AMATEUR SPORT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10976, 11 August 1921, Page 7

AMATEUR SPORT

DOMINION REPRESENTATION FIFTEENTH VISIT OF AUSTRALIAN PRESIDENT. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. A visit of interest to amateur sport in New Zealand is now being made to Wellington by Mr R. Coombes, president of the Amateur Athletic Association of Australia _ and New Zealand. Mr Coombes is the senior member of the Interna-. ional Olympic Council, with which lie Las been, connected for a quarter of a century, and as also associated, in an executive capacity, with almost every form o-f amateur sport in Australia. Seen yesterday after his arrival from Frankton Junction, where he had been assisting •with the coursing championships, Mr Coombes talked freely with a representative of the “Times’" of amateur sport, and its progress in the Dominion, as well as in the Commonwealth. “NEW ZEALAND A NATION/’ “In regard to athletics generally, and to the association of New Zealand with’ the Olympic games," said Mr Coombes, “the featiWe of recent developments has been the ‘New Zealand a nation’ movement. This movement,, which I heartily support, has for ics purpose the representation of New Zealand .in the athletic world. I join with the Dominion —I have visited it fifteen times, and I am nearly a New Zealander —in the objection to the term 'Adstralasia/ as including New

Zealand. It was through that objection that the name 'Amateur Athletic Association of Australia and New Zealand' got its name. _ I hope that some concrete suggestions ■will be forthcoming during my visit, and that we will soon see a Dominion v. Commonwealth series of athletic contests. Hitherto, under the present constitution, New Zealand has had to send teams across every two years, but does not get Australian teams here, except at much wider intervals. New Zealand did just as well as we did at the Olympic Games. It would be a serious blow at amateur athletics if New Zealand did not continue its association in the union with the six Australian States that exists ax present. HISTORY OF AMATEUR SPO£.T. Mr Coombes traced the growth of athletics in New Zealand, back to itssouice in 1887. When he'visited the colony in that year, he found, a number of indidual clubs, but mo governing l body, no amateur association for the amalgamation of the clubs. In the next year the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association was formed. The first intercolonial contest, held in New Zealand was against a (team brought over by Mr Combes in 1889. It took (place during the exhabition at .Dunedin. “There were three athlete® in our team, and we got an unmerciful drubbing. The late J. H, Hemipton won the sprints, and Harold Batger, of Auckland, won the hurdles. The result was so pleasing to New Zealand that a team ivas sent across to Australia in 1890, and from then onwards the sport never looked back. Then came the union and the board of control, and the inter-State and Dominion contests, and here we are to-day/' Interesting details of the progress in Australia of the specialised forme of athletics, such as walking, field games, jumping, and) the harriers' sport followed. Now there is the Amateur Walkers' Club in New South Wales, and two or three other bodies, looking after the heel-and-toe men.

RIFLE CLUB MOVEMENT. Another field of activity that owes much to M.r Coombes’s guidance in Australia is the rifle club movement. In the pre-Bisley days he shot at Wimbledon, in 1876, in contests under the English Rifle Association, and ha© been, shooting ever since, although now in his sixty-thoxd year. Illustrating the success of the movement in the Commonwealth, he said there were eighty clubs affiliated to the Metropolitan (Sydney) Rifle dubs' Union, alone. The Sydney olub was formed as far back as 1860, Th-et prize-money has grown, until, at the last National Rifle Association's meeting at Liverpool, where there are 110 targets, it amounted in the aggregate to «£6500. “In that meeting there was a memorable match against New Zealand, and the Dominion beat us by one point/' Mr Coombes attended the Olympic Council meeting, last night, and conferred with the New Zealand delegates. He leave© for New Plymouth this morning, and returns at the week-end, spending three days in Wellington prior to returning to Australia by the Ulimaroa.