ITEMS OF INTEREST

Southland Times, Issue 20664, 20 April 1929, Page 18

ITEMS OF INTEREST

SPORTING PARS FROM ALL SOURCES.

Johnny Weismuller has got a job as a swimming coach in Japan. » * * *

Norman Dowsett, well-known swimmer and Rugby footballer, of Wanganui, will ply his sporting talents in Wellington this season.

Seventy-four centuries, a record number, were compiled in first-class cricket in Australia during the season just concluded. ♦ * * The Welsh Football Association will send a team on tour through Canada from May 24 to July 12. •» * ' » * One of the selectors of the New South Wales Rugby League representative team is W. Kelly, formerly of New Zealand. ♦ ‘ * * * An Invercargill rifleman named P. Ure fop-scored for his team in the match for the Ladies’ Challenge Shield at Dunedin, his total being 94. His opponents described his success as “P ure luck.”

Percy Wallace, who toured New Zealand with the Victoria cricket team of 1925 (Edgar Mayne’s), took all 10 -wickets for 01 runs, in an innings of Carlton against Prahan a fortnight ago. Wallace is fastmedium, but once was considered to be as fast as J. M. Gregory.

A Queensland county bowler, named Hankinson, recently covered himself with glory by taking six wickets with six consecutive balls in a match which yielded him 14 wickets. The only similar feat recorded was done by John Wisden in 1859.

In the Maori tennis tournament at Hamilton, George Nepia, the well-known Rugby player, played for Horouta tribe, and played really well. After one long rally his opponent lobbed high, and the tribal wag gave Nepia advice by saying, “Kick a goal, George.” Nepia replied with a vigorous smash to the roars of laughter and applause.

R. W. (“Fatty”) Lamb, one of the finest all-round pedallers Australia or New Zealand has seen, is expected to arrive in America this week. For years “Fatty” has been keen on this trip, but the opportunity did not present itself until a few weeks ago, and the final arrangements were, of necessity, hurried. Lamb will specialize in pace following, and with his natural riding ability and strength he should be an instantaneous success. “Fatty” was very popular when he toured New Zealand as an amateur cyclist three seasons ago.

Bobby Pearce, world’s amateur champion sculler, after all his Australian worries of lack of jobs and lack of a decent boat to defend his international title at Perth, has found time to become engaged to Miss Reita Hendon, a charming Edgecliff girl and an ex-Aucklander. Bobby seems to be in luck’s way again now. He has a good job, a new skiff, presented by a Sydney evening newspaper, and now he has “the most charming girl in all the world.”

Women's hockey in Wellington has lost one of its leading lights, Miss Mary Macintyre, who has returned to her home in Southland and who will probably be playing during the coming winter for Collegiate, her old club. "Miss Macintyre was a member of the Wellington team that last year won the Mille Cup at the Dominion tournament, in which her speediness and cleverness were notable. When in Wellington she played for the Swifts Club.

The Ladies’ Challenge Shield, which is shot for at the Otago Rifle Association’s Easter meeting, has an interesting history. The original shield is actually in the Kensington (Lo’ndon) Art. Gallery, having been bought by the British Government when it was shown at the Paris Exhibition. It is a fine trophy, and engraved upon it arc scenes from Milton's “Paradise Lost.” The first competition for the shield, by the way, was held as far back as 1876, in the days of the old Snider rifle.

The Christmas lawn tennis tournament of the Sporting Club de Paris is an important. event not only for first-class players. The division of the players into two classes, the winners of the second-class playing the first-class entries, stimulates interest in the gams among what the French call “espoirs.” One of the most promising of the '“espoirs” is Mlle Leila Claude Anet, daughter of the well-known lawn tennis player, writer, and lecturer, Claude Anet. Despite her youthfulness, she has won the women’s singles in this slass B tournament, beating her opponent, Mlle Chanove, 6—3, I—6, 6—2. Mlle Anet, says Reuter, is looked upon as one of the most promising French women players of the future.

Amazing scenes occurred at Twickenham, after Ireland had beaten England by one point in the Rugby international. This was Ireland's first victory at Twickenham. Huge crowds leaped over the barriers. Thousands of the excited spectators were Irish men and women. People in the stands •started to fling the cushions on which they had been sitting at the crowds underneath, and a free fight started. It lasted for more than half an hour, and some women were slightly injured. The ground was littered with thousands of torn cushions. Dr. CoveSmith, the captain of the English team, told a reporter: —“The Irish team was by far the best I have ever seen in an international match. Its forwards were not only big and heavy but also fast and lively. The key to the Irish victory lay in the keen and intensive tackling of our outsides. It was a wonderfully keen and clean game.”

D. McLennan, New Zealand's greatest sprinter, will train under the care of C. M. Walden again next season, and he is anxious for Walden to go to Australia with him next March in an attempt to win, at Melbourne, the sprint championship of the world, which was won last month by the aboriginal, L. Cooper. The title goes to the man scoring most points in a series of races over 75yds, 100yds, 130yds and 220yds, and there is no doubt that, fit and well, McLennan is the one New Zealander with a chance of winning it. McLennan developed into a champion under Walden’s tutelage, and in two.years and a-half under Walden's direction he won £260. In view of his desire to strike again good enough form to warrant a trip to Australia, McLennan’s appearance on the track next season will be watched with a good deal of interest.

It. is natural enough that Taunton should have determined on - a civic reception to J. C. White. Apart from his individual successes in Australia, White is the first Somerset man who has. ever led Englund in the cricket field. In fact, it is hard to recall any other player from the cider county who ever came to Australia except Len Braund—who was really a Surrey man —and O. G. Radcliffe, in the early ’nineties, after "W.G.” had induced him to qualify for Gloucestershire. The famous Lionel Palairet, of course, played for England at Manchester in 1902, and Somerset secured in S. M. J. Woods an Australian whose services had been requisitioned against England in 1888. • But White is entirely and absolutely Somerset’s. .He comes from Stogumber.