SOUTHLAND SWIMMING TEAM VINDICATED

Southland Times, Issue 23408, 15 January 1938, Page 13

SOUTHLAND SWIMMING TEAM VINDICATED

Good Performances At N.Z. Championships

(By

LIFEBELT)

CLUB HOURS Murihiku 6.15 to 7.0 p.m. Monday. Collegiate 5.45 to 6.20 p.m. Wednesday.

COMING EVENTS

January 15, 17 and 18.— N.Z. intermediate and junior championships at Nelson. January 22.— N.Z. national surf lifesaving championships at New Brighton (Christchurch). February 10.— Southland senior cham-

pionships. The New Zealand intermediate and junior championships begin today at Nelson. Chief interest will no doubt centre in the meeting between Miss K. Grey (Auckland), Miss C. Garvin (Otago) and Miss J. Macdonald (Southland) in the intermediate girls’ 220yds championship. Miss Grey holds the New Zealand record for the distance of 2min 49 3-ssec, accomplished in salt water, however, and would appear to hold the advantage, but as yet neither of the other two girls have had to exert themselves over the journey, whereas Miss Grey has been trying hard for a position in the Games’ team. However, the issue is very open and although the Aucklanders are expecting a win Southlanders will not be surprised if either Miss Macdonald or the Otago entrant upset the verdict. The New Zealand senior meeting has seen some of the best swimming ever recorded in New Zealand and at least some of the times registered have been in world class while others have been equal to Australian standard. For the first time in New Zealand history llmin has been broken for the half-mile. Miss Leydon in her quarter-mile swim' brought herself definitely into world standard and her prospects at Sydney would appear very bright. Handicapped as she is by a crippled leg, Miss Leydon must be considered one of the world’s swimming marvels, and it speaks volumes, both for herself and her coach, that they have been able to perfect a style which enables her to attain to such speeds. Hanan, of Auckland, vindicated his'selection for Sydney by winning the 100yds and 220yds events in a very convincing manner. J. C. Davies in equalling Smith’s New Zealand record for the 220yds breaststroke, proved himself to be as good if not better than his supporters claimed him to be. He was extended to his utmost to defeat Smith who, even in defeat, registered a performance practically equal to his best, and the announcement of his retirement will cause much regret, although as he has had a good innings, winning eight New Zealand titles in succession, he no doubt feels he has done enough. Smithy, as he is popularly known, is one of the best known figures in the swimming world, and has done an enormous amount of work to foster the sport. It has never been any trouble to him to help other swimmers and he is the principal cause of Davies being such a good one. His victory in the 100yds scratch race over Davies provided a fitting finale to his inter-pro-vincial career. Len Newell by his smashing victories proved himself the greatest distance swimmer yet produced in New Zealand. His mile swim, in which he reduced Dave Lindsay’s mile record by no less than 52sec, was remarkable, but -after that perform ance his half mile and quarter mile times were slightly disappointing, although he was well within the New Zealand record on each occasion. In fact, his 880yds was slower than his first 880yds in the mile, which is rather strange under the circumstances. Even now nobody knows what Newell is capable of ini any of these distances, as in every race he cleared away from the field and won by large margins. Peter Mathieson in the absence of Cliff, had no difficulty in retaining his titles, however, although recording "good time in the 400 metres he was fortunate in that Thomas of Otago spoiled his last turn and lost three yards when the two of them were together, Mathieson winning by only this margin, in time which Thomas was well capable of doing. His 68 3-ssec was only mediocre and was not the Peter Mathieson of old. MISS LEYDON’S PERFORMANCE Mona Leydon had no difficulty in the women’s backstroke events although her times were very ordinary. Islay Purdie is not the swimmer of last year as was shown by her defeats in the 100 and 220yds. Sylvia Gottlieb won her second New Zealand sprint title by taking the 100yds women’s championship in quite good time, from Miss Purdie who was a close second. As expected, Miss Dunn was successful in the women’s breaststroke event, although she just managed to come home in front of the Southlander, Miss Lynch, by a very small margin. Miss Rix was unopposed in the women’s dive but gave a very polished exhibition nevertheless. Ewart, of South Auckland, turned up an easy winner in the men’s diving championship from A. Branks, of Southland, who was a slight margin ahead of a well boosted diver from Nelson in D. Kerr.

