SPORTS NEWS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 9 August 1945, Page 3

SPORTS NEWS

Saturday’s Seddon Shield Challenge On Saturday the Golden Bay-Motu-eka Rugby representatives will make their first challenge for the Seddon Shield since 1941, when they visited Greymouth and were beaten 15-0. The Bay team’s only matches since then have been against Nelson. For these games the team has not had a chance to play or even train together beforehand so that it remains something of an unknown quantity. In the first home-and-home game of the season, Nelson defeated Bay 22-6, piling up most of the points in the second half when the Bay players were tiring noticeably. In the return match Nelson won 14-11, but the result could quite easily have gone the other way. In several cases the players had never met before these games, let alone played together. In preparation for Saturday’s match, however, the 19 players selected to make the trip to Blenheim have all been in Motueka since Monday. A week’s hard training was planned, but this lias been interfered with by the wet weather. Nevertheless there is little doubt that the players will benefit from the coaching they are receiving and the team-work should improve as a consequence. The side includes a number of promising young players, and even if the coveted trophy remains in Marlborough after the game, the match should do a lot to help football in the Bay districts. Four of the players come from Collingwood, three from Takaka and 11 from Motueka. The team will travel to Blenheim on Friday morning. It will be managed by Mr Len Carruthers and accompanied by the two selectors, Messrs J. Holyoake and C. Ellery. A large crowd of supporters' is expected to visit Blenheim for the match. Handicap Reduced Latest of the Nelson Golf Club’s players to earn a reduction in-handi-cap is R. F. Stenhouse, who has been playing consistently well in recent weeks and who was docked four strokes after winning a recent flag match. He will now play off the 20-15 mark. Runner-up in the match was D. U. Strang. Another player who is likely to come to the notice of the handicappers shortly is J. Chapman, who did a round of 75 off-tfoe-stick to score a decisive win over N. McNamara in a Captain’s Trophy match. He had a row of nine bogies in the second nine. His handicap of 11-8 gave him a net 64. 12 Returned Me .a An interesting point about the Marlborough Rugby team which lifted the Seddon Shield from Buller is that. 12 of the players have returned from overseas service. ■ A letter of thanks' has been sent by the Marlborough Rugby Union to former All BlacK Charlie Oliver for his work in training the team. The gate takings for the match were approximately £2ll. Men’s Hockey Representatives The Nelson men’s hockey selector (Mr W. J. Terrill) has chosen the following players for representative training: Dawdall, Peacock, Cornish Dale (Air Force), Toms, Hunter, Gibbons, Rice (Federal), Ching, Stone, Laing (Stoke), Westrupp, Stewart, (J.), Jury, May-, st'/.’ (Waimai). Dominion Basketball Tournament Arrangements are well in hand for the New Zealand basketball tournament which is to be held in Christchurch from August 21 to 25. Twenty seven entries have been received. Seven of these teams will compete in the major section, nine in the second grade, and 11 in .the third grade, which will be decided in two sections. The major grade teams will compete for the New Zealand Cup, the Annie Brown Cup going to the runners-up. In 1938, Canterbury were joint holders with Wellington of the New Zealand Cup. The prospects of all teams will be hard to forecast, as there has been no tournament since 1941 (in which only North Island teams competed), and most teams will probably consist of new players. Golf Fixtures Postponed ‘ The fourth round of the Nelson Golf Club’s Encounter Shield competition was postponed on Saturday because of the stormy conditions and will now be played this week-end. Captain’s Trophy matches were also interfered with. All third round games in this competition must be completed by the coming week-end. The final round for the Maitai Golf Club’s Air Force Trophy was also postponed for a week. Jack v Jarvis Back Looking not greatly changed from when he went away five years ago. Jack Jarvis, professional lightweight boxing champion of New Zealand, is back in Wellington. He made his bow when he 1 was introduced from the Wellington Town Hall ring last week and the ringsiders showed their pleasure at his return by giving him a rousing reception. TetzlafT and Paewai The controversy in the north over the merits of the Auckland half backs, P. Tetzlaff and M. N. Paewai, appeared to have been more or less settled when the Auckland selector, Mr F. W. Lucas, nominated Tetzlaff for the position of half back in the North Island team. Mr Lucas is one of the North Island selectors, having with him Messrs N. A. .McKenzie (Hawkes Bay) and A. McDonald (Wellington) and it therefore came as something of a surprise when the team was announced this week to find that Paewai had been given the position behind thg scrum. Disappointing ' Because of recent Air Force postings, Corsairs are unable to field a team in the men’s indoor basketball knock-out. tournament. Corsairs had developed into a strong side, as was shown when they defeated Iron Duke A, the championship winners, in a recent friendly game. Cricket in Egypt ~ go T od cr icket is being played in tne Cairo League and the Inter-services Championships (writes a Dunedin soldier). Unfortunately, most wickets ar sand, with concrete pitches. There is a great demand for the few grass wickets available, and it is necessary to apply many months ahead, even for a Sunday game. One or two New are showing fine form with Bert Sutcliff e, the Auckland lefthander, has scored several centuries this season, and Jack Lamason has been most consistent with bat and hah. He made 100 against South Afucan Base at the end of June, and was then run out. New Zealand played South Africa in the inter-services competition on Ist July. Each side batted for three hours in a one-day m tch, New Zealand winning by 170 runs. Sutcliffe established a record for the El Alamein ground with a nock of 159 not out, thus beating the record of 150 not out made by the South African test player, Dudley Nourse. Lamason. compiled 41 and took three wickets for 21 runs. South Africa scored 92, and New Zealand 262 for eight wickets.

