SPORTING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3366, 19 November 1872, Page 3

SPORTING NOTES.

The leading owners and trainers of race horses in America, are endeavouring to revive horse racing in the Southern States.

A billiard-player m Lima, Peru, recently made, at the four-ball or American game, a break of nearly twenty-two hundred. The Nelson Examiner, referring to the scratching of Peeress for the Canterbury Cup, states that from information indirectly obtained there is reason to believe that before the race- the rriare was lame, and had been blistered.

An American paper thus refers to the death of a young cricketer in Philadelphia, who had been chosen as one of th« twentytwo to play against the English team :-— " This calamitous decree of the umpire- — Death--ere this yoiuigand much-loved youth had hardly commenced his innings of life, ha« east a gloomy shadow over hia relatives and friends,"

A bicycle nee between Kccno, the chain* pion, and Honeywell, the amateur champion lof England, came off on the 23rd August. | The distance to be rtm was eighteen mihs, from Kingston to Guiklford. In consideration of the professional's great skill, he gave Honeywell aftarfc of fifteen minutes. K>cno calculated that he could accomplish the distrio?c in .in hour, and that the amateur could not do it in less than au hour and twenty minutes. Ju this, however, he was mistaken, as Honeywell completed his journey in mi hour and fifteen minutes, while Kccue himself took only a minute less to run the eight.en miles. An extraordinary trotting performance took place at New York on the 21 at September. j A three-mile nice had been arranged, for ! which several well-known trotters were ! entered, and heavy odds were laid that the J fastest time on record, 7m. :i'2^s., would not ibe beaten. Mr Goldsmith's marc Huntress, however, succeeded in trotting the whole iliitiiii:v in the wonderful time oJf lax, 21 As. Jn .1839, Dutchman, a bay. gelding, in a { match ogainst time, ran the three-mile course |in 7m. 32.^8., and this time had not been beaten for thirty-three years, although such ! famous horses as Flora Temple and General Butler have made the attempt, The Field concludes an article on ".Sport and Holidays " with the following words : — "It h not given to all to be able to hire a moor, to keep a yacht, to follow the hounds, or to land a salmon ; but there are other diversions of a leas expensive or less engrossing character which arc neither diliiuult to acquire nor practically to carry out. An indulgence during holidays in seasonable amusements of a definite kind would be felt to be far more agreeable and plc-isunt than an effort to perform that feat of killing time, which no one can do with cither grace or advantage who has not learned to underutand how much enjoyment may be found in pursuits which prevent morbid habits of introspection and lethargy." The Field thinks that the following bit of shooting deserves to be recorded, and gives the name of the operator, as its might otherwise be considered a story worthy of Huron MuiK'hauKcu. Mr Kdmuud J/mlci• (son of Mr Hobert Loder, late Master of the Crawley and Horshain foxhounds), while (shooting in Itosrf-shire, killed three deer with two barrels in the following curious manner. The first shot cut right through the jugular vein of the leading barren hind. The next severed the vertebra of the neck of another, and passing on, entered the eye of a third, killing all three on the spot. The shots were taken from the knee at about lf>o yards, the deer going atit. good pace at the time. The running for the Hurdle Race at Christchurch, between Bismarck and Medora, has caused a good deal of talk in racing circles. M'Kay, the rider of Medor.i, it appears, weighed out jjroperly, but after the race he was found to be 31bs too light. It was observed some time before the nice that some friends of Medora were putting their money on Bismarck, and the knowing ones were at a loss to understand how the latter could be possibly made to win, unless Medora was palpably held back. Even during the race, which to all appearance wag a gift to Medora from the commencement, the parties referred to kept laying their money on Bismarck. It is just possible that they may have noticed M'Kay dropping his three pounds of lead. The English Cricketers have been victorious in all the matches which they have played out, both in Canada and the United States. In each match they had to context agiiinßt twenty-two players, and their batting scores consequently were not very large. Mr \V. G. Grace succeeded in maintaining his reputation as the champion batsman of the day. His average for the eleven innings which hail been played up to the 2tith September was 40.1 per innings : Mr (! J Ottawa)' standing next on the list, with an average of 13.10. Mr Grace's highest score-in an innings was 142, which he obtained when playing against twenty two, at Toronto. Both in the States and in Canada, wherever they visited, the English Cricketers received the greatest possible kindness and Attention.

The executive committee of the Prcstw i<-k Golf Club have arranged that the challenge trophy for the ehampionnhip (open to :tll coiners) is henceforth to he annually played for on the Prestwick, St. Andrews, ami Miißsclburgh links alternately. A medal to be permanently retained will be given to the winner of the trophy in each year, un well «« prizes in specie. On the 13th September, the trophy was competed for on Pre«tvviek I inks, and was earned oif by Tom Morns, jun., with a score of 160 for the three rounds. The other prize winners iv order were David Strath, St. Andrews, l<>9 ; William 1 »o!e----mau, St. Nicholas Golf Club, Presf svirk, 177; Old Tom Morris, St. Andrews, and David Park, Musselburgh, tied at l/'l ; Charles Hunter, Prestwick, 189. There w.iaa strong breeze from the west, but the phiy, on the whole, was above the average. lictting : 5 to 4 on Strath, who kept the lead till the last three holes,