Southland, represented by a small but select band of swimmers, emerged from the meeting with a greatly enhanced status. The team was the most successful yet sent from here to a national meeting and nobly vindicated the centre’s principle of encouraging its swimmers even though they were not expected to be winners. Other provinces could well take a lead from Southland’s action this year. With a team of only four swimmers and three of them straight out of intermediate class, Southland gained no less than three second places and two thirds against the best in New Zealand, thus scoring 11 points towards the shield. Miss Moira McGrath with a second and a third justified her selection. She was third in the 200 freestyle and second in the quarter. The quarter mile, which is her best distance, saw Miss McGrath swim a race in better than standard time and although well behind Mona Leydon, her time for second place equalled that registered by Miss Leydon when she won the title at the last New Zealand championship meeting, which shows Miss McGrath as being a swimmer of unusual qualities. Miss Claire Lynch, in spite of being short of work was good enough to finish half a yard behind Miss Dunn who is representing New Zealand at Sydney and this alone shows the class to which she belongs. Miss Dunn will have to look to her laurels next year at Invercargill. Keith Shaw, another one short of work, recorded an exceptional performance in finishing third to Davies and Smith and was right up behind Smith at the rope after swimming behind the field most of the journey. It will not occasion much surprise down here to see Shaw beat Davies next year, and although in view of Davies performances this year, this view may appear optimistic, it is well within the bounds of possibility. One success which has given much gratification to Southlanders, was that of Arnold Branks in the diving section. Although well behind Ewart, Branks took second place and as he is virtually a beginner and was sent more for experience than in the hopes of winning, his success is more than satisfactory. Branks has put in a lot of time this season and taken a lot of hard knocks in his training, and with the confidence which he will now have should show a great improvement during the next season. He is under the watchful eye of Mr E. Salisbury. COMPETITIONS POSTPONED

Once again the Oreti Club has been most unfortunate. St. Clair (Otago), after sending down a large team of 28 swimmers to compete in the surf championships, had to return home without finishing the competition. Exactly similar conditions prevailed on the last visit of the Otago surf men and once more the competitions were postponed because of the heavy surf and rough weather. This was most unfortunate as the weather had been ideal right up to the week-end and the St. Clair men will be thinking the weather they strike is usual. However, two competitions were got off on the Saturday under very trying conditions and both resulted in a win for St. Clair, although there was not a great deal between all the teams.

The postponement of the competitions is most disappointing to the Oreti men, as, because of our isolated position here, these events are really the only chance the local men have of obtaining outside opposition and they had put in a good deal of time in training for them. Also, they would have provided an ideal try-out in preparation for the trip to New Brighton to compete in the national championships. Before the junior team left for Nelson last Monday, the opportunit” was taken to make a presentation to Miss Macdonald, as she will be going direct to Wellington from Nelson, to meet the rest of the New Zealand team for Sydney. The presentation was made on the platform and was in the practical shape of a handbag, in which was a not inconsiderable sum of money. Joyce will no doubt find good use for both on her trip. Thirty surf men from all parts of the Dominion will participate in the final trials for selection for the New Zealand surf team which will visit Sydney for the Empire Games. The trials will be held at New Brighton in conjunction with the National surf championships on Saturday, January 22 and Sunday, January 23. The selectors will pick the team at the conclusion of the championships The 30 men nominated by the New Zealand Surf Life Saving Association are:—Wellington, T. B. Hewitt, C. E. Claridge, F. Pennington, R. G. Hatchwell, J. E. Hatchwell,' J. T. Y. Clark, H. C. Downs, D. K. Evans, J. C. Blakely, F. H. Mollier, R. Pelham and J. Williams. Canterbury, A. T. Dalton, N. J. McPhail, O. G. Woods, A. T. F. Stokes, M. Butterick, S. R. Kingdon, D. H Symes, H. G. Goldsmith and J. Young. Auckland, N. G. Galbraith, E. J. Stevens, A. Gardner and C. A. R. Buchanan. Otago, C. W. Elliott and W. N. Warren. Taranaki, D. L. Burton and F. E. Ryan.