ITEMS OF INTEREST

Southland Times, Issue 20207, 18 June 1927, Page 18 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Master-at-Arms W. G. E. Luddington, the first lower-deck man to captain the Navy at Rugby, and captain of the Devonport Services Rugby Club, shortly will leave England for the South Africa Naval Station. Luddington played 13 times for England, and has also captained Devon County. Two types of men should be selected for the Olympic Games of 1928. Those who are within striking distance erf Olympic standard and those who are young enough to suggest that four years will see in them a great improvement, and to whom the benefits of super-competition and the contact with supermen will be infinite assistance. Lord Burghlgy is the outstanding example of this latter class.—H. M. Abrahams, in the British Olympic Journal. • ♦ * * France and Germany met in an international Rugby match at Colombes recently before 25,000 spectators. The Frenchmen won by 3 goals and 5 tries (30 points) to a goal (5 points), and were much the faster and cleverer team. The French tries were scored by Vellat (2), Bousquet, Havget (2), Houdet, Gallia, and Cazenave. Desterac kicked three goals. Lucke, a forward, scored for Germany, and Berg converted. The game was played under English rules, and was refereed by W. H. Jackson, of Camborne. Behoteguy played splendidly in the French back division. The German forwards did well in the scrum, but the backs tackled too high. Young as he is, D. V. S. Scott, the 16-year-old swimmer of Magdalen College (Oxford) who is being trained for the Olympic Trials by Laverty, the Northern Counties coach, weighs 13st 41b., and stands sft 9Ain. in height. When only 14 Scott finished 10th in the Mersey mile and fourth in the Northern Counties mile the following year. He is the present Northern Counties junior champion. » ♦ * » The players of the Woolwich Arsenal Soccer team in England have tried out a new form of training, known as "head tennis,” which is described as follows: The game is played on a hard tennis court. Even sides of six or seven are chosen, and with a football as a tennis ball and the players’ heads as rackets the ball is kept moving from side to side of the net. As in lawn tennis, the ball must bounce once and then he returned over the net. Points are scored as in lawn tennis. To this game Arsenal owes its undoubted superiority with a falling ball in front of goal. ♦ ♦ * * Among the referees who control the various football matches in Auckland, there are some very appropriate names. For instance, what better than E. Rule, a first-grade Rugby referee, or Mr Check, one of Soccers Knights of the Whistle ? Then for a Rugby match where players show a tendency to kick over the traces, G. Peace is obviously th* man for the job. On the administrative side it seems most fitting that A. Ball should be president of the Auckland Rugby League Referees’ Association. ♦ ♦ • • G. R. Goodwin, the great English crosscountry runner, showed a welcome return to form recently, when he won the Surrey Cup race, from South Croydon to Godstone, a distance of 18| miles. He won the race by nearly half a mile in the excellent time of 2hr 45min 20 3-ssec. Goodwin was on the scratch mark, and the second man, J. F. W. Mayor, started off the 16min mark. » ♦ * * The Shirley foursomes competition played on Saturday by the Christchurch Golf Club members was contested under perfect weather conditions, but the scores were by no means above the ordinary. The best cards were as follows: R. T. Tosswill and F. Banks 2 up; M. G. Louissin and C. A. Stringer 1 up; C. A. Seymour and W. Irwin 1 up; G. Beadle and C. Holdsworth 1 up; W. Harman and F. Avent all square; C. H. Hewlett and W. J. Wratt one down.

New Zealand has a distinct link with English amateur sculling through the fact that Donald H. L. Gollan, winner of the Wingfield Sculls, and a runner-up for the Diamonds, on several occasions, was born and brought up in this country. His father, Spencer Gollan, was a well-known Hawke’s Bay sportsman, owner of a great tract of land known as the Mangatarata Estate. When the property was sold he retired to live in England, and since then he has been in New Zealand on casual visits. Donald Gollan had the misfortune from infancy to be affllicted with defective vocal chords, and like another famous athlete, J. K. AyresOosterlaak, he was unable to speak properly. But he developed into a fine Rugby footballer, golfer and oarsman. ♦ * * ♦ John Weissmuller, of the Illinois A.C. of Chicago, scored a remarkable victory in the championship aquatic pentathlon of the Central A.A.U., decided in the 60ft home pool. He won first place in all five events at stake, taking honours at 100yds free style in 53 2-ssec, 500yds in 5.56 4-5, 100 yds back-stroke in 1.6 4-5, 100yds breaststroke in 1.25 2-5, then outpointing his rivals in fancy diving. In the American championship, Weissmuller was unexpectedly defeated in the 150yds back-stroke when George Kojac, of the New York Boys’ Club, set a new world’s record of Imin 39 l-ssec. Kojac is a broad-shouldered, husky young fellow, nearly 6ft in height. Like all the champions, he uses the crawl stroke in free style swimming. He intends to specialise in back-stroke swimming when the time approaches for the Olympic tryouts, and his main objective is the winning of the 100yds back-stroke title at Amsterdam in 1928. In free style swimming he ranks not far behind, as he showed by finishing second to Weissmuller in the 220yds championship. Cricketing enthusiasts aboard the steamer Chitral, which arrived at Perth, W'estern Australia, recently, stated that W. R. Hammond, of Gloucestershire, is England’s new batting hope. Jack Hobbs has said if Hammond is rightly handled he will be one of the world’s leading batsmen, if not the best. Hammond would probably have played in last season’s tests against Australia but for sickness, contracted after a tour to the West Indies. In the Gloucester v. Lancashire county cricket match recently, Hammond gave an electrifying display of driving and cutting. He hit E. H. McDonald, the former Australian fast bowler, for five fours in one over, and scored 51 out of 65 in 37 minutes. He made a century in 70 minutes, and completed his total 187, in 185 minutes, including four sixes and 24 fours. He hit a six in three successive overs. He was attempting again to lift the ball over the boundary when he was caught, which was his first chance. Racing on a aoggy turf, and in a downpour of rain, the Cambridge University athletic team, captained by Lord Burghley, England’s best hurdler, won the Pennsylvania relay hurdles, and brought their American visit to a brilliant close. The British quartet (Lord Burghley, T. G. L. Livingston-Learmonth, H. P. Bowie, and G. C. Wightman Smith) won its heat, and romped away from Yale and Pennsylvania in the final. At the same meeting, in the awful conditions for running, Jackson Schols did the 100yds in 10 1-lOsec, and Roland Locke the furlong in 21 3-ssec.