VARIOUS SPORTS

Northern Advocate, 19 June 1926, Page 11

VARIOUS SPORTS

Gene Tunney, American heavyweight boxer, has signed a contract to appear in a movie serial. j *** * * j The Loaguo football game has been ; started among the Sydney high schools, j formerly Rugby Union strongholds. j | The Indian Army hockey team was selected by a series of very careful trials. Representatives of no fewer than 130 regiments took part, and as each regiment has at least one firstclass team, the choice was made from fully 1400 crack players. * * * * The Northumberland Football Association has suspended a player for life and prohibited his entry into any football ground in the country because while a spectator at a football match j ho went on to the field, broke up the j game, and burst the ball by sticking a knife into it. « • * ♦ It is stated, that the office of assistant secretary to tho Marylebone j Cricket Club, which will be vacant at j the end of the coming season, is to be offered to J. L. Bryan, the Kent and England batsman, who is just eligible under the age limit laid down by the M.C.C. Ho visited Australia with the last English team. • * * * Marcel Thuru, who may visit America in tho near future, is a French boxer with prospects of climbing High in the game. Of 49 bouts he has won 46, and ho has met some good-class boxers. Thuru, who is a middleweight, is only 22 years of age. George Sumpter, the well-known ( Camara tennis player, is also a ropre- j ■ sentative footballer, and was playing j . on the wing for North Otago against Otago in tho match at Dunedin on June 3.

Tim Banner and Frank Schultz, the Australian professional runners, have left for England. They expect to be away twelve months, and, after doing England and engaging in all distances from 75yds to 440yds will leave for a tour of Europe and America. Banner will challenge anyone in tho world from 75yds to 130yds, and Schultz from 230yds to 440yds.

The wicket at Lord’s must have been a holy terror in the old days. R. Daft, in a book of reminiscences, states that in 1870 he went in to bat at Lord’s with a towel wrapped round his head, after Summers, the Notts player, had suffered so terrible a blow on the temple from a fast-rising ball from Platts that he died a few days later

J. Earlam (Runcorn), the English champion, set up a new world’s billiard record by returning an average of 83 in April in his British Empire amateur championship match with P. W. Rutledge (South Africa) at. Thurston's. At the second session he carried an unfinished break Of 213, all of which were scored off the red ball. He afterwards had 92 and 97 (unfinished), totalling 49,9 in little more than an hour. Rutledge scored only 116, his best runs being 43 and 45.

Glasgow Academicals, who have been so prominent in Scottish Rugby circles since tho war, have also a great international record to their credit. Since the start of the inter-country games in 1871 the “Accies" had up to the French match this year 51 members of the club who had obtained their “caps!” With W. M. Simmers getting the honours for the Welsh match, when he took the place o| A. C. Wallace, . who has just returned to Australia, the record was increased to 52. I

W. E. Merritt, star three-quarter and captain of the Christchurch Boys’ High School fifteen, is a versatile chap, says the Su». Recently in the Soccer six-a-side tourney, he scored most of the goals for the Sumner team that won the third-grade event. He played a great game, his speed and swerve being very noticeable. Before he went to the Boys’ High School,' Merritt played Soccer for the South Island primary schools’ team. IJe is a member of the Sumner Club.

Of the four British officers in the Indian Army hockey team a<t present touring Hew Zealand, three have had considerable experience in the game. Captain D. T. Cowan, M.C., was tried for Scotland; Captain V. M. H. Cox played for the Aldershot Command, and Captain C. E. Bellehamber played for Beckenham. Captain A. A. Alexander is an ex-Rugby football player.

That baseball is a great , help to a cricketer in fielding is shown by the great displays given in the field by A. Kippax and T. J. E. Andrews. It is not generally known that W. H. Pon.sford, the Victorian batsman now in England, is also an ardent baseball enthusiast. He plays with the Eitzroy Club, and occupies the position of catcher. Ponsford recently said that his baseball activities in the winter keeps him fit for cricket, and helps both his batting and fielding.

Amazing results have been achieved at the now Madison Square Garden, Hew York. In three months from its opening the 12 fights staged there attracted altogether 100,000 people, and the receipt’s amounted to over 500,000 dollars. p or the Harry Greb-Tirrer Flowers fight the takings wore nearly £20,000.