ITEMS OF INTEREST

Southland Times, Issue 20044, 4 December 1926, Page 18 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The Sanders Cup will be raced at Lyttelton in February of next year. Dick Eltnour and Harry Casey will meet, for the fourth time, at Taumarunui on December 12. Mr T. O’Byrne has been appointed official starter for the bushcraft events at the forthcoming Tahakopa sports. « * e ♦ It is claimed that Mattie Mealin, of Sydney, has established a 50 yards Australian women’s backstroke record, of 37 1-5 sec. • Twenty-two points were scored in the Rugby match between Newport and Cross Keys recently, and neither side crossed the other’s line. This must be a record in modern Rugby, at any rate. Newport scored a dropped goal —a goal from a mark, and three penalty goals—l 6 points—and Cross Keys two penalty goals—six points. This is how a French writer summed up Ray (“Wampy”) Bell when the Maoris were in France: “This is the interchangeable piece of the Maori chess board. His makes him a man when he is dressed like you and me, but, when he dons the black jersey, he is a demon who has mastered the law of perpetual motion. His distinctive mark is: He smiles when he understands what you ask him, and he smiles when he doesn’t understand what you ask him.” “Dick” Eve, Olympic champion diver, has ceased to be an amateur. The other week he was appointed manager of Manly’s new municipal baths, and as bath managers are declared to be professionals by the Australian Amateur Swimming Association, Eve has infringed his amateur status. If the popular Richard relinquishes his post at any time he will again be declared lily white by the A.S.A., provided that he has not taught swimming for monetary gain while employed at the baths. Cecil Walker, former Australian amateur champion cyclist, won the all-round championship of America last year, and was runner-up in the sprint title. When the last mails left America Walker was leading in both contests this year. Other Austral-| ians, Harris Border, and. George Dempsey, are figuring prominently in the sprint title score, while Alf Grenda was second in the all-round contest. Walker is expected to return to Australia early in December, together with other champion Australian and American cyclists. A surprise has been created by the defeat of Frank Doyle, Australian swimming champion, by Jack Barrett, in the 50 yards scratch race at the Sydney University carnival. It is said that the time (25sec) was exceptionally slow. However, the water at the Domain Baths at the time did not make for fast times. Barrett swam splendidly, and although he won by only a touch he always appeared to have the race in hand over the last 20 yards. Barrett is a consistent performer, and his future efforts will be closely watched. The big upset naturally peeved many of the boys who backed Dempsey, and ocnsequently many ugly reports were broadcast which we maintain were a sorry injustice to Tunney (says a New York pressman). Replying to reports regarding the fact that he had accepted a beating in the interests of a gigantic betting coup. Dempsey replied tersely, “Look at my face.” This was answer sufficient to anyone who got a close-up of his scrambled features. Dempsey battered Willard’s features badly at Toledo, but Big Jesse’s face was a June sunrise compared to Dempsey’s punch-torn map. • • • • R. Lamb the. Australian champion amateur cyclist, has completed arrangements with Melbourne Carnivals Pty., Ltd., to make an attempt on the world’s 10-mile motor-paced record, which stands at lOmin llsec., made by Lamb a few months ago at the Motordrome. But what appears to be Lamb’s chief objective is to break all world records now existing. The fastest speed over 10 miles for a push cycle is the world’s professional record held by H. Opperman, who covered the distance in 9min 57sec, so that for Lamb to be successful he must attain a speed up to 65 miles an hour. • • • • It is announced that the Finn, Ritola, has won the American Two Miles Steeplechase Championship in the same time that J. E. Webster won the A.A.A. Championship, and I for one am not at all surprised, because I should say that Ritola and Webster may quite reasonably be mentioned in the same breath, says an English writer. It must not be forgotten that the former is the Olympic champion, and that he won the 3000 metres steeplechase in very easy fashion and in time that cut no less than 10 seconds from the fastest of the preliminary heats. I hope nobody will charge me with any disparagement of the English champion when I say that if he met the Finn in England in a steeplechase match he would not be the favourite. • • • • When Jack Hobbs is no more and the present generation of cricket lovers is dead, his famous cricketer’s shop at 59 Fleet Street, London, will be a spot of great historical interest to all visitors (writes ■ Jumbo” Sharlandi. The regard for Jack Hobbs in England is practically reverential, and this season, after his great contribution to the Old Country’s win in the last test match, followed by the highest score of his career, 316 no out, for Surrey against Middlesex, public worship of their idol knew no bounds. In musty old Fleet Street Hobbs has his sports shop centred, within the hallowed precincts of journalism. Hundreds pass his shop daily, and there is always an interested crowd gazing with admiration at the wares displayed, or some tit-bit of importance in cricket that Jack will show. Yes; Hobbs’s shop is a great centre of attraction, and it is doubtful whether “Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese,” the famous inn further down the street, draws such crowds.

