Flashes From Fields Of Sport Abroad

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6864, 21 May 1932, Page 13

Flashes From Fields Of Sport Abroad

The Straight Left Again. Detailed reports, in Australian papers, of the boxing contest in which Alan Campbell, New Zealand’s heavyweight champion, was beaten by Ambrose Palmer, Victorian middleweight to lightheavyweight, at the Sydney Stadium, the referee stopping the bout in the ninth round, show that the New Zealander had no stop for Palmer’s straight lefts, or for his uppercuts. He was altogether 100 inexperienced for the

lighter man. Writing in the Sydney “Sun,” W. F. Corbett says: “His right was Campbell’s only dangerous blow, hut early in the battle he had expended all its force. He had no effective guard for Palmer’s uppercuts, and though he stopped or evaded many of Palmer’s left swings and hooks, he failed after a while to avoid Palmer’s punishing straight left. . . . Campbell made Palmer miss at times, but he had no counter to gain full value from these tactics.” ■sf vfr League Tourists’ Pay

The members of the English Rugby League team which is on its way to Australia and New Zealand receive £1 a week each afloat (out and home), £1 10/- a week each during the team’s stay in Australia and New Zealand, and onethird of the profits of the tour divided among them—the grant in 1924 was £9l each and in 1928 it was £136 Before they left Home the players also received £lO each. Wives of players are paid £2 a week each while the team is away, with five shillings for each child under 14. There is a touch of Yorkshire caution in the fact that the payment of the children’s allowances is computed on the number at the time of the selection of the players 1

11. W. Austin, famous young English tennis player, recently underwent two operations to his nose. That accounts for his absence from the British team in the first of this year’s Davis Cup matches, and probably for his moderate form in some recent games.

The New' Zealand Rugby Union’s altitude of reverent submission to the laws framed by the self-named International Rugby Board, which really is not international, reminds us of the favourite pose of British heavy-weight boxers—a horizontal one.

A footballer of our acquaintance remarked, the other day, that the New Zealand Rugby Union’s Management Committee appeared to have been bitten by some bug. He must have been thinking Baxtcriologically. of course.

The 0.9 2-5 which Frank Wykoff, of Southern California, set last year has not yet been accepted as a world’s record for 100 yards. So Eddie Tolan’s 0.9 Jis still the official record. Robert Kicsel, of Hie University of California, recently tied with Tolan’s time. The United States will certainly have a hot team of sprinters for the Olympic Games.

Jack Johnson, once heavyweight boxing champion of the world, now 53 years of age and a resident of Los Angeles, recently sought from the California State Athletic Commission a permit to engage in exhibition matches with some sparring partners. But t lie commission classed him as “physically unfit,” and suspended him indefinitely from ring activities. The commission has an age-limit of 35 for boxers. * * * Sport!

Very far from tlie enjoyment of cricket as a game was an incident at Bathurst, New South Wales, a few days ago. In a match with Macquarie, Railway won on the first innings, and so deprived Macquarie of the district premiership. Railway elected to have a second knock. Macquarie then made a farce of the game by howling underarm and sending down balls yards wide of the wicket. The president of the District Cricket Association walked on to the field and remonstrated with the players—and was punched on the nose by a Macquarie player!

The Barbarians, a Rugby club formed in Great Britain for Easter tours, had 14 international players, including Irish and Scottish representatives as well as Englishmen, in the team when they beat Cardiff, by 14 points to 8, at Easter. Members of the British team which toured New Zealand in 1930 who played in this match were C. D. Aarvold, B. H. Black, and J. McD. Hodgson (for Barbarians), and 11. M. Bowcott (for Cardiff). All four were prominent.

G. Hodgson, the South African horn and bred fast-medium bowler who took five w'ickets for 93 runs, in a score of 410 for nine wickets, for Lancashire against the New Zealand cricket team last year, has made quite a good start for the new season at Home, with his four for 42 against Derbyshire, on a wicket which, considering the rain that has fallen in England lately', probably did not suit him particularly well.

