PROMISING JUNIORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26113, 28 March 1946, Page 4

PROMISING JUNIORS

The match between juniors representing the Otago Lawn Tennis Association and the Dunedin Tennis Union gave judges of the game an excellent opportunity to see the young players of Dunedin in action, and the result must have given cause for optimism regarding the future of tennis in Otago. Although the association juniors won the match 16—8, the union fielded a number of players whose performances against opponents who did so well in the national junior championships merited congratulation. The outstanding boy of the match was A. Groves (Union), who outplayed O. Ellis in every department of the game. With a good service and strong overhead, he impresses as a sound all-court player who has only to overcome an erratic tendency at half court to have a bright future. It is to be hoped that he will be seen in the Otago junior championships at Easter and also that he will be able to enter the 1947 national junior championships. E. Kofoed (Union) beat G. Shaw in a match in which doggedness triumphed over style and experience. C. Allan played outstanding tennis to win all his matches for Association, while the diminutive A. Robb hit freely and easily to win his singles 9 0. Miss ' M.' Robertson, Otago Nunneley Casket player, was disappointing and showed little of the form which won her a place in the casket team. Miss N. Gosden came through the day with flying colours, and her match with Miss N. Blackwood, who was playing fine tennis, was one of the features of the day.

A Brilliant All-rounder In L. W. Deas, who has batted well for Grange-University in the three matches in which he has played in Dunedin this season, it would appear that Otago has gained an unusually able all-round athlete. Deas has buiit up a fine reputation as an attacking centre three-quarter in the North Island and has given some brilliant displays for Auckland province and in various service teams during his Air Force career. He was not so well known as a cricketer, but his last two scores for Grange-University—B2 and 136 not out—have revealed him as a batsman with a sound defence and an efficient, range of strokes in front of the wicket. If his Training College experience gives him the opportunity and he can reproduce his Rugby football form and maintain his batting ability, he may well represent Otago in both sports. A Golfing Festival The coming week-end will be an eventful and particularly interesting one for Dunedin golfers. One day will be devoted to the annual match between the Otago and Christchurch Clubs for the Hanmer and Campbell-Hosking Shields, while the other will be occupied by the return Otago-Canterbury interprovincial fixture. The interclub rivalry, which is being revived after the lapse of competition during the war years, extends back to 1898, when the Hanmer Shield, for foursomes, was first won by Christchurch, and the balance of success at this stage is with Otago—l7 wins to Christchurch’s 14, with one match drawn. The Singles matches have been still more even, the Campbell-Hosking Shield having been won 13 times by Otago and 11 times by Christchurch with four matches drawn,

since 1900. Both clubs have been strengthened recently by the return of prominent members from overseas service, and the revival will certainly produce some outstanding golf as well as an occasion of more than passing historical importance to the clubs. The Otago Club has the material to make a very strong bid to repeat its successes of 1939 and 1940 in both events. The interprovincial competition is of much more recent origin, and here it is the Otago team which will be coming from behind, this season at any rate. The two provinces broke even—four wins each —in the Foursomes at Shirley recently, while Canterbury scored 12 wins to Otago’s four in the Singles. The presence of A. Gibbs and T. W. Wight in the team which D. C. Bennie, of St. Clair, will lead on this occasion will make it a more formidable proposition. Canterbury, too, has several young players of particular promise who have recently come back into the game, and the day should be one of hard-fought contests. Outstanding Performance One of the most outstanding performances yet accomplished by an intermediate backstroke swimmer in the Dominion was achieved by Miss Jean Stewart when she won the iOO Yards Intermediate Girl’s Backstroke Handicap from scratch in 75 2-ssec at. the Otago Centre’s invitation carnival at the Municipal Baths on Monday, night. The New Zealand record stands at 73 2-ssec against the name of Miss Ngaire Lane of Otago, and so far is known only Miss Lane and Miss Joyce Macdonald, of Southland, have recorded faster time than Miss Stewart in intermediate backstroke competition. Miss Stewart’s performance is, all the more noteworthy because this is her first season in the intermediate class. Last season she established a New Zealand Junior Girls’ 50 Yards Backstroke record of 34 4-ssec, clipping a second from the previous figures' held jointly by Miss Lane and Miss Betty Owens, of Auckland. A couple of months ago, Miss Stewart set a New Zealand Intermediate girls’ record of 3min 20 l-ssec for 220 yards backstroke, a performance since recognised by the New Zealand Council. She has a highly proficient style, and may go close to Miss Lane's intermediate figures for 100 yards when she represents Otago in the interprovincial backstroke contest against Southland at Invercargill on Saturday of next week.

Fast Half-mile C. Simpson, the New Zealand junior half-mile champion, ran probably his fastest race to date when, from the scratch mark, he finished in second place to H. B. Steele in the 880 Yards Handicap at the Caledonian Society’s sports last Saturday. Steel, a Canterbury runner wUh a good action, ran a well-judged race from the 20-yard mark to win in lmin 57 3-ssec, but Simpson, who unwound a strong finishing effort up the straight, was only about six yards back. Simpson, a rangy, long-striding runner, left his final run just a little late, and Steel had enough in hand to stave off his .challenge over the last 50 yards. Simpson is a member of the St. Kilda Club and is trained by H. J. Tyrie, the former New Zealand quarter-mile champion and Empire Games representative. Tyrie informed the writer on Saturday that Simpson would take things very quietly during the winter. He was a Rugbv full-back of much promise .while attending King’s High School, but does not intend to take part in the game in the commg season.

Otatara Golfers at Balmacewen An enjoyable interclub match between the Invercargill Golf Club and the Otago Golf Club was played in ideal weather at Balmacewen'during the week-end. Tne home team, with the advantage of local knowledge, proved too strong for the visitors who were defeated by 22J matches to 44. The Otago Club lost only one fourball match and the Otatara team won three of the 18 singles, with one match halved. The visitors also took part in the four-ball bogey and Single Australian Stableford competitions held on Saturday. In the four-ball bogey E. Partridge and H. J. Aitken returned the excellent winning score of 6 up, and two Otataia plavers, C. G. Gray and E. J, Chccketts, partnered by J. W. Trewern and J. A. Bevin, were prominent with cards of 3 up. In the Australian Stableford five competitors with handicaps which ranged from scratch to 11, tied with scores of 37 points, the count back resulting in a win for R. J Hvslop. While this young golfer was on the hill battling with “ Mr Stableford ” his brother, J. R. Hyslop, was down on the flat busily engaged in establishing a Dominion record for the Two Mites Walk at the Caledonian Sports—altogether a very successful field day for the Hyslops

W. G. Grace’s Century at 15 Fourteen excellently preserved books, covering the history of the Sussex County Cricket Club from 1858 to 1887. were discovered recently in an old disused safe in a Brighton office. In one volume it was recorded that W. G. Grace played his first match at Brighton in July, 1864, a week before his sixteenth birthday, and made 170 for tire Gentlemen of South Wales in their first innings, and 56 not out in the second. Mention was also made in another book of the famous actor and film star, Sir C. Aubrey Smith, who played for the Gentlemen of Sussex at the age of 18. He, went in last against the Nondescripts—and was cleaned bowled for, a duck.