SPORTS BUDGET

Southland Times, Issue 25547, 15 December 1944, Page 2

SPORTS BUDGET

Record Entries For Bowls Entries for the South Island bowling tournament closed yesterday. They totalled 326 in three events and included , bowlers from all over the South Island'. It is probable that other- entries 1 will be received in the mails this morn--1 ing. The entries received up to yesterday were as follows:— Singles 133 Pairs 132 Rinks 61 The draw will be made at the weekend and will probably be available on Monday morning. The entries constitute an easy record for a tournament conducted by the Southland Bowling Centre. The previous best total was 212 (80 singles, 90 pairs and 42 rinks) at a New Year tournament several years ago. 10 Cricketers Out For Ducks Sensational bowling in a lower grade cricket match at Lancaster Park (Christchurch) on Saturday brought about remarkable’ figures. At one stage Lancaster Park-East Christchurch combined, playing in a third grade fixture against West Christchurch, had nine men out for no runs. This is a record for grade play in the Dominion. After the first nine wickets had fallen . for nope, the last man came in and < broke the spell by scoring six runs. ■ To that was added a wide. Then his : partner faced the bowling and was immediately bowled for a duck. Ten . batsmen out of 11 made ducks, and the : total was seven. The bowlers who > brought all this about were J. P. ' Cranitch, five for 2, and J. McClinchy, 1 five for 5. Cranitch, just on 18 years i of age, has an additional claim to fame. ( After service overseas with the 1 ; N.Z.E.F., he, is today the youngest ; member«on the roll of the Returned ' ; Services’ Association. Promising Boxer I Good reports about a young South- ; land boxer have been received from the • Middle East. His name is McKenzie and ; he hails from Tuatapere. In a letter to ■ a friend in Invercargill, Sergeant Dick , Baker writes enthusiastically about McKenzie, and when the mail was dispatched he had reached the final of the ' middleweight class in the Divisional ' boxing championships. Dick Baker was in charge of a team of six boxers • from the 23rd Battalion. He was barred : from taking part in the championships this year because he was a professional ■ boxer in New Zealand. It is the first ' time the distinction has been made > between amateurs and professionals in . sport in the service championships. He ! mentions several Southland sportsmen ■ he has met over there, and adds that he . hopes to be back in Invercargill for his i next fight. ' Record Scoring In Bowls - The score of 48 points to 9 recorded by a Te Rangi rink at the Northend • green last Saturday must just about be ’ a record in inter-club matches in In- ■ vercargill. One other which is recalled ’ by Saturday’s big total was scored by a 3 Te Rangi rink against a Northend rink ' about 10 years ago. The score was 46 to . 5. A. S. Froggatt skipped the Te Rangi • rink and the late J. Hain skipped the > Northend rink. Those figures almost fade beside the ? j total scored in one of the rink games in i the last South Island tournament at 3 Invercargill. Nq fewer than 79 points ■ were scored in a game between-Roslyn (Dunedin) and Otautau. Roslyn scored } 54 to Otautau’s 25. The rinks on that ;, occasion were D. O’Connell, R. B. Clark, - W. J. McKay and T. R. McGillivray (Roslyn) and F. Steel, T. Walker, D. D. j Gazzard and the Rev. Mr Nichol (Otau- . tau). R. B. Clark was a New Zealand . pairs champion in 1938 and W. J. McKay was third to C. E. Tyrrell’s rink, which ” was runner-up in the New Zealand championship at Dunedin in January of this year. McKay will have a rink in ■ the South Island tournament at Inver- ’ cargill this month. 1 Learners’ Pool Considerable progress has been made , with the construction of learners’ i swimming pools in the north, where , almost every school has its pool. They r range in size from the small Hume r Bath, which measures 18 feet by 12 L and which has a depth of three feet ’ six inches, to the large pool, measuring j 25 feet by 12, with a graduated depth of up to five feet six inches. The establishment of pools in Southland ’ has made slow progress, but already some have been built at Gore, Bluff, 1 Mataura, Limehills and Winton. The > weather does not generally encourage 7 swimming in these pools, but the pos- - sibility of providing heating is being ” considered. t Balfour Sports The programme issued for the Bal--7 four Sports on Boxing Day is one of L the best that has been issued for some 1 years. In the professional running - there are five events ranging from 75 yards to 880 yards, and all events carry " substantial prize money. Three amateur running events are provided in r an endeavour to meet the demand for this class of competitor. Here again j substantial prizes are offered. There - are three amateur cycling events, the one mile, half-mile and two mile " events, and each event carries valu- '• able prize money. In addition to the ■’ prize money, special prizes are offered I for the most points in each of the pro- . fessional running, amateur running and ,f amateur cycling sections. » Thirteen dancing events are sched- » uled for competition and cater for ages ■, from eight years to open events. Sev--5 eral of the prizes in this section have been given. Seven piping events pro- . vide for competition for A, B, C and D j grade pipers. Swimming I The Southland representative swimming team, selected after the time trials, '. promises to be a strong one. Swimmers who were not selected will be consid- : ered for inclusion in the team if their times are good enough after training. The centre will select the possibles and if the clubs take up the training of these swimmers they should make 3 sufficient progress to warrant their consideration for the team. Representatives in the junior boys’ and girls’ and intermediate boys’ and girls’ diving j sections have not yet been chosen. It 1 is expected that the centre’s diving sel2 ector, Mr E. J. Salisbury, will make his } selections shortly. ’ Doubles Competition 1 The rules have now been circulated to clubs for the doubles competitions s for the cups presented by Mr G. R. W. i Barnes, president of the Southland ; Lawn Tennis Association. Entries close with the secretary of the association (Mr ■ J. H. B. Scholefield) at 4 p.m. today, r and the draw will be published before , Christmas. j Golf Competitions [ In a four-ball bogey match at Otatara last Saturday, G. E. M. Buchanan and H. S. J. Craig proved an unbeatable combination, their card of 10 up being [ the best returned at Otatara for many a , day. Buchanan played to his handicap, , and with Craig’s liberal allowance of 17 . strokes they had a merry time at the expense of poor old bogey. Craig has . not been at his best this season, but he should soon knock a few strokes off his i handicap. When H. M. Smith and F. W. Piper finished 8 up, no one thought they would be displaced, but they were ! unlucky. Piper reached his top form, returning a net 65, nine under the scratch score. ' The Invercargill Golf Club brought : its season to a close on Saturday evening with the annual dinner and pre- ' I sentation of prizes. The function was at--1 tended by about 60 players, whose golfing and business worries receded in-

