SPORT IN BRITAIN

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9174, 14 October 1915, Page 2

SPORT IN BRITAIN

TURF AND OTHER NOTES TOLL OF WAR ON RANKS OF. SPORTSMEN. From Our Special' Correspondent. LONDON, August 27. This would have been the week of the Ebor Handicap and Gimcrack Stakes .on York racecourse, but for the second year in succession the famous old Knavesmivo goes unvisited by the thoroughbred and those who compose its cosmopolitan'following. The war was very young when a year ago it was decided to abandon the meeting for military reasons. They carried on nt Doncaster, however, and the St. Leger, which Black Jester won, was duly brought oif. Those noted racecourses wear a widely ‘ different dress to-uay, fur us the writer, noted in motoring from London to the north; the oeuvre of the Doncaster Town Moor was given up to a bg camp, while, no doubt, the grandstand buildings are doing their part in assisting the training of the new army. It Was the tamo at York, though the front of the’fine new, stands seemed to bo shuttered as if by some weird decree a ban had been jilaced on lacing. What will it be a year hence:' Let us hope they will have assumed their usual gay and animated appearance; for, though the ghastly war may not be over, the fact of a resumption of racing will, at any rate, indicato that the crisis in the nation's history has been passed and that the future can ba contemplated without that strained anxiety winch, is felt on every hand to-day.

One recalls also that a year ago the usual heavy sales oil yearlings took place at Doncaster.. There occurred then, that anticipated slump in the values of bloodstock. A certain amount of panic prevailed, for breeders realised that racing might have to be suspended, the immediate consequence of which would be disaster -to the industry of breeding- There was also the probability of financial stringency, so that no one wondered when tno aggregate value of bloudstcok sold marked a big drop. In tho previous year, be it rememberof bloodstock sold marked a big drop, values. Extraordinary prices were paid for fashionably bred yearlings, and, of course, a slump twelve months later ,vas made to appear die more severe. Of course, the position is worse to-day, though nothing liko bo bad us the pessimists foretold- There are to be no sales at Doncaster,' blit Messrs Tattersall have very wisely arranged that those vendors who usually disposed of their stock at Doncaster shall have an op-. ■ portunity of doing so .at Newmarket next month. The response of breeders has been quite good on tho whole, ami the result .is a well-filled catalogue, which .will occupy 'several days in being discharged. How do breeders find themselves in’ these days? It is a question which they would answer in an extremely) doleful way, but it is possible that they take the view of those who naturally feel inclined to wail loudly as their pockets are being touched. "Things might be worse," is a trite phrase which can be applied to thp position, with much justification. A year ago at this time many people thought the wan would be all over; at any rate, they prophesied direst consequences and complete disaster for racing and bremling should it still be in progress- Well, it is still grinding along its cruel course, and no one now ventures to say when the end will come. And yet racing andi breeding are not , killed. Unquestionably they have suffered,, and must continue to do so, but the exeraption_ of Newmarket' and the holding of frequent meetings there have done much for racing itself. Then bloodstock, bred on fashionable and winning lines, still has a substantial value, and one does) hot doubt that this will be confirmed by what takes place at the forthcoming yearling- sales at Newmarket. Only indifferently-bred stock and moderate racehorses that are incapable of competing with any 'chance of success at Newmarket .have depreciated enormously in value. Many of them were sold, into tho army remount depots, but since' tho -Government recently stopped buying horses tho surplus still remains’ on the bands ,of "small” owners. • There is, ox course, a considerable uublio interested in stneplcchasing, and some thousands in various ways look to it for their livelihood. Naturally, therefore, there is some anxiety as ! to whether it- will bo possible to conduct National Hunt sport after the flat racing mason closes . down in Octobci. The dewards have deferred coming to a ■final decision to the last possible moment- Clearly they are hoping, that there nay bo such a welcome change in the rfituntion as would justify them in going on, but it would not surprise us to find 'steaplcchasing suspended. Unlike flat vacihg at Newmarket, it would not he

(possible to race wholly at one centre. The ground in winter would not stand it for long together, and especially would the fences and the ground about them be churned into an impossible state. Therefore there cannot be a Newmarket of stecplcohasing. The alternative would be to have half a dozen courses in tho south in use at intervals, but the accepted view of the situation does not suggest the probability of National Hunt sport taking place- X may, of course, be wrong, though I happen to know that that is the view held by several holding considerable influence and authority. THE ROLL OF HONOUR.