Japan is preparing to send a team of 200 competitors to the Olympic Games this year. Among them is Tyuati Nambu, who is claimed to have made a running broad jump of 26ft 2 l-Bin, though that has not yet been passed as a world’s record to displace the 26ft o.}in of Silvio Cator, of Haiti. I * * French Rugby Discipline. Satisfaction is felt in France at the action of the French Rugby Federation’s Disciplinary Commission against unruly players and spectators. Following attacks by the crowd on a referee, the ground at Ageri has been closed, and no matches will be played on it till January next. According to a report of the incidents, the referee, after being insulted, was kicked and struck, and the taxi-cab in which he took refuge was stoned. The Disciplinary Commission has also suspended for life a player accused of brutal play. According to the “Athlete,” of Bordeaux, some progress has been made toward a settlement ot the split between the National bederation and the so-called dissident body—the Amateur Rugby Union. Outstanding difficulties arc: The inclusion or otherwise in the Disciplinary Commission of some of the former internationals who have been trying to heal the split; the strength of the representation on the National Council of members of the Amateur Union; and the pooling of receipts from championship games.

Here’s a good hint for shot-pullers. John Kuck, one of the world’s leading shot-putters, has been doing some training at Long Beach, in California, in preparation for the Olympic Games. He says that the sand is a handicap in tossing the shot for distance, but that the footsteps in it illustrate faults of form

Victoria has “pinched” Western Australia’s most promising young cricketer, E. Bromley, who scored a brilliant 78 for his State against the Springboks, and who lias been induced to go to Melbourne, where he has joined the St. Hilda Club. Still, the “pinching” is not altogether inexcusable, for some overtures had been made to Bromley from Worcestershire.

Why Not A Visit From India? The Indian cricket team now touring England is not as young as it was anticipated to be before the selection was made. The average age of the players is exactly 28 years and a-half. A very good, and younger, team,could be picked in India, and if the Australian Board of Cricket Control, as constituted nowadays, docs not show a little more sportsmanship in the matter of visits to New Zealand, the New Zealand Cricket Council could very well consider the advisability of inviting India to send a team to the Dominion in the 1033-34-season here. # * * Jackson Scholz, who won the 200 metres race at the Olympic Games’ in Paris in 1924, and who subsequently toured New Zealand, is making a big

effort to recover bis old form, in the hopes of being chosen as one of the United States representatives at this year’s Olympic Games. He must be a real optimist. * # * A Fine All-Rounder. Nazir Ali, who bowled so well for the Indian cricket team against Sussex, is a right-hand medium-fast bowler who is reported to be able to swing or spin the ball either way. He is a very line all-rounder. At one time lie had some coaching from Jack Newman. After he left Aligarh University in 1926, Nazir Ali bad a good deal of cricket in England, and lie enjoys the distinction of being tbs first and only Indian to take Don Bradman’s wicket; in the Club Cricket Conference’s match with the Australian team of 1960, at Lord’s, he had Bradman caught off bis bowling when that batsman had scored 70 runs in 75 minutes. In four years of cricket in England Nazir Ali scored 30 centuries, three of them being over 200, and in 1930 be had an average of 127 runs an innings. He is 26 years of age. * •* * Wonderful Running. Unless Ben Eastman, of Stanford University, breaks down, the other quartcrmilers and lialf-milers at the Olympic Games at Los Angeles will have a heartbreaking task in chasing this tall, slim American. When, a few weeks ago, on a circular track of earth and cinders, he knocked a full second off the world’s quarter-mile record which had stood since 1916, when Ted Meredith set it, Eastman made no finishing spurt, for be was well ahead of the field, the next man finishing 13 yards behind him. There were four official timekeepers, all approved by the American Amateur Athletic Union, and three of them agreed on 0.46 2-5, the other watch showing just a shade over that time. As the track, remeasured, was three inches over 440 yards, and the very light breeze did not help the runner, there seems no doubt that Eastman’s 0.46 2-5 will be passed as a new record. A fortnight later, on the same track, Eastman won a half-mile in 1.51 3-5, knocking 3-10 sec off Otto Pcltzcr’s world’s record. This time he won by 34vds. Again were all the conditions for records complied with. The two new records were established in inter-club meets. Eastman is only 20 years of age.