Tuatapere Sports Gathering Should Set New Standard

Southland Times, Issue 24001, 16 December 1939, Page 21

Tuatapere Sports Gathering Should Set New Standard

By

SCRATCH

The fears expressed at the annual meeting of the Southland Athletic Society that the outbreak of wai* would means drastic reductions in prize - money and curtailed programmes at professional sports meetings do not now seem to be justified. The Tuatapere Axemen’s Athletic Society has this season arranged an excellent programme, which promises to make for an even brighter gathering than in past years. The society has again increased the prize-money. Southland is renowned for professional athletics which have enjoyed increasing popularity for many years. Probably no athletic society in New Zealand can boast a finer record in the sport than the Tuatapere Society. Over a long period of years it has built up a gathering which always attracts a large attendance of the public, which caters for athletes from all parts of the Dominion and which has achieved a popularity and importance that is probably without equal in the country. On the . picturesque Tuatapere Domain the society "will hold its twenty-eighth sports meeting on New Year’s Day. On this day athletes will be offered the sum of £370 in prizemoney and £7O in trophies and it will not be surprising if entries are even bigger than last year. In the 38 events which comprise the programme there should be no lack of entertainment. There are seven running events, the principal among which is the Sheffield, which will this season carry £47 in prize-money. The winner of the 135 yards handicap will receive £3O and a silver cup given by Mr G. H. Stancombe. For second place £lO is offered, for third £5 and for fourth £2. The quarter-mile offers £7 and a cup given by Mr E. L. Souness, for first; £3 is offering for second and £2 for third. The half-mile carries a first prize of £l2 and a cup valued at £4, given by Mr F. R. Holloway (Invercargill); the second man will receive £4 and the third £2. The mile offers £lO for first, and a cup given by Mr E. L. Souness, with £4 for second and £2 for third. The sprint events, 75 yards, 100 yards and 220 yards, carry prize-money totalling £2B. With such attractive awards offering there will be every inducement to runners to be present at the New Year’s Day fixture.

BUSHCRAFT EVENTS The bushcraft section is an important part of the Tuatapere programme. The principal chopping event, the Plumb 15-inch underhand chop handicap, carries £57 in prize-money. The winner will receive £4O and a gold medal given by Messrs F. R. Plumb, axe manufacturers of Philadelphia.■. To the second man will go £lO, to the third £5 and to the fourth £2. The fifth, sixth and seventh men will receive racing axes given by Messrs F. R. Plumb. The Publicans’ 12-inch standing block handicap carries £22 in prizemoney and the 12-inch underhand handicap offers a total of £lB. The two sawing events also carry attractive prize-money. Cyclists will be catered for with three races for professionals and two amateur events; The two-mile wheel race handicap, the principal event, carries £l5 for first and a silver cup given by Mr L. Brumby, £5 for second, £3 for third and £1 for fourth. The dancing section is always an important feature of the Tuatapere gathering and with 15 events this year, and good prizes offering for all, large entries and a high standard of performance may be expected. The piping section, too, should be well contested. Clay-bird shooting matches and miniature rifle shooting will add interest to the programme. Special trophies will also be given to competitors gaining most points in the cash cycling, chopping, running and amateur cycling events. Nominations for all events, except the dancing, piping and shooting, closed with the secretary yesterday at 8 p.m. The handicaps will be published in The Southland Times on Friday, December 29, and the rehandicaps on December 30. The entire net proceeds for the year s working are to be used for patriotic purposes. Around The Circuits

If the enthusiasm which has marked the evening sports meetings at Rugby Park this year is any criterion the Southland amateur athletic championships, which are to be held on February 10, should be a pronounced success. The programme has not yet been arranged but it is not likely to differ very much from last season. The suggestion made at the last meeting of the executive of the Southland Amateur Athletic Association that some prominent athlete or athletes be invited to be present at the championship meeting is a good one. An attraction of

this nature is very helpful in Invercargill where the presence of an athlete of repute is necessary to arouse the public out of their apathy. 1 It is to be hoped that C. H. Matthews and V. P. Boot are able to' accept the invitation which is being extended to them. Women’s athletics in Dunedin were given a further fillip recently when the D.I.C. Ladies’ Athletic Club came into existence. This is the second new women’s club to be formed this summer and the sport should benefit considerably. There are about 15 active members in the club and they will be coached by the consistent Anglican runner, R. E. Nauman. The outstanding

member of the new club is Miss B. McCombie, a promising hurdler, who 1 has beaten Miss P. Mutimer, the D.SA. hurdler who is expected to do so well this summer. The D.I.C. team has had a remarkable record at the Caledonian Society’s interhouse sports, for it has been unbeaten in the past four years. Its members should assist in improving still further the standard of women’s athletics in Dunedin. RAMSAY IN FORM Before H. D. Ramsay (Otago University) finished second in the New Zealand .220 Yards Hurdles Championship at Napier last March, he was a good hurdler spoiled by a lack of confidence in his own ability. After his excellent display to finish second to F. Sharpley, he was a changed man, as was evidenced by the confident way in which he beat H. D. Bell in the New Zealand Universities’' Championship. On a recent evening made his first appearance this summer, and in winning the Furlong Hurdles showed that he has lost none of his ability and style. He hurdled impressively to win in 27sec, and even then was slowing to a jog at the finish. He might easily upset northern calculations in the national Furlong Hurdles . this season.

The young Pretoria athlete, C. Gandy, narrowly failed to set a new South African record for the high jump at a triangular athletic meeting in Pretoria recently. After he had cleared 6ft 3Jin., the bar was put up to 6ft 6|in—half an inch higher than Jimmy Lane’s national record —and twice he cleared the bar and knocked it down as he descended on the other side. Until the beginning of last season Edwin Thacker, twice Empire champion and former holder of the national domestic record,' reigned supreme in South African high jumping. Then a little more than a year ago Jimmy Lane, the inter-Varsity champion and record holder, created a sensation at the Royal Scottish gathering by not only beating Thacker, but by setting a new national record at 6ft 6iin. Thacker was handicapped by lack of competition last season' and this, but he is still a great jumper and may even eclipse Lane’s record. The latter has been very consistent this season, and has several times cleared 6ft 3in.