THE SPORTING WORLD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 1 July 1939, Page 3

THE SPORTING WORLD

BY “ERA”

Best Rifle Shots. Who are the best rifle shots in the world? Last year in the world wide team international match, out of 250 entries. Russians occupied the first six places. In Russia the bull’s-eye is smaller than a halfpenny. Almost every citi- I zen. man and woman, belongs to one of the many rifle clubs. Moscow Club has many thousands of members. Nelson Wrestling Season Opens The Nelson Wrestling Association is to be congratulated in obtaining a bout between Lofty Blomfield and Paul Boesch. There is every prospect of an interesting match especially if Boesch gets going with his spectacular dropkicks. Lofty needs no introduction to local wrestling enthusiasts. He has met the best, and he has not yet been

decisively beaten—and always in his matches there is the quality of excitement that has the watchers out of their seats in the roar of partisanship. There is no doubt if Lofty is one of the contestants a good bout is assured.

Paul Boesch was in New Zealand three years ago. He was voted one of the best and most popular matmen who had visited the country. He returns here this season with an even greater reputation. In the meantime he has been wrestling prominently in various parts of the United States, and his opponents have been among the best wrestlers of the present day. Consequently, he has added greatly to his repertoire of holds, which guarantees that he will be even more popular this season. Boesch specialises in dropkicks and flying tackles which are always a danger to his opponents, and he has snatched victory with them on many occasions. These two men have already met once this season—at Auckland early last month, when Lofty won by two falls to one. Three Years in Big Cricket. Denis Compton, Britain's brightest ! batting Star, was 21 on 23rd May. His coming of age heralds three years in front rank cricket, and a meteoric rise to fame that reads like a fairy dream come true. This Hendon schoolboy follows closely in the footsteps of Pasty Hendren, also football winger and Middlesex cricketBoth were programme boys at Lord’s Both pulled the roller to the captain's orders, and both went through drudgery of net bowling. But Compton’s promotion has been quicker than that of Hendren. Compton’s second team apprenticeship was remarkably short. He got into the first eleven against Sussex for the annual Whitsuntide Lord's fixture in 1936, and since has never looked back. Nearly 1000 runs in his first season, a Test match against New Zealand in a 1937, and 100 in his debut as the youngest cricketer ever to play against Australia last season. The young Middlesex star has a habit that recalls a classic story of Bobby Abel, the famous Surrey player. It is told of Abel that after he had made a score topping 300 he was found in the pavilion practising strokes before the t mirror. When asked if he was not satisfied he said: “Yes, but I cannot think why that ball got me out.” Compton reveals the same interest in the mistakes he makes in batting, and the mirror at Lord’s works overtime.

Various Pars from Here and There

| Hurt Again •j Gerry Brand. Springbok full-back, is ■ cut of action again with a pulled mus- ) cle. It may be remembered that he • suffered a similar injury before the se- ■ eond Test with the British team last ■ I year, an injury which led to the report ! that he had retired from Rugby. Per--1 haps he will definitely be out this time. Imperial Cricket ! The Imperial Cricket Conference held last month was attended by representatives of the Marylebone Cricket Club, New Zealand. Australia, South Africa, the West Indies and India, and the following future tours were arranged : 1942: Australians in England. 1942- M.C.C. in West Indies. 1943: Indians in England. 1943- M.C.C. in South Africa. 1944- M.C.C. in Australia. 1945: South Africans in England. 1946; Australians in England. 1946-47 : M.C.C. in New Zealand (provisionally).

No arrangements have yet been settled for 1941 and 1944. It was agreed that there should be no tours in 194142 and 1945-46.

A Tactful Move in Rugby There is Rugby football, ana—nug’oy football. While a majority are content to treat the game as a mere form of exercise, made up of scrums, scuffling, line-outs, running, and kicking in any sore of order, the enterprising few think in terms of team-work and tactics and try to outwit their opponents with carefully planned moves. Rugby then becomes a doubly fascinating game. A move, that has been successful on a number of occasions in Nelson senior football, is when the blind-side wing three-quarter has swung round quickly between his half and first five-eighth on the open side and by so doing has given the overlap to the other wing, who is left unmarked. This move, sometimes called the “K” move, was exploited by the Swansea team in defeating the 1935 All Blacks. There are several variations of it. To get full enjoyment out of Rugby, all sides should try to exploit to the full the possibilities of the game. There is surely something more important than brawn. It has been said that if constant planning of such moves were arranged throughout the season, no player would exhaust all the combinations in the course of his football career. If only three inside backs are working hand-in-hand, there are at least sixteen different means by which they can open up the game from a set scrummage, and almost all of them are effective if properly carried out. Club captains are recommended, as an exercise in tactics, to work out for themselves these sixteen openings.