"PARS" FROM THE PLAYING FIELDS

Representative Hockey The Nelson Hockey Association has received a challenge for the Pope Shield—held by the women’s representative team—from Marlborough and has suggested that the game be played on 25th August. The Marlborough association also suggested a game between the men’s representatives. The Nelson executive agreed that this match could also be played cn 25th August provided Canterbury did not wish to visit Nelson on that date. An invitation to send a women’s team to Wellington on 18th August was also considered by the executive, but it was decided to advise Wellington that because of the Pope Shield game on the following Saturday this date was nj t suitable. If possible the game is to be played o n Ist September. Wellington also suggested that a Wellington second XI team visit Nelson on Bth September. This was agreed to. Five Selected Four players who took part ih the Sdcldon Shield districts’ Rugby trial match at Nelson on Saturday were selected for the South Island team to play North Island at Auckland at the end of the month. They were Edwards (Marlborough), Alexander (Buller), Mumm (Buller) and Pegler (West Coast). In addition G. Max (Nelson) was selected as emergency forward for the team. J. Shannon, who was considered the most likely Nelson candidate for the team, was not available. Conditions for Saturday’s match were about as bad as they could have been and the players—especially the backs — had little chance to impress the selectors with their ability. That the game was a financial loss was also unfortunate, and it must have been a great disappointment to the members of the Nelson union as they were primarily responsible for organising the fixture. The recommendation . made by the delegates of the five unions concerned —Buller, West Coast, Marlborough, Golden Bay-Motueka and Nelson —that the game should become an annual event has considerable merit. There is no doubt that it will give the selectors a chance to see more players than would otherwise be the case and it will ■give Rugby followers in the districts a chance to watch a big game. Murchison Represented Although Rugby is unfortunately not flourishing in Murchison at the present time, the district has gained one representative in the Golden Bay-Mo-tueka side to play Marlborough in Saturday’s Seddon Shield challenge. He is Ken Farrell, who has a place in the front row of the scrum. Farrell is a younger brother of W. Farrell who was in the 1940 Bay team, which, unheralded by any great ♦eputation, threw a bombshell into Rugby circles by soundly trouncing Buller 22-3 in the second Seddon Shield match of the season. The only members of that team who have gained selection again this year are D. Mason and A. Taylor. Farrell played a brilliant game for Motueka against Takaka a few weeks ago. News of the World Golf Tournament The £6OO first prize in the News of the World Professional Golf Tournament, concluded in England last week was woA by Reginald Horne, who is described by the British press as an “unknown.” This is the first time on record that a golfer without an established reputation has won this event. The News of the World Tournament was inaugurated in 1903. It carries prize money to the total value of £2OOO. The list of first prize winners since 1903, when James Braid, the grand old man of Scottish golf, was successful, reads like a portrait gallery pf all the elite in British golf during the past 40 years. Percy Alliss who was beaten 4 and 3 in this year’s final, won the principal event in 1933. At that time the total prize money was worth £IO4O, with £3OO to the winner. Road Cycling Two road cycle races are to be run by the Nelson Amateur Athletic and Cycling Club on Saturday. The senior event is a 25mile sealed handicap race to Appleby Bridge and return. The junior riders will take part in a 10mile race to Stoke and return. Both events will start at 2 o’clock from the Nelson Post Office. Th e junior race is the first of two post entry events which are to be held to select three riders to represent Nelson in a 10 mile race at Wellington. No racing cycles are to be used and all machines must be fitted with a brake.

Unbeaten Record With an unbeaten record for the series, Iron Duke A won the men’s interhouse indoor basketbail championship for 1945 with 26 points. Corsairs were in second place, four points away. The championship table is as follows:

Long Passes Help Opposition The best men’s game in last evening’s indoor basketball series was that between War hawk and Fire Brigade A. Long passes by the Fire Brigade team gave Brown and Leslie (Warhawk) every chance <to show to advantage with good intercepting. The teams appeared evenly matched in the first half, but Warhawk were on top i n the second and had a comfortable win by 23 points to 13. Convent O.G. A bad no difficulty in defeating Swimming Club, who have now had two losses and are out of the women’s knock-out tournament. Team Walks Off The Field A whole team walked off the field during a hockey match at Whangarei recently after a member of the team had been ordered off for alleged abuse to the umpire. The game was played between Mangapai and Whangarei High School. There were 16 minutes I to go and Mangapai was leading High School by 4 goals to 2. High School were attacking and the keeperstopped a hot shot with two hands, his stick being carried underneath his arm. One of the officiating umpires, Mr D. Thomson, jplew for a penalty corner, and then, realising that the keeper had not had his stick in his hands, reversed the decision to [ a penalty bully. Mangapai infringed in the bully and the umpire ordered it to be replayed. It was then that a Mangapai player is said to have abused the umpire, who ordered him off and the whole of the Mangapai team followed. When the case came before the Whangarei Hockey Umpires’ Association a Mangapai delegate said that the Mangapai teanr would refuse to play any games in which Mr Thomson was the controller. The association decided to leave the question with the umpires’ selector, Mr M. Patterson, to allocate the duties as he thought fit. Mangapai is the leading teain in the Whangarei men’s com-

w. D. L. Pts. Iron Duke A . 13 0 0 26 Corsairs . 11 0 2 22 Spitfire . 10 0 3 20 Fire Brigade A .. . 9 1 3 19 Air Force H.Q. .. . 8 2 3 18 Warhawk . 9 0 4 18 Public Service A . . 7 1 5 15 Public Service B . . 7 0 6 14 Fire Brigade B .. . 5 0 8 10 Y.P.C . 3 0 10 6 a.t.c. a . 2 0 11 4 Iron Duke B . 2 0 11 4 Scouts . 2 0 11 4 A.T.C. B 0 13 0