ENGLISH SPORTING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 58

ENGLISH SPORTING NOTES.

(Fxom Ouk Own Cohhespokdent.) LONDON, October 16. Mr J. Buchanan has evidently tired of putting forward Noctuiform for events worth winning. The Multiform — La Notte horse is now six years old, and he has failed entirely to reproduce, during hie three years' sojourn in England, the promise he showed in the Antipodes or the turf qualities of hi* family. He was put up by Messrs Tattersall at Newmarket yesterday, and sold to Mr A. Portman for 500 guineas. It is understood the purchase was for Lord Carnarvon, in which case there may still be a future for Noctuiform on the turf.

HEWITT IN ENGLAND.

L. Hewitt had four mounts at Kempton Park last- week. He annexed the Richmond Plate on Mr L. Robinson's Bellatrix, and was second in the Imperial Produce Plate on Mr Win. Clark's The Whirlpool. The winner; Vivid, with D. Maher up, tackled TheAVhirlpool a quarter of a mile from home and bumped, but there was no appeal. Hewitt had a good win in the Welter Selling Plate at Newmarket yesterday, hia mount being Mr L. Robinson's Peter Parley.

WRESTLERS AS BOXERS.

At the National Sporting Club on Thursday there was a- large and representative gathering, when the Swiss heavy-weight wrestler, John Lemm, made his debut as a boxer in the novices' competition. Like the majority of mat exponents, Lemm, while appearing muscle-bound, carried Far too much barrel, and not being sufficiently experienced to guard this particular part of his anatomy, this caused hi 3 downfall. Frankly speaking, Lemm possesses only a crude notion of the business, but there is no questioning his gameness. Perhaps the best exponent of tile two games was Jaelc Wannop, who was such a successful performer during the days of the Westmorland and • Cumberland Good Friday wrestlingsports at Liliic Bridge, and afterwards ■ travelled to America and met Evan Lewis, J the "Strangler." "VVirh the gloves, it will fed remembered, he fought- Jem Smith 20 rounds at the Okl Novelty Theatre prior to the Jaet-namcil meeting Peter Jackson at the New Pelican Club and Frank Slavin at Bruges, both of these matches at the ' tune being ratified. As a teacher in both I branches Wannop wa» second to none, and ! to hie credit may be mentioned the discovery of some \er\ Miiart youngsters, in- i eluding Jack CallaVd, Bob* White, Dick ' Leary — one of the cleverest boxers in the ' light-weight cla-ss, — and Curly Thompson, I v. ho was also an adopt at wrestling. Wan- j nop latteily conducted the gymnasium at: New Cross, uhoie the late Ted Pritchard ' defeated Jom Smith. It nin at this establishment "Straight Left" was called upon! to referee one of the most remarkable I wrestling matches over arranged. Thia was j between Nobbier Fry's donkej-, Rate, and j Curly Thompson. Naturally a lot of interest was taken in the encounter, and although Thompson had won many matches he found, after a Jengthv struggle, he was unable to " down" his long-eai - ed opponent. THE MARATHON RACE. A capital judge of his own abilities must lie Henri Siret, the young and brilliant long-distance running French champion. On Saturday, in the Marathon Race, over the historical road course from Windsor Castle to the Stadium, at Shepherd's Bush, he arrived home fir-t, and so won the prizo of £100 offered by the Evening News. Prior to the race the little French crack had expressed the opinion that he would complete tho distance of 26 miles 586 yards in 2hr 35min. As a matter of fact, his time was 2hr 37min 23sec. Considering, then, that he had not seen the course, his prognostication, "was much nearer correct than that which came from other prophets as to what their favourites would do. The race had excited widespread interest, firstly, because the profess ionale were, for the first time for a number of years past, to be given the opportunity of showing what manner of men they are, and, eeocd'y, because there was a belief that Britisher would be abl« *~ rehabilitate tienajeiits ux th& esjima-

j tion of their feHp\y r countrymen after the tremendous trouncing the amateurs received on July 24 last in the Olympic Games Marathon. In the latter -respect, Englishmen, at all evente, only partly succeeded ; but .that . is not the fault of those who promoted the race, comments Sporting Life. v '. '- ' It is a pity that the crowd got out of hand at several points on the route, duo partly to" the lack of sufficient police support. Runners had to fight their way through cro.wds of people en route, and dodge motor cars and innumerable cyclists. Who suffered most, in this respect it is impossible to say. Certainly the winner, Keywocd, and White were considerably handicapped in having, during the last 10 . miles of the race, literally to fight their way to " the front through, an uncontrollable amd unsportsmanlike body of - cyclists and motor car drivers, who ne^er . ought to have been allowed to impede && . progress of so important a race. Only between Windsor and Wilteeden did thepolice appear to have proper control over the people and the crowd awheel. Many of the competitors ako complained that for fully an hour and a-balf after they had finished they weie kept waiting for their clothes to be brought to them from Wind. ! f?^ they could dress themeelvea Still, all sport promoters can learn ' something by experience, and though no ; hlame is attached to the promoters of baturday's big race, yet in the interesta ' of the competitors and the sport, it is , hoped_ there will not be a repetition of " these unfortunate circumstances. There - were 89 starters. Henri Siret, the winner, w-ho follows the occupation of ■ a barman is a native of Paris. He is 21 years of age, stands &f t sin in height, and weighs % Bst 15fb stripped. Second came Patrick White, of Ireland, whese time was 2hr 40min 15 2-ssec. The third man was J Jveywood, of Bromley Common, Kent hia time being 2hr 41min 19 4-ssec WALKING TO BRIGHTON Mr A. T. M. Rowland, the New Zealand walker, who is connected with the firm of Alexander Clark and Co., took part in the employees' waking race to Brighton on Saturday. The event was won by W. May in llhrs 31min. Rowa'nd was sent upon his journey four hours later^ buf, naturally could never be considered in the race, and in his endeavours to put up a sufficiently i '?** performance to get on terms he possibly beat himself. He had a very bad time near Handcross, always a difficult part of the journey, and finished in llhrs 4min, though his time for the first part of the journey-~lhr 58min— was distinctly good, and he maintained a fine even pacs to I Crawley.

THE BILLIARD SEASON. The most noteworthy feature of the bilbard season has been the brilliant form ofH. W. Stevenson. For years past there baa been little to choose between him and Dawson, and -it would not have been surprising if his tour round the world had impaired his skill, but he seems to Be un- - affected and to be playing better than ever In the first match of the " provincial tournament" he was beaten by Aiken, whose final effort was one -that may remain -unequalled for years. Stevenson held a lead of 633 points on the afternoon of the laefc day, but in the evening Aiken scored no fewer than 1515 points, and so snatched a remarkable victory. Stevenson's record stands like this: — „ , , _ Points, ileat I—Stevenson.1 — Stevenson. . », „ 9,731 Aitken .. „ .. io'ooo Heat 2— Stevenson o „ «. 10.000 R«Mh 7.865 Heat 3— Steveneon ' . , t . 10,000 Harverson » .. .. 6,531 Heat 4 — Stevenson .. .. „ 10,000 Inma.ii .. -. 9,179 Not long ago Stevenson offered to bajk himself for £100 in his heat of the Provincial Tournament against Inman, who holds the barren title of professional champion. Inman did not accept the challenge, • but Recce has now taken it up, and thej; will meet in the week commencing Novern^ ber 23. Recce will receive 1600 in the game of 10,000 up.