that the recalcitrant Irishmen have neither part nor lot in the government of athletics even in then own portion of Ireland. Some of them declare that they still mean to fight. Surely they must recognise that their cause is lost. It has already done almost incalculable harm to the sport in the Free State, not one of whose athletes could compete in the last Olympic Games. The lot of these athletes has just been made happier by the formation of the Irish Amateur Athletic Union, which is affiliated to the International Federation. It Las, however, been pointed out to the federation that the new body’s title is not strictly accurate since its operations do not cover the whole of Ireland, but are limited to the Free State. Doubtless a change in title to meet the circumstances will be made. in the meantime every friend of the Free State will rejoice that her brilliant athletes may now be seen in competition with those of other nations. Already it is certain that some of them will visit London next month and compete in the A.A A. championships. BOXING. Despite the big money associated with boxing sentiment still has its place in the sport. Sitting at the ringside on Tuesdav, when Tommy Farr so thoroughly disposed of Walter Neusel one felt a thrill of pride in knowing that a y native of these islands had at last beaten the man before whom Jack Petersen and Ben Foord had had to bow. Little more than six months a"0 Farr was regarded as a quite ordinary fighter, and as daringly presumptuous in aspiring to the championship of Britain. How differently he is regarded to-day. In the short ei Sfit minutes during which his fight with Neusel proceeded the Welshman showed himself in every way the superior. One realises that it is easy to exaggera e the virtues of the ruling star, but taking an entirelv calm and dispassionate view of Farr it is not claiming too much to say that he is the best British heavv-weiglit since the war. Farr, however, has not reached the end ot liis tether. Indeed, he seems well_ on the way to the heavy-weight championship of'the world, an honour which has not fallen to a Briton since the days of Boh Fitzsimmons, the Cormshman. There seems no reason why the Welshman should not succeed in Ins ambition. CRICKET. What a world of difference it would make to the New Zealand team if they could only gain that confidence that comes of a good win or two. Against Middlesex, who had just come from a notable single innings triumph over redoubtable Yorkshire, it looked as it the Dominion players were at length goiug to effect something which would establish their reputation and at the same time put them on good terms with themselves. Unfortunately rain stepped in and robbed the tourists of their threat chance of victory. Just previously they had met Worcester and suifered another defeat, although the match was not without its compensations. G. L. Weir had the satisfaction of notching the first century of the tour in a noble effort to stem the tide. But the match had really been lost in the early stages when New Zealand s reply to the county’s total 0/4 amounted to no more than 154 The game at Lord’s ran quite a different course. Thunderstorms over the weekend had their effect on the pitch, and scoring did not run particularly high. The tourists’ lead of 56 on the first innings was attributable to good allround batting, the captain showing the way with 61, and excellent bowling by J. A. Dunning, with six wickets for 59. Th« latter is steadily building up a reputation as the most deadly of the visitor’s bowlers. H. G. Vivian’s 73 was the outstanding feature of New Zealand’s second innings score of 217 —by no means a bad total on the rainaffected wicket. It was a thousand pities the game could not be finished, for Middlesex would certainly have been hard put to it to score the 270 runs necessary to win. The honours were Now Zealand’s. Since last week Sussex have gone Lthe head of the county championship table and have lost the position. They certainly earned their place when they recorded a good win over Gloucester. Walter Hammond, with a glorious knock of 160. did his best to save the westerners from defeat when all was lost, and Sussex had some uneasy moments before winning by five wickets. Not for the first time a team leading in the championship race has suffered from its anxiety to keep in front. In the second match of the Horsham week Sussex met Derbyshire, and their display against the champions was too bad to be true. Alderman (50 and 103), Worthington (90 and 133 not out), and Pope (86) all took heavy toll of the Sussex bowling, whereas the southern batsmen for the most part failed ignominiously, with the result that Derbyshire eventually won after an early ’ declaration in the second

