THE PLAYGROUND

Southland Times, Issue 19230, 21 May 1921, Page 9

THE PLAYGROUND

Sports and Pastimes

’ The Dunedin Couraing Club will conduct M Maiden Stake during Winter Show Week —May 28 to June 4 . The New Zealand bowlers lost their first international game —against England—by 99 to 86, on a perfect green. There is a boom in pedigree dogs in and a first-class fox terrier is said to be easily worth £5OO. The Australian billiardist, Mr J. R. Hooper, has no excuse for his defeat by Mr Fry for the Amateur Billiard Championship of 1921. T. C. Lowry, a son of the well-known Hawke’s Bay racehorse owner, playing for Cambridge Freshmen, batted for three hours for 183. This is the highest score in a freshmen’s match for twenty years. There is every prospect of a Southland Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association being established in Invercargill in the near future. A tug-o’-war for £4OO (£2OO aside) was recently contested at Lithgow (N.S.W.) between teams classed as the Ragged Six and the Oakey Park side. After a strenuous pull of eleven minutes the Ragged Six were declared winners by a margin of four inches. The winners are out with a challenge to any team in the home State. During a recent visit to Dunedin the writer noticed several greyhound fanciers exercising their longtails about the roads of the southern part of the town. Some nice greyhounds were in evidence and well forward for the first fixture of the season at forbury Park, entries for which close on Tuesday, May 31st. Mr Joe Darling, the famous ex-Australian cricketer, and now a successful farmer, has been elected a member of the South Australian Legislative Council. Mr Darling captained several Australian teams which visited England, and in his day was considered one of the finest batsmen in the world. In 1915 there were <,000,000 dogs in England, but by 1917 breeding was virtually stopped owing to the difficulty of feeding the canines during war time. This accounts for the present high prices being obtained for really good dogs, from £3OO to 1400 being paid for Fox Terriers, Pekinese, \lsatians, Wolf dogs, Bull dogs, and Airedales. Somevery fine bags of ducks have been secured in the North Island since the opening of the shooting season. One party of fix gunners at Lake Waikare totalled a bag of 280 ducks in three days. A Government House party secured between 70 and 80 ducks at Lake Opuatia in the Rangiriri As a sequel to the recent ballot for the public for the full Open Lawn Tennis Championship meeting at Wimbledon, S.W., jn June, the secretary of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club has already returned approximately £lO,OOO to disappointed applicants. These figures beat all previous records and ind te that thel92o tennis boom is likely to be eclipsed this year. When the Australian cricketers were in New Zealand they referred in high terms to the excellent playing qualities of the Napier wicket, comparing it favourably with Australian wickets. The committee of the Wellington Cricket Association immediately decided to give the soil used there a trial, and eighteen tons arrived last week, through the co-operation of the City Council, the Napier city engineer, and the cricket authorities there. The soil is of peculiar mixture, being composed of dark coloured loam, sand, limestone and clay. The two latter give an excellent binding quality. To illustrate this a Dominion reporter was shown what at first looked like a hard black brick. This was the result of mixing a few handfuls of the soil with water, and if the brick is any criterion of the hardness of the wicket, great results should be achieved by the experiment. A further test was carried out by mixing the actual binding qualities, namely, the clay and limestone, with water and treating it in a similar way to the rolling of a wicket. The result was the production of what looked like a piece of flint, hard and smooth in appearance. The wicket, which has been laid down under the personal supervision of the custodian (Mr A. Brewer) is twentyseven yards long, nine feet wide, and six inches deep, and has necessitated the laying of 15 i tons of eoil, at a cost of about £1 per ton. Mr Brewer is quite optimistic regarding the success of the venture, although it cannot be judged until the wicket has been actually played on. Should it prove a success the policy of the association will be extended, so as to include practice wickets also.

