THE BLACK HAND BUNCH.

NZ Truth, Issue 571, 27 May 1916, Page 9

THE BLACK HAND BUNCH.

The sporting scribe of Meit»ourn« "Truth" has been Keeping a watchfu eye on the bunch' of braves whom Ij< tags as "The Black Hand Gang." Recently, the 'Melbourne grimy-pawec push visited New South Wales, anc certainly made the trip pay exes; asori of a habit they have. Upon their return to Smell bourne, "Truth's" scribt held out to them the frozen nipper oi "Welcome (?) home." He further sang the following paean of praise m honoi of their sortie on Sunny * Noo Sou Wales: . .; The Black Hand band returned ; to Melbourne at the commence- , ment of the week, after a successful incursion into New South Wales territory. ' They engaged m a heavy campaign, extending from , Rosehill to Sydney Tattersall's meeting at Randwick last Saturday, and returned with stacks of New South Wales bullion. Although R&nflwlck was the main objective, Rosehill and Hawkesbury were also successfully exploited. After bringing off the elaborately planned Green Cap coup m the Hawkesbury Autumn Handicap (the horse's connections not being parties to\ the joke), the bandits just missed landing a fortune m the Sydney Cup owing to phenomenal improvement on the part of Prince Bardolph, who proved invincible on that particular day. Returned '.J^uteuSa*-. and Quidnuncs . "m the know" aver that the A.J.C. SU Leger and some of the weiglit-for-age events were engineered by the Black Hand., who were also m 1 the Merrimax arid Three jokes at Randwick, when the captain staked "a cool , thou" on the ex-Victorian for the Denman Stakes. From thiß it would appear that the Black Han der s are a pretty swift bunch, with a sift for getting the ,Sfonce sotnehbw or. another.