A Sydney writer humorously enumerates things that future golf teams visiting Wellington ought to know:—(1) Take a lift with you. It will be invaluable for visiting residents in their mountain-side homes, especially useful to reach Godfrey Magnus’s palatial domicile. (2) Cultivate a streamline body. It will greatly assist in leaning successfully on Miramar’s wind. (3) Wear blankets next to the skin. Members of the recent team went out the first day clad in light underwear, one sweater and plusfours. Next day they wore thick underwear and two sweaters. Next day another layer of underwear, two pairs plus-fours, and three sweaters, and they were still cold ajjd couldn’t swing their clubs for clothes. (4) Several months before departure commence scientific training to withstand N. Z. hospitality, Any location will do, preferably Bourke. Canbarra and America are emphatically barred.

The steel shaft in golf clubs is being extensively used in the United Staees. The steel shaft fitted clubs are no longer tabooed in tournaments in America, and as a result 75 per cent of the golfers have forsaken the wooden shaft. Conservatism may be the only reason why the new shaft is not acknowledged in the home land of the ancient and royal game. This is the opinion of Artie Schinner, the American boxing critic, of Gene Tunney. “Tunney, in a mechanical way may not rank with the slugging champions of the past like Jeffries. Fitzsimmons, Dempsey, but when it comes to cool, scientific boxing, brainy battling, he is the greatest we have had since Corbett, and he rates as the fastest big man since the days of the famous ‘Pompadour Jim.’ ” About the best of the performances in the Victorian public schools’ championships were: —100 yards in 10 l-ssec, by A. P. Robertson (Xavier) ; 220 yards in 23sec, by A. P. Robertson (Xavier) ; 440 yards in 52 3-ssec, by E. M. Davidson (Scotch) ; one mile in 4min 42 2-ssec., by J. F. Keay (Geelong) ; high jump at sft 9sin. by E. M. Davidson (Scotch) ; 120 yards hurdles in 17sec, by E. M. Davidson (Scotch) ; running broad jump at 21ft 3|in., by F. E. Jeffcott , (Geelong). I Alick Wickham, the one-time crack Sydney swimmer, holds one record which is unlikely to be taken from him, says a Smith’s Weekly paragraphist. That is the world’s highest dive (205 ft. made at Deep Rock Carnival, Melbourne, in 1918. By some error the diving tower, which was intended to be only 100 ft, was built up to 205 ft. Wickham did not realise what he was up against till he climbed to the top of the structure and saw the water beneath him. However, he pulled himself together and brought off a perfect “swallow.” He remembers nothing after leaving the tower. He was unconscious when picked up, and his costume was found to have been torn clean off, Jack Wren gave him £lOO to buy a new one. There are queer places in which cricket is played, but surely none more so than at the Eveleigh railway workshops (says the Sydney Sun). Batsmen take block on a strip of concrete with rail lines and engines all round. There are no sight boards. Engine smoke blows freely across the pitch—engines are coming in and going out on lines alongside the batsmen—but the gam,? goes on. Engines \veighing 85 tons or more are a mere nothing. There is a regular competition at the sheds with five teams, and sets of trophies for the winners. They are not stodgy batsmen out there—they take ‘risks in more ways than one. George Heaton dashed under an engine one day to field the ball. The engine-driver didn’t know, and moved on— Heaton was lucky to escape alive, but he got a bad doing, and now there is no ducking under the iron monsters. It is not done, but a ball hit under an engines counts a run. • • « « Victor John Flynn, who has been elected New South Wales Rhodes’s Scholar for 1927, is an old boy of St. Aloysius College, from which a few internationals in sport graduated. Among these were J. J. Ferris, the most distinguished