ITEMS OF INTEREST

Southland Times, Issue 19900, 19 June 1926, Page 18 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The formal opening of the Olympic Games a: Amsterdam will take place on June 30, 1928, and the meeting will terminate on July 24 . • • • * In reply to a question from Harry Lauder, "Where are the humoriste?” an English writer remarked that they were all busy selecting Test teams. It is estimated that the historic cricket ground, Lord’s, which has been undergoing alteration and improvement, will now accommodate 35,000 people. Considerable interest is being taken by the Mataura and Gore Clubs in the soccer game. Although they have not yet affili- . ated it is understood that they intend to do so in the near future. ' All soccer games were postponed last Sat- , urday on account of the wet weather and ! these games will be played off to-day. EnI joyable games should result, as great in- ■ rerest is being taken in the second round | fixtures. « « • • The Invercargill soccer team’s visit to i Ohai which unfortunately was postponed ' last Saturday should have proved an enjoyable outing. Seventeen persons including players were prepared to make the trip. • » • • The Management Committee of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association at its quarterly meeting decided on the use of the Dans stitchless ball for authorised open tournaments. It was also decided to use the I Ayres’ championship ball at the 1926 New Zealand championship tournament*. According to the Johannesburg Star, S. Susman threw the javelin 128 yards in the Transvaal trials for the .selection of a championship team. The best throw in the South African championship was 159 ft 9in, registered by K. Logan, of Natal, and Suzman was not placed. William T. Potter, of Toronto, has married one of the fastest young women in all Canada and the United States—and he tells the world he’s proud of it. Up to till a few weeks ago Mrs Potter was Miss Leila Brooks, of Toronto, and she is the champion woman speed skater of Canada and America. Just after the wedding she established a new rink record of Imin. 39 2-ssec, at Cleveland, Ohio. » • • » Because of the diversity of castes and religions in the Indian Army hockey team, the food problem is not an easy one. The team has brought its own cook, and sufficient supplies of atta, or rough flour, to last the whole tour. The main requirements are atta, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, fruit, vegetables and live fowls and live , sheep, which the Indians kill in the ways laid down by the various castes. Some of them, however, eat no meat whatever. Several do all their own cooking. • « » « According to “Snowy” Baker, a prominent swimming club in California has decided to get into touch with Ena Stockley and i Pin Page, the Auckland swimmers, and invite them to visit America next season. In quest of river pastures new, Major Goodsell, the world’s sculling champion, is to leave Australia for America on June 16. He expects to be in America for about six months, and he probably will engage in coaching work while he is looking round for a match. He states that there is a big likelihood of his going to England to row Ernest Barry on the Thames. ♦ • • ♦ Joe Turner, world’s middleweight champion wrestler since 1911, successfully defended his title against Jack Ross, Florida State champion, by winning two out of three falls at Wauchula recently. Ross won the first fall, but Turner came back to win the last two by use of his famous crab-hold. “Shorts’’ for tennis is a mode that is being introduced in London this season. From the point of view of comfort they certainly outclass trousers, but from the point of view of appearance—well, take a walk round some of the tennis courts next summer and consider the possibilities! • • • • “Billy” Williamson, a noted Canterbury hockey enthusiast, motored 300 miles on I Saturday last to play in a hockey match at Lancaster Park, only to find, on arrival, rhat the draw had been altered, and that his team St Albans, had drawn a bye.— Exchange. • ♦ • • Olympic games for women only, to which all nations will be invited to send two competitors for each event, have now been definitely arranged for August 27 to 29 in Gothenburg (Sweden) this year. They will mark the second international contest of the kind held under the auspices of “La Federation Sportive Feminine Internationale,” and since that body also plans to cooperate with the International Olympic Committee in future games, the official title of the meeting in Sweden will be “The Second International Athletic Games for Women.” • • • • "The redemption of Russia lies in the field of sport,” said Leon Trotsky in a speech to workers at Moscow on February 5. “Go out and engage in healthful competition,” he advised his audience, “and in such you will get a proper perspective on life.” This statement appears the more extraordinary when the former life of the Bolshevik leader is considered. He spent his boyhood working in a sweat-shop of the New York East Side for a wage which permitted him the barest of hall bedrooms and he never had tthe price to engage in any form of athletics. Thirteen has no terrors for Carl Hansen, of South Orange, New Jersey, captain of the Syracuse University lacrosse team and all-round athlete. He was born on the 13th of the month; first played football at the age of 13; won his football letter at Syracuse with jersey No. 13, and finally was elected captain of lacrosse in his first year at the game with jersey No. 13. No other athlete on a Syracuse squad will dare the occult pow’ers of tfie number, but to Hansen it means success. He would wear no other. In every game of lacrosse the Orange plays this year, Hansen stands out prominently with an oversize “13” on his back, a sign of bad luck, perhaps, except to Hansen. • • • • Fifty-six races have been held for the world’s sculling championship and an Australian or a New Zealander took part in every one of them except two. Those occasions were when Hanlan, the Canadian, rowed Boyd on the Tyne in 1882, and when another Canadian, Durnan, tried in vain to wrest the title from Barry on the Thames in 1912. Of the 56 races for the championship, Australians won 38 and New Zealanders nine. Hanlan won five times, and Gaudaur once for Canada and Barry five times for England. One race has been held in Canada, whither George Towns went to wrest the title from Gaudaur, and Arnst and Barry onee met on the neutral water , of the Zambesi.