Personalities In N.Z. Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 531, 7 December 1928, Page 10

Personalities In N.Z. Sport

It was during Harry Moore’s early association with swimming. For three years he had been striving for a win in competitive swimming. At last the big day came. . . . He forged home an easy winner from a formidable field. Harry was elated. But the judges found some fault with the race, as judges will, and Harry was robbed of his hard-earned honours. With several other competitors, he was disqualified. That was before the Great War. The occurrence did not affect Harry’s growing enthusiasm for swimming. He had been in the game since he was 13, and had been interested in the old Eden Club, which somehow became defunct. Harry was on the scene when it was resurrected in 3 918. It has been going strong ever since under the name of the Mount Eden Swimming Club. And everyone knows how closely Harry Moore is associated with the affairs of the club. He is an ardent Mount Edener. He has been secretary and handicapper for the club for 10 years past. But his enthusiasm does not lie wholly with Mount Eden. He is in demand as a handicapper among other Auckland clubs. At the present time he is judging swimmers on their merits for the Parnell, Devonport, and Grammar Clubs. Waite mat a is the only Auckland club he has not handicapped for. For four years Harry has been secretary to the Auckland Swimming Centre. His position as one of the responsible men in swimming in New Zealand’s foremost city is not the

Impo rtan t Figu re In City Swimming , Cen tre Secre ta ry

[ easiest of posts. But Harry wants to see swimming advanced. He does his share. • He has been on the selection committee for Auckland championship teams for six years, and has been handicapper for the centre for eight years. He refereed water polo for two years, anu was a player, too. He figured in the Auckland B team. Harry Moore had considerable success as a handicap swimmer. He contested distance events mostly. He swam twice in the Xorthcote-Shelly Beach harbour race, and got a first and a second. Educational swimming is another line which claims his attention. Teaching children to swim is a department which has been fostered by him to a considerable extent in Auckland. Since 1920, when Auckland became the centre of really big swimming with the holding of the New Zealand championships here for the first time. Harry Moore has been prominent in the organisation of all the big carnivals. The visits •of Ethel da Bleibtrey, Norman Ross, Minna Weschelau, Sam Kahanamoku, and Arne Borg all meant extra work for him. Another big event was the holding of the 1926-27 Dominion championships in Auckland. Swimming has been the chief sport in which Harry has been concerned, although he once played for the Grafton Rugby Club. For five years he was a member of the Auckland Rugby Referees’ Association. Harry is another Aucklander for the Aucklanders. He was born in Coromandel.