HOODOO ON SPORTSMEN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17738, 26 March 1932, Page 4

HOODOO ON SPORTSMEN

3 KILLED, 3 INJURED CASUALTIES IN SYDNEY SYDNEY, March IS. For rolated tragedies and near tragedies the past week must rank alnywt as a record in Sydney. Three well-known sporting identities have been killed and three others seriously injured, in a scries of accidents that appear to indicate that a hoodoo hovers over sporting men. On Saturday, Roy Paillais, a promising first grade Rugby League footballer, suffered a fractured spine when he was tackled and fell heavily in the first trial game of the 1932 season. Harry Owen, half-back for Western Suburbs League team, and cx-Stato captain, broke his ankle in another game, and will be out of the N.S.W. side, probably all through the season.

On Sunday, “Bill” Ives, interstate cricketer, and Leslie Judd, Rugby Union stalwart, were seriously injured in a motor smash.

j Last week, J. A. R. Mackellar, poet ' and sportsman, and member of Randwick Rugby Union side, died at tho age of 27. Later in the week Erie Williams, allround sporting identity, was killed in a motor smash; and Wilfred Gay, exRugby Union representative, was also killed in an accident.

\ In three days in Sydney this week there havo been six fatal collapse cases. The most unusual was that of a youth of 15 years. Ilis father re. primanded him for eating too much tart, and during an argument that followed, when the lad was trying to justify his over-eating, he collapsed suddenly and died in Bis father’s arms.