to the background for a few hours. It was particularly gratifying to see present H. W. Rogers, holder of the club championship, and J. E. Matheson, another low-marker, who have returned from overseas service. Although the season has been closed, that does not mean that there will be no more golf till next winter or autumn. Between now and the next official opening day conditions for golf should be ideal, and with summer play growing in popularity there is likely to be plenty of activity on >the links during the next two or three months. In the final of the four-ball competition at Queen’s Park, B. J. Smith and E. Checketts 4efeated A. G. Harrington and H. Edginton, 3 and 2. Although it rained heavily throughout the greater part of the match, Smith was only one over bogey for the 16 holes . that were played. His score included an eagle 3 at “Turnagain,” where after two good shots to the green he holed a 16foot putt. During the last few weeks Smith has been scoring consistently in the low seventies and has had two rounds of 71. Wrong Details The wrong filling in of the score cards in bowls matches has caused several mistakes in the results to be made and recorded. Scorers are requested to take more care about this matter, and skips should see, when they initial the cards, that they are a true record of the scores. Last Saturday Waihopai was credited with a win over Southland on the Southland green because the scores were recorded in the wrong columns. Waihopai (15) was given credit for 33 points in one of the rinks games and . Southland was credited with 15. The totals should have been reversed. Similarly, in a game in the Te RangiNorthend match, the scores of 23-14 were given in Te Rangi’s favour instead of in Northend’s favour. The mistake did not alter the result of the match, but in the Waihopai-Southland game it did so. - ■