Electric Buzzers for Boat Crew Because the cheering crowds on the j banks sometimes made it difficult for j the university crew to hear the in- i structions given by their cox. electric buzzers were fitted in the Cambridge | boat for this year’s boat race. Australia Have a Good Chance Australia must have a great chance j lof regaining the Davis Cup. after 20 ! years, and if that should happen the next contest will be in Melbourne early | in 1940. As the visit of the team of professional players—Elsworth Vines. | Donald Budge. Fred Perry, and W. Tilden or Nusslein —seems assured. I there should be an orgy of first-class j tennis in Australia next year. • N.Z. Golf Lure. It appears that there will not be j such a strong professional interstate j entry for this year’s Australian golfj open, amateur, and professional championships* which will be held in Mel- j bourne in August says the Mel- j bourne “Argus.” With the three rich j New Zealand Centennial tournaments in October, with £2OOO of prize money, j many of the leading professionals have j stated that they will go to the Domin- j ion in preference to the Australian j championship meeting, because o; financial attraction. Next Ryder Cup. This year’s Ryder Cup match is lo be played in the United States, and the cnurse at Ponte Vedra Beach. Florida, Mas been chosen for the scene of the biennial contest between the professionals of Great Britain and those of United States. The course is in a new development area in Florida, where the ‘year round resort.” Skirting the Atlantic seaboard, It is cut up by lakes and lagoons, and at about every hole there is a drive over water of some sort, and, indeed, the ninth green is just an island in one of the lagoons.

The British team will stay at the large hotel on the seafront, which is only a few steps from the golf clubhouse. At present it is mostly open country, for only part of the new site has been developed into its building lots - but if and when all the proposed lots are taken up, then the course looks like being confined all round by the builder, and must lose much of its present charm. Football Kit Worth £4O If a member of the Australian Wallabies Rugby team to tour England could dress in all the equipment provided for him, he would be worth approximately £4O. Members of the team, at the expense of the Australian authorities, are being provided with a kit worth that amount. Each will receive a blazer, pullover, scarf, ties and a rug. football shorts and socks, and —this is the splendidferous part—two pairs of made-to-measure football boots. On top of that players will receive a canvas kitbag each. The team leaves Sydney on 21st July, arriving at London on the last day of August, and the first match will be played sixteen days after arrival.

Sport, Not Politics In spite of rumours to the contrary, the English Amateur Swimming Association has confirmed the return fixture with Germany at Erfurt this summer. Germany offered 29th and 30th July* for the two-day fixture, but the A.S.A. has now asked for a postponement until sth and 6th August. The committee's decision will meet with approval from those who claim that politics have no part in sport, but there wil! be open resentment from a large body of swimmers and officials, who will point out that swimming, like other sports, is under strict State administration and control. The opposition points out that England should have followed the example of Fiance, which has indefinitely postponed an annual sporting fixture with Germany. The official table published recently of the best performances during 1938 shows that German standards are much below those of two years ago, when the German team was specially trained for the Berlin Olympic Games. The table of 36 events, individual and team, shows that only six new records were established last year, and that thei e has been a marked falling off in the times set up in all the free-style events for men and Women.

Be Quick Off the Mark Flal-footedness is a bad fault in Rugby. One reason why so many passing movements fail in games is lack of speed off the mark; that sudden acceleration that taken an opponent by surprise. On most occasions when a centre three-quarter is waiting for the ball from a set scrum, he should be striding along at a steady pace above two yards behind his second five-eighth. If he is on his toes, the movement has good chance of success. Each back must accelerate as he receives the ball—take it on the burst. Only in that way can the three-quar-ter line move at lop speed. During the passing practices of a well-known New Zealand club team some years ago. the coach shouted a staccato “burst” as each player was about to receive the ball. In itself, such a change of pace is often enough to make a defender mistime his tackle. Most backs have some speed and they should practise short sprints in order to increase it. But Nature has not endowed all with the body-swing that can make their running more elusive. Fortunately, this, too, can be acquired by practice. A danger to be guarded against is that of stide-stepping inwards from the wing. When this is overdone, players lose pace, and are inclined to keep on running or side-stepping to- ; wards the middle of the field where defending forwards are waiting to receive them. This is a fault tha,t many wings are prone to commit. Summarised then, pace and intelligence between them form the basis of modern attack. Speed off the mark can male 3 even a mediocre club fifteen 50 per cent, better than its most ardent supporters hoped.