Lawn tennis has already suffered Irreparably through the deaths of Anthony Wilding and Kenneth Powell and the maiming of Hope Crisp, the most promising of all England’s young players. Now it is reported-that Lieutenant J. C. Parke has been wounded, not seriously one hopes, for ho is one of those fine athletes the country cannot afford to apare, . Before winning distinction on the tennis court Parke was a famous Irish Bugby footballer. A runner of great strength and courage, he played in as many as twenty, international matches as a three-quarter, usually on the wing, but now- and again, when circumstances demanded, in the centre, and many were. the , tries he scored through his dash and daring in, snatching am opening At lawn tennis bis fame came suddenly. When he went to Australia with the British Davis Cup team three years ago the general public, at any rate, bad no conception of his powers, and when the news came of his victory over Norman Brookes it was thought the cable had played ,a base trick and reversed the result. Parke, of. course, is now. rated at his proper value —whilst in America last summer Wilding, in giving the’ names of the ten best players of the world, and omitting his own. placed him third —biit ho is very variable in form, and has never done his best in the championships at Wimbledon. Hope Crisp, by the way, has got over the amputation of his leg, but the other day was still in hospital. The names or •'Varsity atiUictes .continue to appear with distressing * frequency iu the , casualty lusts. SeCondLieutenaut F. Qawan Taylor, the Cambridge miler who ran second to A. N. S. Jackson in the lust inter-University sports, has been killed, whilst nerving, with the York and Lancastorßegiment. Captain W. .Grischotti (King’s Shropshire L. 1.) who has been wounded a second time, is the old Oxford fullback. On going down lie assisted London Scottish and also represented the Army against Navy. Two more rowing Blues have suffered, Lieut. B. C. Bourne (Herefordshire Regiment) being wounded arid Lieut. E. G. Williams (Grenadier Guards) killed as the •result of an accident.. Bourne is the -famous Oxford stroke who created a record by leading his boat to victory in four consecutive races from 1909 to 1912 inclusive. Williams rowed No. 6 in the Cambridge boat of 19BS and No. 5 in 1909 and 1910. Ho also won the Silver Goblets at Henley with B. C. Johnstone in 1909.

BOXING. , Tho National Sporting Club, as usual, shut its doors in June,.but they are, to be re-opened, in October, aiid a full pro; gramme of boxing carried through on lines similar to last winter when menon service, were given the first refusal of matches. Since the war soldiers and sailors have dominated sport and so far as boxing is concerned the chief prizes are to 'Continue to go to! them. This is not only thfe policy of the National Sportng Club, but of tho popular establishment. The Bing, which conducts three entertainments a week under the inanagsmeiit of the old ■ lightweight champion, Dick Burge, who is a private in the Surrey Rifles. During the last two or three years Burge has controlled some of the chief contests and offered tho biggest purses, and when the war is over lio will, be says, be in the field, again ready to offer champions tho highest they are worth. "But,” he adds. “I shall only, offer inducements to British boxers who have stood ; to their guns when the call came for help. Boxers -who fled the country when the alarm rang or shirked their duty in any other way will receive little sympathy from me. It is the Frenchman like Carpentier and Britons like Wells, .O’Keefe. Jim Sullivan, Dick Smith and the many other gallant men who shouldered a gun when called on. to whom I shall listen, and if any promoter should be foolish enough to offer the shirkers big money for a, contest I am satisfied the British sporting public, whose patriotism has hgen so stlongly marked, will show their disapproval by declining to see him." Tho National Sporting Club have issued no such frank declaration of policy, but Dick Burge’s manifesto expresses their intentions. In the circumstances we may have few championship matches during the winter. in the • ordinary way Fred Welsh would have been back from America ready to defend his title —he is anxious for a third niatch to give him the opportunity of winning outright the highly-prized’ Lonsdale Belt —but the last news from the champion wps that he was considering a tempting contract for a-series of contests in Axis-, tralia.

FOOTBALL. Football, has begun In , Scotland and received a warm .welcome. More • important still, it was carried out on tno designed lines without either protest- oi complaint,- All the players engaged fuitilieu the condition laid down that theyshould follow some useful employment during tins week,, and the men Had no dilliculty in obtaining leave of absence on Saturday aiternoon. In some cases special arrangements were made for men to* get oft, but only those' who by working overtime on other days have put in the■necessary number of hours were allowed free time. - When the game be-, gins in England a week hence the same exacting conditions, will be binding on the -players, and. it seems a little unfair that’whilst the Scottish professionals are to receive £1 a match, with a, provisional promise of higher payment it the game is prosperous enough to permit it, their brothers in England have been forced into sacrificing the whole of the money they were accustomed -to receive. Still, pith splendid sportsmanship and loyalty to their clubs, they have accepted the unfortunate situation and promised to come to the rescue of the game. The London organisations who have, taken in Watford, the Southern League icbampioiri, have formed a self-contained girjnp of twelve teams for the coming season. In the oast instead of fostering home talent they have relied on professionals from' the provinces. These inen have now gone to their homes, and are employed locally. : and will not be available. Tottenham Hotspur, for instance, can only command the services of three or four of their old men, and are hoping to complete their team by the inclusion of amateurs. This state of affairs applies to all the London clubs, with - the-Arsenal most favourably situated, the latter having about eight of their men. including Rutherford, -. the old international outside right, engaged in Woolwich arsenal. Crystal Palace have' been 'compensated for the Toss of - their ground by the Admiralty, who 'took over ' the Sydenham enclosure last year as-a training quarter for about ten thousand recruits, and have arranged to plav at Herne Hill, where they completed their match ; nrogrnmmlast season, but they are very short of nlayers. and, like Millwal! and Queen’* Park Rangers, have advertised for amateurs to come to their rescue.