SPORTS BUDGET

Southland Times, Issue 24650, 23 January 1942, Page 3

SPORTS BUDGET

SOUTHLAND-OTAGO BOWLS MATCH

Whether the annual match between Otago and Southland bowling teams will be played this season has yet to be decided. The Dunedin Bowling Centre discussed the matter this week and opinion was divided. Some delegates pressed for abandonment of the annual matches against Southland and Canterbury and others thought they should be played. It was ultimately decided to communicate with the Southland Bowling Centre and get its views on the matter. The match for the Harraway Shield was to have been played at Invercargill next month.

Saturday’s Tennis On Saturday tennis fixtures will be played in A and C grades. Winton is to meet St. Mary’s at the town clubs courts, and Invercargill, at present top of the ladder with one match in hand, will travel to Tisbury to meet the young Tisbury team. Rugby Park should not be greatly extended against Southend. Main interest in the C grade will be the meeting between the two undefeated teams, Rugby Park and Central I, at the Rugby Park courts. Bluff and Moana should be able to record wins against Central II and Collegiate respectively, but the games between Wallacetown and Southern, and Clifton and St. Mary’s, should be closely contested. Surf Club Training A tribute to the value of the work and discipline of the New Zealand system of surf club training was paid by Able Seaman Dudley Davis, Southland champion swimmer and record holder, who is at present serving with the naval forces in England. In a recent letter he stated that his experience with the Oreti Surf Club and his swimming knowledge had proved invaluable to him in his present career. He was in the destroyer Maspona when she was sunk by aerial bombs the day after the Bismarck met her end. Davis was credited with rescuing a wounded comrade and had a long swim in rough seas before being rescued himself. Four-Rink Bowls

Only two rounds of the Southland Bowling Centre’s four-rink championship remain to be played, and with four teams with good chances interest in the championship has quickened. Southland now leads with 10 points, Te Rangi and Invercargill are equal in second place with nine points and Northend is fourth with eight points. Southland will have a bye next week and Northend plays Te Rangi, so that the position is almost certain to be altered with the results of the next round.

Swimming Champion The well-known Canterbury and New Zealand representative breaststroke swimmer, Clarrie Heard, has been in hospital in Christchurch since last July as the result of a motor accident and has been putting up a great fight to save his leg. Heard, apart from a long- list of provincial honours, has a fine record in New Zealand championships, and in 1924 he represented New Zealand at the Paris Olympic Games. Later at Dublin he won the breaststroke championship at the Irish Tailtean Games. At the time of his Olympic selection Heard was the outstanding breaststroke swimmer in Australasia and his New Zealand record of 3min 2 2-ssec for 200 metres, as an intermediate, in 1923, stood until two years ago. His winning time for 100 yards intermediate boys of 77 4-ssec, also in 1923, has been beaten only by Reg. Geddes (Otago) and the Southlander, Bruce Morgan.

Ammunition For Sports Meeting An effort is at present being made by the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association to obtain a licence for the importation of a quantity of blank ammunition to be used in the starter’s gun at athletic meetings throughout New Zealand. The requirements of the various provincial centres have been ascertained by the parent association, which has undertaken to import the quantity of ammunition needed under one order. Even when a licence has been obtained, however, it will probably be some time before the order is delivered and the ammunition becomes available. Swimming

By the abandonment of the New Zealand surf life-saving championships, swimmers have suffered another disappointment, which will, however, be taken in the best spirit as it is entirely a war measure. The fact that there was to have been a women’s championship shows how the girls are filling in the gaps left in the protection of the bathing beaches by the absence of such a large number of surf club members.