SPORTING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4170, 30 June 1875, Page 3

SPORTING NOTES.

KILLIARIM. There has been but little doing of late in the world of billiards. A few exhibition matches have taken place, one of which was won by TV. Cook, finishing a game with Roberts, jun., by means of a break of 270 off the balis. The present menth, however, will witness two matches that bid fair to equal in interest any yet played. Tne first one, which takes place on the 14th, is between Cnok and Taylor, the latter receiving 300 in 1000, for £200, and the second one for the championship, for the same amount of money and the Challenge Cup. Roberts has shown such wonderful improvement of late that many think he will, on the o-easion, turn the tables. To-day is published the first number of the Billiard News, a new journal devoted to billiards. It contains the first of a series of articles entitled, " Lessons on Billiards," by W. Cook, and a first-rate coloured portrait of Roberts, sen., which by itself is well worth the twopence charged for the paper.—Land and Water, May Ist. WRKSTLINC IN AJIKRICA. The Spirit of the Times states that a match has been arranged in London, between J. H. M'Laughlin, the American club champion, and E, rfnape, better known as "the Dipper "in his own circles. We have heard nothing of Snape lately, nor have we seen the smallest note on the matter in any contemporary. Snape at one time, viz , in '73, challenged the world to wrestle "catchhold," or Cumberland, but when Jamieson accepted the Cumberland style, Snape subsided. There is ik> doubt that Suape is the best catch-hold wrestler we have. He stands Gft4in, and weighs over 15st. M'Lmighiin has exhibited at some of our mu^ic halls with clubs, &c, but as yet he has done nothing in the wrestling line. The Spirit of the Times says that mixed rules will be used—the best three out of five falls—two Cumberland and two American, viz , "collar and elbow," and the;, a toss for the odd style._ This mixture and tossing is a most unsatisfactory way of bringing olf any championship match. We can all of us remember the fiasco at the -Agricultural Hall, when Jamleson and Wright wrestled the two Frenchmen, Le Boeuf and Dubois. Wrestling is a sport that is not sufficiently patrouised, but it is on the increase, and one or two big genuine matches will soon briDg it to the prominence it desfrves. It is mentioned in the Spirit that Vanderdecken, the Belgian wrestler, is matched with Bauer, the Frenchman, to wrestle two out of three falls, Roman style, in a few days. We have no idea of what Roman style is ; perhaps they grease themselves, and wrestle naked, as they did in the Augustan age. This is probably the way, for Vanderdecken stipulates that the match shall take place in the presence of five or ten persons only. This is a reservation on the score of modesty which reilects great credit on Monsieur Vanderdecken. What next? Why not wrestle at midnight, with the gas out ? A WALK ROUND THE WORLD. The Philadelphia Ledger of March 27th says :—" Mark Grayson, who has undertaken to walk round the world, is to start from the City Hall, New York, on Saturday, April 3rd, 1875, and return to the same place^on Thursday, November 23rd, IS7G. The distance included in the entire route is 19,220 miles, whijh will require from him a daily walk of a little over thirty-two miles. A large part of the trip, of course, will be on ocean steamers, during which he will make up his daily average by walking on shipboard. Should he fall short of making his daily average on shipboard, for any reason, he will make it up on laud. The | route of his walk is as follows :—From New York to Liverpool by water; thence to Havre, passing through Manchester, Sheffield, and London ; from Havre he will walk through France to Lyons : thence, passing through Genoa, Florence, Rome, and Naples^ lie will go to Constantinople ; from there, crossing the Bosphorus, he will walk through the intervening countries to India ; then to Canton and Hong Kong, China j at Hong Kong he will take ship to the Philippine Isles; thence to New Guinea, Australia, the Sandwich (Islands, San Francisco. The walk across ahe continent will finish the undertaking. The total number of miles he is to walk by land is computed at 15,712 miles, and by water 12,935 nvles. Grayson is 2S years of age, oft 7in high, and weighs 1301bs. He has been in active training since February 15th, at Wilmington, Delaware." CRICKET. We take the following from " Cricket Notes" in Land and Water:—"ln spite of instructions, I am going to give you a few items of gossip on cricket prospective. ' From information I have received,' I learn that James Phillips, of Sussex, the best of the few good cricketers the South has produced of 1-ite years, is likely to devote himself to business almost exclusively, nnd that it is just possible his county may lose his services. I know that he has refused to play for the South against the North, but I sincerely hope that lie will not be lost to county cri.-ket. The South, and Sas ex especially, cannit spare a batsman whom I am. inclined to regard as only second to Jupp among Southern professionals. A wild rumour ha° been afloat for some weeks that a new fence was positively in course of erection at the Ova), and in the Interests of cricket I travelled to Kenningfon to see for myself. lam pleased to be able to assert positively that the statement is correct, and I have ei-er since been trying to comprehend what is the piecise meaning of this marvellous display of enterprise on the patt of the Surrey Club. I saw distinctly hard at work one man and a boy, and I was given to understand that the finishing touch might safely be expected before the end of IS7C. I leave your readers to calculate how long a man doing six inches of fencing a day will take to accomplish a distance of four hundred a fifty yards. This is not a joke, believe me. A more serious announcement is that Mr V. E. Walker, perhaps of all cricketers the most deservedly and universally respected, is to be married on May 19. I hope that I shall be exonerated from a desire to obtrude ou the privacy of any one, but every one who has ever heard of, read of, or seen cricket, knows Mr Walker by reputation, and certainly I feel sure that every one who is acquainted* with cricket and cricketers, will be glad of an opportunity of wishing Mr Walker all happiness in his married life." On the origin of roundarm bowling, a correspondent writes to Land and Water " I have read with surprise in your paper of the 3rd inst., and in a contemporary of to-day, that Lillywhite and Broadbridge introduced the roundarm bowling at cricket. I thought it was settled many years ago that the oriainator was my uncle, John W-lles, of Sutton Vallence, Kent. A lengthened controversy took place in the time of Alfred Mvnn, Felix, and others, and was settled in "favour of John Willes ; and if Walter Myim is now living and should see this, he will corroborate me in every particular. I well remember my uncle telling me thnt he got the idea from my mother and aunt, by getting them to howl to him when a yui'g iiifiii, -\UiiUt living at his fathei's estate u«ar C'anttrbury, and

from the awkward manner in which they delivered the ball, made it difficult for him to hit. He told me he taught Ahhby first; and from Ashby, Hroadhrirlge. Some years since, when at a cricket inu,ch. ia Biitt-jrsea Park, it was being said that Lilly whhe was the originator, and I then remarked that my uucle bowled roundarm several years before at Lord's, before Lilly white, and on one « cc - sion, whilst playing a match there, Kent v. Bng'and, the Marylebone t lnh said it was unfair, and my uncle was so offended thifc he Jeft the ground and rode home to hu'ton VaUence. Whilst relating this, a w lntehaired old gentleman immediately exclaimed, ' I am a. member of the Marylebone Club, and have been many years. I know'"what you say is true, fvn- 1 was on the ground at the time.' My uncle never played at Lord's again, and never forgave them. He also told me that when he played od the side of Lord Frederic Beauclerk, his bowling was always fair, but if against his lordship, unfair, and not allowed "—An Old Cricketer.'