SWIMMING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 4

SWIMMING.

By Neptune. COMING EVENTS. February 21. —Ravensbourne regatta. March 5 to March 9.—New Zealand national championship at Wanganui. CLUB HOURS. Monday: St. Clair Life-saving Club and Training College Swimming and Lifesaving Club. Tuesday and Thursday: Kiwi Amateur Swimming Club. Friday and Saturday: Dunedin Amateur Swimming Club. Club hours are 'held at the Municipal Baths from 8.45 p.m. to 9.45 p.m. OTAGO CHAMPIONSHIPS. The second section of the Otago, swimming and diving championships was held at the Municipal Baths last Thursday night. The notable feature of .the evening was the excellent swim of Walter Jarvis, who, in attempting to better his own x’ecord of 65 2-Ssee for ,the Junior Boys’ 100 Yards, succeeded in establishing a New Zealand record, covering the distance unpaced in the excellent time of 63 1-lOsec. Jarvig secured the record at Ashburton recently by beating Reg. Geddes’ time of 65 4-ssec by 2-ssec, only to hear that, at the Auckland championships, Noel Crump had covered the distance in 65sec. The Otago Centre then decided that Jarvis should have another chance, and, at the meeting on Thursday night, he proved that he was capable of better speed than the Auckland boy. Jarvis’s swimming was well worth seeing. He covered the first 33 1-3 yards in 19sec, and 66 2-3 yards in 41sec. His leg action was superb, and his stroke was clean and .smooth. Other good performances were seen during the evening, and it was somewhat disappointing to see only a small crowd of spectators. Brian Kerr (Dunedin) gave an excellent performance to win the 150 Yards Backstroke in 2mm Isec—an Otago record. . tjn V. Newall swam well to win the 440 Yn'-tis Men s Oiiampionship. _ The 100 Yards' Men’s Championship was one of the closest races seen in Dunedin for some time. E. Turgis and K. Nuttall made a brilliant finish to a race which was full of interest from beginning to end. Nuttall is swimming very well just now, and he gave the winner as much as he could do to keep in touch. It was only in the last foot or so that Turgis got ahead, and it appeared at first that a dead heat must be the decision. As a matter of fact, it appears that some of those present are under the impression that Turgis and Nuttall finished equal. The diving championships were outstanding features of the programme. The men’s competition was won .by H. K. Walker after an exhibition which stamped him as a real champion. Miss J. Eggers was successful in the ladies championship, which was a keenly-con-tested . competition throughout. Miss Eggers was in excellent form, and her diving was nothing short of amazing. She is showing wonderful improvement, as a comparison of her present form with that of her last appearance at a championship meeting shows. ‘ . . The relay . race won by a Kiwi team provided a good contest. DUNEDIN CLUB. The Friday club hour of the Dunedin Club proves very popular in spite of the unsettled weather, and Saturday night is spent Very profitably by the seniors, especially in water polo practice. The club did well at the championship meeting last week, the following events falling to the credit of club members:—44o Yards Men’s Championship (Y Newall), 150 Yards Mens Backstroke Championship (Brian Kerr, Otago record), Men’s Diving Championship (H. E. Walker). Ladies’ Diving Championship (Miss J. Eggers) ,100 Yards Ladies Championship (Miss M. Mathieson). R M‘Lay dived well to come second in the Men’s Championship, but it is hardly to be expected that he should reach the exceptionally high standard to which R. C. Calder and H. E. Walker have accustomed the Dunedin public. In the .Ladies’ Diving Championship there was exceedingly keen competition, and the winner, Miss J. Eggers, thoroughly deserves a trip to the national championships at Wanganui. T Val Newall proved to be a dark horse” in winning the 440 ■iY.ards, which was covered in excellent time for a tyro. The Relay was, as usual, the most popular event of the evening. The club team swam well to fill the second place against such an excellent team a.s was entered by the Kiwi Club. ST. CLAIR CLUB. Two more events in the Shaw Cup competition of the St. Clair Club were held last club night. They resulted as fol--lOso~Yards.—S. Fogg 1, J. Crowley 2, I, Turnbull 3. T t> j i 100 Yards ■ Breaststroke. —J. Durand 1, E. Turgis 2, J. Swan 3. The points credited to the various competitors to date are;—Fogg 13 Durand 11, Turnbull 7, M'Kenzie 5, Turgis 4. Crowley 3, Swan 2. On March 1 the Sagar Cup for lifesaving competition will be competed for, six teams entering for the contest It is expected that competition will be keen, as considerable interest is being taken in the event., ...... , Good work is being done just now by J Rodgerson, who -is swimming tyvell. M‘Allen, Aldous, and Christopher are also doing well, and are showing much interest in life-saving work. The work of coaching, the younger members is being carried on with excellent effect by H. Isaacs, whose services are of great value to the club.

English papers are full of stories about the late J. W. H. T. Douglas. A. E. 11. Gilligan says that Douglas’s best yarn related to an occasion when he was given out Ibw in a village match. As he passed the umpire on the way -to the pavilion, the annoyed batsman said “ Where s your dog?” “What do you mean? ’ asked the astonished umpire. “Well, you re the first blind man I’ve met without a blooming dog! ” was Douglass caustic reply. We are inclined to think that Barnett was in Oldfield’s class in the first innings (states Arthur Mailey in the Sydney Sun, commenting on the New South match), hut the Victorian, promising as he is, has yet to be seen against all classes of bowling. Jack Ellis was probably the best ’keeper in the world against medium and fast bowling, but against slow “ bosey ” bowling he was not so good. I saw him in Scotland put his hands on his hips and laugh outright when beaten by a “ wrong ’un.” I might add that that incident did not provide much amusement for the bowler. Speaking of incidents, I asked a regular patron of the cricket ground if he saw the Kippax incident. “Which one?” he said. In the Victorian match he was caught very close to the ground, and. without waiting for the umpire’s decision, walked off; the catch was so close that he was entitled to stand his ground, but he must be sick and tired of incidents by this time. ’ L. N. Constantine, of the West Indies cricket team at present in Australia, tells the following story concerning his father, who was one of the finest cricketers the West Indies ever produced, and a member of the early teams that visited England: —“I remember once batting with father at the other end. The bowler was a change man,’and so ray father had not faced t.’s deliveries. The bowler was of the variety loosely referred to as ‘ toffee.’ To a batsman of my rather aggressive stvle he was a gift. He confirmed one s belief in Santa Claus. His first ball 1 put for six. the second for four —or something like that. Anyway, I was 28 better off for his over. I was almost visibly swelling with pride at the finish of the over. Then my father called me oyer, and. trying his hardest not to smile, said: ‘ Don’t you think you are silly? A bowler like that is certain to be taken off soon You should have nursed him and then given someone else a chance/ To tell the truth, the point never occurred to me.