of the left hand bowlers that represented Australia, and Dr H. M. Moran, who captained the Wallabies’ Rugby Union team on its tour of Great Britain, says a Sydney writer. The new Rhodes Scholar is a first-class Rugby Union forward—having played with much credit for Sydney University fifteen—and a keen all-round athlete, having captained his school in Rugby, swimming, and athletics. He is expected to perform with much credit on the fields of Rugby at Oxford. Several Australian Rhodes Scholars have made good in Oxford and English Rugger, but it is strange that Sydney University has not been represented by one who has made a name at cricket. It is the more peculiar in view of so many brilliant cricketers having been turned out by the University, V. J. Flynn is in.his final year of law. * • • • More than one old-time athlete is preparing for a “come back” during the present season, and the most surprising thing about this revival of active interest is that a race in one of the hardest sections of the sport of amateur athletics is to be attempted. At the Wellington A.A. Club’s meeting at the Basin Reserve towards the end of the present month there will be the call “Veterans 880 yards walk,” and in answer it is likely that some of the best walkers of other days will toe the mark (states the Post). Mr J. W. Davis (a competitor in the ’eighties) is doing his best to arrange a “classic” field, and has received an assurance that at least half-a-dozen old-timers will be there to measure strides. From the following a good field should be obtained:— T. W. Leslie, M. Tracey, H. S. Alpe, J. Costall, J. W. Davies, H. (“Pinky”) Rose, G. Turner, R. Hayes, McKenzie, P. Fitzgerald and D. Cashman. It has been suggested that the race be confined to veterans over 45 years of age, and that the distance be reduced to 440 yards. In that case one or two of those mentioned would not be eligible.

The absence of Miss Joyce Wethered and Miss Cecil Leitch from the English ladies’ golf championships has created considerable comment in England. Discussing the question, the golf correspondent of the Observer said: “When Miss Wethered won the English championship five years in succession, and the British open championship three times out of four, she probably felt that she had done enough. She arrived at the stage in her career when the championship was as good as hers for the asking. All this was very dull and uninteresting, not only to herself, but to the rank and file of players, who saw nd means of escape from their state of bondage. So, for two years Miss Wethered has played golf in private and for her own amusement, and has thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Having regained the title of British chamnion, Miss Cecil Leitch, no doubt, thinks that additional prestige is not to be obtained by annexing the English championship. Miss Leitch is probably right in her deduction.

Miss Edith Mayne, of Torquay, England’s newly-developed water queen, who broke the world’s swimming record for I,oooyds a short while ago, accomplished recently the striking feat of shattering three more universal standards in a single race. Over a 65yds course at Exmouth she put up new marks of 15min 49 3-ssec for 1,000 metres, 24min 0 l-ssec for 1.500 metres, and 25min 46sec for one mile. The time for 1,500 metres disposed of the listed record of 25min 6 3-ssec, set by Miss Helen Wainwright and although Miss Ethel McGary has to her credit the American standards of 15min 19 2-ssec for 1,000 metres, and 25min 36sec for one mile, these performances were achieved in a 40-yard pool, and fail to comply with the international rule that records for distances greater than 500 metres must be made over courses of not less than fifty metres. Allowing for the gain at the turns, too, Miss Mayne’s one mile exploit is a little better than Miss McGary’s, and stamps the English girl the greatest , middle distance naiad developed.