ALL SPORTS A Weekly Budget

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 43, 13 May 1927, Page 6

ALL SPORTS A Weekly Budget

Seven Rugby trial matches will be played this year in view of the South African tour. * * * On the night prior to its annual meeting an Australian coursing club had all its hares stolen. * ❖ * The first match for the Hardley Shield, between bowling- representatives of Auckland and South Auckland, has been fixed for December next. * * * Players’ Wives No wives (or sweethearts, for that matter) may accompany the official party with the New South Wales Rugby team to England. A player’s wife may visit England—but not with the team. * * * Somerset (England) Bowling Club has banned women players because it is considered that modern fashions make the game an immodest one for women. But, Surely, they have some redress! * * * Footballers’ “Exes.” When the New South Wales Rugby team embarks for England, players will receive 3s a day “chits” allowed by the English Union. The New South Wales Union has also voted £250 for the benefit of the team. This sum will meet the expenses of excursionists at ports on the journey and such-like. The team will travel first class by steamer.

Athletes to Tour The Council of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association has adopted a suggestion sent to it by the Canterbury centre, and has decided to ask the Australian Amateur Athletic Association to forward a list of the names of athletes Who WdUld be prepared to do a short tour of New Zealand after the Australasian championships. The Canterbury suggestion was that a tour be arranged of athletes accompanied by a cyclist. With the aid of the publicity that will be given to the visitors by their competition in the big championships a tour should be a big success. * # * Cricket Coaches for N.Z.? Says the London “Daily Chronicle,” commenting on the demand for British cricket coaches in the Dominion: The success which attended the experimental engagement of Bowley, the Sussex professional, by the Auckland Cricket Association, has caused supporters of the other New Zealand associations to agitate for the importation of more English coaches, and it is practically certain that when Bowley returns to New Zealand after the end of the next English cricket season, he will be accompanied by two or three other professionals. * ★ * Smacked His Face! There are drawbacks against refereeing Rugby League matches on the Sydney cricket ground. At a recent meeting of the general committee of the league in Sydney the complaint was made that barricades had not been put up across a space crossed by a referee to his dressing-room, with the result that he was 3truck and hustled by the crowd. One woman smacked his face three times. The conclusion seems clear that she was no lady. * * * Rough on Heeney “All April Fool’s Joke” is how the Universal Press Service correspondent describes the decision in the HeeneyPavlino fight at New York on April 1. The judges disagreed, one declaring for Pavlino, and the other for the New Zealander. The referee decided in favour of the wood-chopper from the Pyrenees. “One judge,” says the correspondent, apparently had no appreciation of these April 1 jokes, and evidently lacked a sense of humour, for he voted a straight ticket for Tom Heeney, who unquestionably was the winner, all joking aside. The blond Anzac won six out of ten rounds.” Rugby in the Tropics Rugby football is getting a hold in the South Seas. Last year the Auckland Rugby Union gave a helping hand in the establishment of the game among the dusky lads of Niue. This year Western Samoa proposes to link up with the New Zealand Rugby Union as a union or sub-union.

Duke Plays Tennis Both in New Zealand and Australia the Duke of York found time to vary the wearisome round of receptions, official functions, etc., by getting in some tennis, a game at which His Royal Highness is a more than average player. Norman Brookes, who played a good deal with the Duke in Melbourne, says that he quite held Ills end up, and possessed a first-class backhand, a useful forehand drive, and a good knowledge of court tactics. * * * Motor-cycling Thrills There’s something to be done even if you are shot off a. racing motor-cycle going ninety an hour. Ted Gilbert, the Zenith rider, gave a demonstration at Maro übra. Speedway (New South Wales) recently. He was warming up his mount before the meeting and his back tyre blew out, so that his machine slithered a hundred yards and then hit the concrete. He came off hunched into a ball, rolled along a bit and pulled up with only a few scratches on his hands and wrists. In the old bikeracing days the thing to do was to lie flat, face down, and put your hands over your head. If you didn’t the rattrap pedals of the rest of the field were apt to cut some nasty slices out of your cranium.—“ Sydney Bulletin.” Maori Footballers Go South After hovering on the outskirts of Auckland for quite a time. Wilson Hall and Mason, the two Maori League players, have folded their tents and departed for Te Waipounamu. Both

will play for their old club, Hornsby, in Christchurch League this season. Auckland seems to have possessed some sort of fascination for Maori footballers this year, but although several have been in the offing, only one, Wattie Barclay, has so far elected to stay. * * * What the All Blacks Taught Clem Lewis, old Welsh international Rugby player, on the New Zealand kick-into-toucli rule, which has been tried out in England: “In the first place, you cannot adequately decide the merit or demerit of a change of rule after seeing it in operation for only 70 minutes. It deserves a much more extended trial than that. Our New Zealand friends have adopted the rule, and if they left one lesson more than any other with us after their last tour, it was the value of straight running down the centre of the field. Am I stating too much if I say that this rule may have something to do with that feature of their play? In any case, the mere fact that the fellows ‘down under’ have sampled it and like it inclines me to the change.” # * * Hendren for South Australia Patsy Hendren, the meteoric English batsman, has been appointed coach to the South Australian Cricket Association for the next three years. Like Bowley, he will alternate between England and the Antipodes, playing cricket all the year round. * * * Checkers The royal and ancient game of tiddleywinks now takes a back seat to checkers. This game in itself may not require much brawn, but to be successful at it one must train like a prize-fighter or football player, Says M. Spinger, a young Paris checker Wizard who, blindfolded, is trimming all who come along. He abstains from all alcohol and tobacco, diets himself, devotes much time to gymnasium work, and takes vigorous daily outdoor workouts before each important match. Zbyszko Comes Home Rather battered and worn from the buffetings he had received in his world tour, Stanislaus Zbyszko, former heavy-weight wrestling champion of the World, limped into New York from the liner Rochambean recently, and at once announced his intention of trying to recapture the title from Joe Stecher, Ed. (Strangler) Lewis, or whoever is in custody of the crown, Zbyszko, who refuses to tell his age, but admits that he is “over fifty,” had a successful trip, save for one mishap. In a bout with a young man named Ben Zepal, champion of Bengal. India, he was held to a two-hour draw and, in addition, Zepal twisted Zbyszko’s left knee so badly that he was still limping when he reached the States. The veteran, however, expected to get back into shape in a few weeks after his return.