Mr E. C. Moore has lately issned a, dial- j lenge to race his horse Inglwride against any ■ horse in Victoria, distance mio'thil'i, over 12 [ fences not less than 4ft. or'more than (Jft. ■ high, gentlemen riders. The match to be for a trophy of the value of £100. This challenge, which is put forward !>y Mr Moore merely to give the public an oppor-•! tunity of seeing the horse jump before lie is j shipped for England to challenge all the ' cross-country horses there, ■ was no s<K>ncr | known yesterday than it was at unco taken up by Mr S. Waldock, and accept* d by Mr Goyder on behalf of Mr Moore. A deposit of £20 each was paid by the parties to biud the match. It was afterwards ngned that the sum should be increased to £50 a side, the party withdrawing from the match to forfeit his deposit. Mr Waldock did not nor minate any horse, but it is understood that his selection will bo that extraordinary clever cross country horse Canary. , In Auckland'there appears to be a revival of. interest in racing, fcSome time ago a number of gentlemen formed themselves into a company for the .purchase^and/reupyaUou of the JEllerslie racecourse, situate near Aueklaud. Suice the formation of the Company a large Bum has been laid out in the erection of a grand stand, and now, according to a northern < ontemporary, " the course is to be enlarged and improved in such a manner as to render it without exemption the finest course in this hemisphere,, and second to few even in Great Britain." The twarsc will be one mile and a quarter in length, and oval in form, the curvea being'extremely easy. It i 3 expected tha& the course will lie completed daring the first week iti December, and it is intended that a good race meeting should bo held on the Ist and 2nd January, 1873. We understandtha tho..sum of £5000 has been expended upon the purchase and preparation of the course. / If the people of Victoria have the exclaaive t)rivilege of witnessiug every y«ar the great contest for the blue riband of the turf m the Atistvalasian Oolouica, their neighbours in New South Wales cau coneole thcuiach-ea

with the fact that the trophy now-s-days is almost invariably gained by a Sydney horse. The Cnp Day of 1872 scored another victory for New South Wales, when Mr John Tait's b.h. The Quack ran part the post in front of twenty-one competitors. Probably the result was no great surprise, as The Quack stood next to Dagworth in, the betting before"the first day or the Victorian Spring Meeting. Dagworth's defeat in the Melbourne Stakes caused him to recede considerably in the betting,"and it is not improbable therefore that at the start for the Cnp, The Quack may have been the favourite. In the Essendon Stake?, which was run for on the Derby Day, The Quack took third place, being defeated by Blue Peter and Dolphin, lie carried Oat. !21ba., however, on the occasion • his Cup weight being Bst. lib. The Caledonian Club of New York celebrated their sixteenth annual festival with Highland sports, on the sth September last. The contests proved more than usnally attractive, owing to the presence of the renowned Scottish athlete, Donald Dinnie. Donald, however, whose right arm had received an injury, had to encounter a formidable opponent in the shape of a countryman named James Fleming, who is described aa "a good dancer and a powerful athlete." Dinnie opened the first event of the day by putting .the heavy, stone (2llta) 33ft. 4in. Thia. however, w.w beaten by Fleming, who put the stone 34ft. ll.Mn. Again, in throwing the heavy hammer (lGlbs), Fleming beat his opponent- his furthest throw being 91ft. ! 4in., while that of Diimie's wm 87ft. Sin. Donald, however, succeeded' in turning the tables upon his antagonist, when putting the light stone (14lbs)—his put reaching 41 ft. 10in.,. Fleming having putted 41ft. Tin. Again, in throwing tU« light hammer {I2lbs), Dmnie beat Fleming—-their respective distances being 108 ft. -U/ui., and lOGffc. !!§in. Land and Water, in noticing the close.of the cricket season in England, says that although Mr W. G. Grace has an inferior average to last year, he is fttill further ahead of his compeers than can bo remembered of an individual at any single sport; old Roberts perhaps, at billiards,-some yean ' back, being th*» exception. It a war-Is the second place in batting to Mr Y.-irdlcy, and the third to Mr K. A. H. Mitchell, l^jckw>od, I * Humphrey, Daft, MrG. F. Grace, Mr Ottaway, Mr Hornby, and Mr Fryar, are also in the front rank as batsmen. To Mr Buchanan is assigned the first place among the gentlemen bowlers. Next to him, are Sir Applcby, 'Mr Francis, and Mr Powys. Alfred Shaw is placed at the head of the professional bowlers, while Southerton, J. C. Shaw, Howit*, Morely, and young James Ullywhite, m-y be all considered first class. Land .-.nd Water adds :— '* Th« gentlemen have retained their superiority over the players, thanks to Mr Grace, Mr Buchanan, and to superior management, to say nothing of the fielding, in which department the players are less active. A match which caused some excitement in the checs world was recently played between Herr Steinitz and H« re Zukertort, the result \ being that the form-.r won seven games and lost one and four games were drawn. A J homo paper makes the following remarks | upon the c;amo :—" It appears, therefore, that, notwithstanding the high and wellearned reputation of 11 err Zukertort as one of the leaders of the German school of chess | players--he having won a majority of games j during a recent series of matches with Herr ' Auderdscn the English school, as repre- I scnted by Herr Steinitz, is at least capable of holding its own against its Continental j rivals. Without for a moment wishing to ; depreciate the attainments of our German friends, it is now clear, after the way in which this champion of the present occasion has succumbed to Herr Steiniiz, that the latter gentleman may be fairly regarded as the present occupant of the exceptional position formerly held by Mr Morphy, and English players may bo congratulated on the fact that it is occupied by one who has so thoroughly identified himself with English chess us Herr Stcinitz has done." j