Flashes From Fields of Sport Abroad

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6841, 23 April 1932, Page 10

Flashes From Fields of Sport Abroad

Over The Top! I'or its international Rugby match with England, a few weeks ago, Ireland had a new scrum-half, 13. M. Sheehan, who in cluh football plays for London Irish and Young Munslers. He is described as being full of tricks, and an entertaining player to watch. But there is one trick of his that throws a sidelight on the methods of wing-forwards in the Home countries, about which people who object to the New Zealand wing-forward say little. In Ireland's match with England Sheehan went after the English scrum-half, not around the scrum, but over the top of it, thus eluding the legs of the English wing-for-wards ! ■K* vfr Arne Borg, famous Swedish swimmer, holder of many world’s records, has become a boxing promoter in Copenhagen. In partnership with him is Otto von Porat, the Norwegian heavyweight champion, who has had many contests in the United States of America. * * •» British Soccer Clubs’ Troubles. In a speech at Leeds, on the business side of Association football, the chairman of the Leeds United Club, Eric Clarke, declared that only six of the big professional Soccer clubs in Great Britain—Arsenal. Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa, and West Bromwich Albion—are making profits nowadays. No other team, he declared, is doing more than barely making ends meet, “I can imagine the day,” he said, “when the professional footballer will no longer he paid a weekly salary and trained, but will he paid for each match in which lie plays and will he left to fend for himself and keep himself in training during the week. Many players may he out of work during the coming summer because clulis cannot pay them summer wages.” •J*’ "A* Ireland was the last Rugby-playing country to pick a specialist hooker for the front of a scrum, and she is the first to discard tile expert hooker from international matches. The Irish team which was beaten by England a few weeks ago had no regular honker, the selectors having decided that the “initial shove” was the thing to rely on for getting the ball from the scrums. # <>;- * Dwight Davis Is Annoyed 'flic United States Lawn Tennis Association’s decision that its Davis Cup players shall not take part in the Wimbledon tournament this year has displeased Dwight F. Davis, the donor of the cup. Speaking to members of the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, in London recently, he said: “I feel strongly on this point, and I have been in touch by correspondence with our people in regard to the matter. I have great hopes that, our young players will be at Wimbledon. I regard Wimbledon as pre-eminent among the lawn tennis championships of the world.” vr* vf Slow-Motion Rugby. Besides “dropping” W. H. Sobey and R. S. Spong, and bringing in a couple of heavier half-hacks, the selectors of England’s Rugby team to play Ireland changed their centre three-quarters. The result was that England had a much heftier set of hacks than it had had for years. Writing in the “Sunday Times,” D. R. Gent, formerly famous as a Welsh back, says that the English backs, apart from the wing three-quar-ters, who were not given a real chance, were also slow and heavy-footed, often in marked contrast to the movements of the other side. “1 am not going to say,” he adds, "that all this slowness was due to the hacks, for the extremely had heeling of the forwards was also an important factor. When the backs did get clear the men all seemed to be slow, and the ball seemed to be passed equally slowly. There must be a quickcning-up of the back play.” Each side scored one converted try, but two penalty goals to England, against Ireland’s one penalty goal, gave the Englishmen their win by II points to eight. # * * “Greg” George Passes On After an illness lasting for about two years, William “Greg” George, a very tine Rugby live-eighth for New South Wales only a few years ago, died recently. George toured New Zealand as a member of the New South Wales teams of 1923 and 1925. lie represented his State from 1923 until 1929. Writing about George, in a Sydney paper, one of his comrades, E. N. Greatorex, says: “I shall never forget his most brilliant display—against the formidable All Blacks in 1923, at Christchurch. At the start of the game he received a terrific kick in the face, which split his mouth open. He played right through, smeared in blood, and when (lie final whistle blew he walked off, grinning, to receive hospital treatment.” New Zealand won that match by 34 points to six.

Not The Old Dempsey.

After watching Jack Dempsey, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, in one of his recent four-round bouts, Robert Edgren, noted. American boxing critic, said: “There is still an astonishing kick in Dempsey’s punch. It seemed to me that his judgment of distance and timing, and general accuracy in hitting, were first-class. Aside from this, he did not look like the old Dempsey in action. Some of his movements seemed uncertain and awkward, and no one remembering the catlike Dempsey of years ago can imagine his moving uncertainly or awkwardly.”