innings by 281 runs. This was the first defeat sustained by Sussex this season. Reference has been made to Yorkshire’s innings defeat by Middlesex. It was the first time the Northrons had suffered this indignity since 1934. _ A fine innings by the veteran, Sutcliffe, was the main feature of Yorkshire’s first iunings. The Middlesex batting, in a total of 371, was singularly even. R. W. V. Robbins was top scorer with 65. and every man on the side except Simms, reached double figures. Although overnight rain greatly helped the Metropolitan side, they certainly deserve congratulations on their victory. Yorkshire quickly made amends for'this heavy reverse. They travelled on to Tonbridge, where in a couple of days they in turn inflicted an innings reverse on Kent. The hop county are out of tuck just now. They sadly miss the batting of the injured Fagg, while it looks as if the retirement of that marvellous little slow bowler, Freeman, had been premature. Hutton’s fourth century was a considerable factor in Yorkshire’s victory, although Verity’s eleven wickets in the match helped considerably. Beyond all question Walter Hammond is the most popular cricketer of the day. Fresh from his dashing performance at Horsham, he appeared at Brentwood, where Gloucester were meeting Essex. The latter began the season very well, but the absence of reliable batsmen is telling its tale. Lancashire beat them with an innings to spare last Friday. They should have made more than 199 against Gloucester on a good wicket, despite the bowling of Goddard, who captured seven wickets for 84. Sunday’s rain had done its work when Gloucester went in. That made no difference to Hammond. He played another glorious innings of 154. Then his captain declared and Essex were dismissed a second time for 84. Again Goddard was the instrument of destruction, and he had the splendid aggregate in the match of 12 wuckets for 126. Goddard began his career as a fast bowler, hut as he advanced in years he developed into a spin bowler, and now he is one of the most dangerous bowlers of that type of ball in the game. FOOTBALL. Space' must be found to congratulate Sir Charles Clegg, president of the Football Association, on his eightyseventh birthday. Sir Charles and his almost equally famous brother, William, were members of the Sheffield Club nearly 70 years ago. He appeared in the very first match that England played against Scotland in 1872. Later he took up refereeing, and had charge of the cup finals in 1881 and 1891. Sir Charles has been president of the Football Association since 1923, when he succeeded to the office on the death of Lord Kinnaird. In his youth Sir Charles distinguished himself on the athletic track. Indeed, he was one of the most popular figures in most sports to be found in South Yorkshire. • GOLF. British golfers made a bold bid for the French amateur title. Three of them—H. H. Bentley, H. Longhurst, and H. Illingworth—figured in the last eight, and the first two worked their | wa" into the semi-final. Here Bentlej , went down before Jacques Leglise, who beat the winner of 1931 and 1932 by 3 and 1 Longhurst overcame Yan le Quellec, the French amateur native champion of 1933 by 3 and 2. The former Cambridge captain did not perhaps show his best form against Leglise in the final, but at all events he can be warmly praised for the way in which time and again he fought hack when his opponent appeared to have the game at his mercy. It was only by one hole that the Frenchman eventually triumphed. Opinions will always differ as to whether a golfer should keep in continuous match practice or have an occasional rest from play. Robert Sweeney showed yesterday that a break in one’s golf is not always harmful. He twice went round the West Herts course in 137 strokes. His first round of 69 beat the amateur record for the course, and his second of 68 tied with the professional best. Since he won at Sandwich in the amateur championship Sweeney has only played four rounds. Beyond all question he has few superiors, amateur or professional, at the moment, and should go very close to winning the open championship. If figures go for anything, Ralph Guldahl is the finest golfer in the world. His 281 in winning the American open championship is two strokes better than the best score by the winner of our open. This was accomplished by three men —Gene Sarazen, Henry Cotton. and Alfred Perry. Guldahl’s success earned him a place in the Ryder Cup team, and, following custom, he will lead the Americans, playing our champion, Alfred Paclgham. LAWN TENNIS. There are still old-fashioned people who say that there shall be no seeding in sport, and that every competitor should take his chance of meeting a whale or a minnow from the start. It is perhaps the more sporting view, but there are so many advantages in keeping the “ whales ” apart until the later stages that those responsible for the conduct of the Wimbledon tournament j are not likely to go back to the old order of things. A study of the seeded list for next week’s matches makes the retention of the Davis Cup look very unlikely, for H. W. Austin is the only British player in the chosen eight. The United States has three, Germany two, Czechoslovakia one, and Australia one. The omission of Jack Crawford from the list is probably based on his indifferent show against America in the Davis Cup if illness had not kept him out of the tournament- Adrian Quist would assuredly have made a second representative for his native land, Australia. There has been such a levelling up in tennis that it will not be surprising if some of the seeded players strike trouble early on. If Crawford strikes his best form, for instance. R. Menzel will have to fight desperately to win on the first_ afternoon, while there are great possibilities about C. E. Hare and E. J. Filby. As regards the women players, it is good to know that Helen Jacobs is in full practice again, and will not lose her title without a supreme effort. Prob- j ably the strongest challenge will come from Mrs S. Sperling, although Siguorita Lizana has been preparing for the great test with such thoroughness that she may emerge victorious, while patriotic English men and women arc hoping to see Miss Dorothy Round recover her title and prestige.