All Sorts of Sport.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 798, 15 October 1915, Page 24

All Sorts of Sport.

By Touchline

THE Canterbury Centre of the New . Zealand Amateur Athletic Association held its annual meeting last Friday night. Which prompts me to ask the question, Is the Wellington Centre going to take up its_ duties this season? It was a very moribund affair last year.

One item from the Canterbury Centre's annual report is worth reproducing:—"The stirring deeds on the battlefields during the last year have proved conclusively that the physical and mental training given to men by participating in athletic pursuits is of enormous value to the manhood of the country in. times of war, and can be of scarcely less value in times of peace in keeping men fit for their daily duties." Lance Todd, the Auckland Rugby representative, who took up the League game, and went to England, is a second lieutenant in. the New 'Zealand contingent of soldiers raised in. .the Old Land. Besides being'a good footballer, Todd was also no mean performer as a. hurdler, being a pupil of .George Smith, Auckland's champion athlete and footballer. "Solar Plexus," the Sydney "Referee's" boxing expert, has been viewing •the moving pictures of the Jess WillardJack Johnson fight for the world's championship.' His opinion is that the .pictures do not substantiate the. suggestion that "the negro did not do his best in the. battle for the defence of his title. Fred Dyer, the Welsh boxer, who recently toured the Fuller vaudeville circuit, was booked to meet Les Darcy for the middle-weight boxing championship of the world at the Sydney Stadium last Saturday night.

George W. Hutson, reported killed in action, was a brilliant runner, holding the one' and three males chamt>ionships of the British Army, and threequarter mile amateur world's record (3mins 9 3-ssces). Hutson was the present holder N -of the title of four miles amateur champion of England, having also won the championship in the two previous years. He also won the onemile championship last year, his time being 4mins 23secs. Hutson was two •miles champion of Austria, and once he secured the three miles championship of Sweden.

It is no novelty for California to produce a youth of great ability, else greater surprise might be manifested in the performance of Roland Roberts, aged 17, who won the men's singles championship at a recent tennis tournament. Roberts has been regarded as likely to take a high place in, the tennis world for the last year or two, as he was about t'li© best player in a club that has for its object the fostering of youthful talent.

An Australian writer says:—"The defeat of J. Hannan at the hands of W. Webb at Wanganui for the championship may mark a new era in. _ the sculling world, as Charles Towns is anxious to meet the winner „in his old rival, Webb. It is understood that Towns ran find backing to the extent of £200 oil this side to meet Webb.either on the Parramatta or on the Wanganui, the man giving way as to course to receive £50 expenses. ' . . The pair had a great race in 190/, when Webb won after a famous struggle for a mile and a quarter, and only after two fouls had occurred up to the distance named.

Foxs'hall Keene, captain of America's polo team, from whom the British team won .back the Cup last year, is a true sport. He refuses to challenge Britain at the present crisis for the Polo Cup. He says: 1 'England took the Cup away in fair play. Of the army, players who did it, one or two have been killed and others wounded. England cannot be expected to rehabilitate her polo team in less than fifteen years, and until her teams are thoroughly back in form I do not think a challenge should be sent from America."