GENERAL SPORTS NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21068, 30 December 1931, Page 14

GENERAL SPORTS NEWS.

CRICKETERS' GREETINGS. UNIQUE OXFORD BACK LINE. BILLIARDS CHAMPIONS' TOUR. A swimming gala, to lie run in conjunction with the Mardi Gms carnival, will be held on Cheltenham Beach next Saturday afternoon under the auspices of tlie North Shore Amateur Swimming (.Hub. A demonstration of surf life-saving will also be given by tho Takapuna Surf Life-saving Club. Miss Molly Gourlav, former English lady golf champion, broke the record for the Cumberley Heath course in the qualifying medal competition of the Surrey ladies' golf championship. Her score was 72, one stroke better than the record held by herself and Miss Enid Wilson. "-Enquirer," Whangarei, asks in what engagement in the war the, late Dave Gailaher, captain of the 1905 All Blacks lost his life 'I —Gailaher died of wounds in France on October 4, 1917. For some time prior to and after that date there was ;i g"od deal of fighting in the vicinity of 1 pres.—Athletic i Editoi. "Argument." Te Awamutu writes:— Would you kindly inform me through your paper if tho All Black team which toured Great Britain in 1924-25 played its test, matches against a combined team of England. Wales and Ireland, or did ;t play against England, Wales and Ireland separately ?—The matches were, separate international ones.—Athletic Editor. A. F. Wensley, the Sussex cricket professional, who was here for two seasons under engagement to the Auckland Cricket . Association, cabled to the Herald Christ- I mas and New Year greetings to all ' friends. G. R. Cox. who came out. for one j season under engagement to the Suburban 1 Association, forwarded a card also extending his best wishes to his numerous Auckland friends. A unique feature of the Ilugbv foot- j ball match between the Springboks and i Oxford University was that every player j in Oxford's back division was of a dif- ' ferent nationality. Here arc the players and their countries: J. A. Adamson, England; F. I>. llovde, America; 'J'. M. llart, Scotland; S. G. Osier, South Africa; P. G. Minns, New Zealand; W. Roberts, Wales; X. K. Lamport, Australia. Mile. Yvonne Geddard', the famous j French swimming champion, was involved in a serious motor-car accident ; in Paris recently, sustaining injuries to ' the chest and perforation of the. lung. ! At fimt it, was feared she would never j be able to swim again, but a later exHmination of her injuries 11a's convinced : the doctors that she. will be able to j swim once more in a few months' time, j Mr. J. S. Anderson, who died in Bris- j bane early this month, was once as j noted a Rugby footballer as any man in , Australia. He went to Australia from : Auckland, where lie first played with the Grammar School in 1875 as halfback. He subsequently played for Ponsonby. having among his team mates J. Warbrick and P. Whitesides. Mr. Anderson later went to Canterbury, representing that province against Otago and j Wellington in 1879. In spite of all the talk about Primo j Camera giving up the ring for the, mat | —in other words going over to wrestling i —there is nothing the giant Italian; would welcome more than a match with j Max Scbmrling, the Germany heavy- j •weight champion of the world, says an i English writer. Camera is convinced • that the match would he a tremendous S draw in Germany. Camera is scheduled j to meet Hein Mueller, a German heavy- J weight, in Berlin this month. It is practically certain that, Walter j Lindrum and Tom Newman, the champion j billiards players, will tour New Zealand next winter. Clark McConachy. the wellknown Dominion champion, will probably accompany the pair. Lindrum s visit two seasons ago, when he played a scries of mutches against Clark McConachy, aroused great interest, which has been much increased in the interim on account, of Liridrum's record breaks. McConachy lias also improved wonderfully. Mrs. Dorothy Hurd, a former women's golf champion of the United States, has little time for the new, larger, and lighter golf ball. " It's terrible,'' she said. "It, behaves in the wind. like a pingpong ball." Mrs. Hurd had just won the Philadelphia women's title, and was reminded that the new ball did not seem to affect her game in that event. " Oh, well," she replied, " that was because the. other girls liked it even less than I did." A rather amusing incident was connected with tho journey to Auckland of the, Bay of Plenty cricket team to participate. in the country week tourney, which has been in progress during the past fewdays. One of tho cars pulled up at a service station at Pokeno, where the players alighted for refreshments. When they returned the car was facing in ths opposite direction to what it had been when left. The players got in and drove right back to Pangiriri before they realised they were travelling in the wrong direction. A Matamata correspondent forwards the following query: —(1) Did Geo. Walker suffer defeat at the hands of Clarence Ecklund for the light-heavv-weight championship of the world in Auckland in 1929 ? (2) Js it possible to procure a full record of the matches held in the Dominion ? —Walker and Ecklund wrestled a draw of one fall each at Auckland in October, 1929. The match was not a. championship one. A record of matches could bo obtained upon application to the secretary of the New Zealand Wrestling Association in Wellington. —Athletic Editor. The. outstanding mile runner of the past season in England was P. 11. Thomas. In 1930 Thomas won the championship title in 4m. 15 l-ss.—a time which then was tho second fastest over recorded at the English championships. At the British Empire Games at Hamilton soma seven weeks later he returned 4m. 14s. This year Thomas made his first appearance, on Whit Monday, when at Stamford Bridge he ran right away from somewhat mediocre opposition, and, finishing in 4m. 13 255., heat A. (!. Hill's ten-year-old record by 2 ss. Lord Tennyson is to take an English cricket team on tour to the West Indies, leaving London on February 1 next, year. Twelve players are to compose, the party, and others in the West Indies will be available to play. It will be the fifth occasion on which Lord Tennyson has taken a team to the West Indies. Invitations have been accepted by G. T. S. Stevens (Middlesex), A. E. 0. Raring (Hampshire), 0. Brown (Hampshire), E. IT. Bow ley (Sussex), and G. Geary (Leicester). G. Brown is the left-hand batsman who scored well for England in the tests against, W. W. Armstrong's 1921 team. Commenting upon the first defeat of (he Springboks by a team drawn from the East Midlands in a match played at Leicester, an English writer says the South Africans at times became a struggling and rattled side. The blowing of ''no-side" by a referee who had had almost, as strenuous a time as the players was tho signal for a shout of joy by the crowd and the hoisting on to their shoulders by the Midland team of G, IL Beamish, the leader and hero of the pack. The South Africans, for their part, showed what they thought of it by shaking hands with the players who had relieved them of the incubus of an unbeaten record.