The fishing season in the Wellington district is said to have been one of the best lor very many years past, largely owing to the systematic heavy stocking of the streams by the Acclimatisation Society. Good catches of rainbow trout have been made from the Maowhango river, and brown trout from the Manawatu and Makakahi rivers. The victory of the West Australian crew in the inter-State eight-oared race, held at Launceston (Tas.) on April 30, was very popular by reason of the fact that crews from the West have been trying for many years to win the event—a second last season was nearest they ever got to the deaired honour. This year the crew had trained for many weeks prior to the race, having commenced as far back as January 18. The crew estimate that they covered 300 miles in their preparation on the home course on the Tamar river before the day of the race. An analysis of the mortality figures for the State of New York respecting automobile accidents shows that 9000 out of 10,500 people were killed as a result of carelessness on the part of the pedestrian. Of these 3000 were among persons crossing the streets from the middle of the block, and by far the greater number of the remainder were children playing in the streets. One can get a lot of entertainment from reading the varying opinions of English eritics on Armstrong’s Australian cricket team. After the paeans of praise which have appeared in English papers, and have been cabled to New Zealand, it is interesting to read the following, which appeared in the London Evening Standard, and which was not cabled to New Zealand papers, but only to a Sydney journal:—"The mystery deepens, and is becoming insoluble, namely, how the Australians won five Testa; also, how Mailey established a wickets record. These are not super-men If we are not their equals in England, let us forswear cricket for ever. It is a ridiculous idea that they are the best team that ever left Australia. Macartney is greater than ever, but the remainder did not show above respectable mediocrity.” The Standard’s writer is equally critical of the bowlers, except McDonald who was the best, but even he was not superior to many county men. Finally, he says that the fielding in the Leicester match was not phenomenal. An interesting exhibit was on view at Saturday evening’s annual meeting of the Christchurch Bowling Club, this being a small box of soil, half of which had been sterilised. The sterilised half showed grass of vigorous growth, whereas the other half of the box, with seed sown in unsterilised soil, contained little or no grass. Mr G. A. Maxey, green superintendent, stated that the <eeds in the sterilised soil germinated within three days, and the grass was one inch high within three weeks. Similar grass seed was sown in the unsterilised soil at the same time, and was scarcely yet showing through. The sterilising process not only killed the weed seeds, but encour-

aged speedy germination and growth. The club’s green is being top-dressed with sterilised soil. Dr Sandston said that the abi sence of bacteria and parasites accounted I for the success from sterilised soil. "Billy,” the Kangaroo at the London ! Zoo, has been rechristened "Battering Ginger,” owing to his pugilistic attainments. Boxing is now "Billy’s” one obsession, which is embarrassing at times when the keeper has other duties to attend to. Seeing that he taught the kangaroo to box, he cannot very well grumble. “Billy” is as tall as his keeper ,and to see him perfectly I erect with half-clenched "fist,” sparring ' with his uniformed opponent, is one of the sights of the Zoo. “Anyone can have the i gloves on with him,” said the keeper, “for he is open to meet all comers. It would ! have to be a box for points, of course, for j ‘Billy’ has a rather bad guard, and we ' don’t want him knocked out. He has a [ tricky upper-cut, and you have to mind Ihe doesn’t get you in a corner. He has a I habit of clinching, w’hen he might be I tempted to use his legs. We’re getting a j pair of boxing gloves for him, and he won’t ibe able to grip so much then. But he preI fers bare ‘fists,’ for when we tried to fit ' him with a pair yesterday he started right . away without them, and we had to drop ' the gloves and get going. I’ll show you i how we dodge his clinches,’’ said the keeper, entering the “ring.” “V ou have to keep him moving, like this.” A resounding smack on the attendant’s face cut short further explanation, and for a few minutes the two bounced around the cage in a sort of syncopated waltz, the kangaroo meantime putting in some pretty head—and tail —work. “That’s enough, ‘ Billy,’ ” gasped the man, as he scrambled out clutching his hat. “He’s got more wind than I have.” Lloyd Williams baffled fifteen coyotes who attacked him on a lonely road on the prairie near Springfield, Colorado, says an American exchange. The attack occurred while Williams was underneath his automobile making adjustments. He recovered from the surprise of the onslaught in time to throw a wrench at the leader of the pack, striking it between the eyes, and felling it where it stood ready to leap. Other animals, by this time, had climbed up and taken possession of the machine. Williams seized the foremost of these around the neck and hurled it with all his strength at the others. This angered the pack and as one they leaped at him. He jumped into the driver’s seat, started the car and made a dash for safety. The animals followed him for a mile, but finally tired of the race. Soccer is the great winter game in Great Britain. During the season, up to the end of December, twenty-eight gates of over £2,000 and forty-four of between £l,500 and £1,900 were recorded among English league clubs, which play matches each Saturday. Newcastle United proved the best drawing ground with an average of £2,200, while Aston Villa realised an average of £2,000. Sammy Rzeschewski, 9 year old chess wizard, who was recently in England, is playing in America and in March he simultaneously played ten of the best chess’ players in Grand Rapids and western Michigan, and won all his games. Sammy declined to kiss a woman when fair admirers flocked to the rooms where he played. In order that graduates of Williams College (United States) in the future may be physically as well as mentally fit to grapple with the battle of life, compulsory athletics in one form or another will soon be in order for all those who are found to be in need of exercise. With this idea in view a director of athletics will be named to take charge of the work. He will supervise sports on Cole Field for students other than those competing on varsity or class teams, and will also conduct the activities of the Outing Club. The plan introduced by Ira Thomas, former baseball coach under the slogan of “Baseball for All,” which resulted in the building of four additional baseball diamonds two years ago, will be carried out on an even broader scale.