ENGLISH SPORTING NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 4

ENGLISH SPORTING NOTES

THE LEADING GOLF PLAYERS. MACDONALD SMITH’S SCORES. (Special.to News.) London, June 4. The qualifying competition for the open golf championship should not be a very serious one for the leading players, inasmuch as the first bundled entrants are passed into the event, but it usually happens that some of them become involved in a critical situation. The preliminary test which has just been completed has proved no exception. At the end of the first round Charles. Whitcombe, the captain of thp Ryder Cup team, counted 82, and Herbert Jolly, another of the players chosen to America, was two strokes moie. \\hitcombc made amends in his second round, but Jolly again played very disappointingly, and did not qualify. This was. the most notable failure, but neither Vardon nor Braid could keep up with the scoring of the younger men. Both are now over 60 years of age, and ’ Vardon. has been very ill during the winter. Indeed, it was only-his keen desire to continue his long association with the championship which, induced him to enter. J. H. Taylor has, of course, retired from competitive golf. But. that wonderful veteran, Alex Herd, who is a year or two older than the members of the triumvirate, once more qualified, and lus feat was the more remarkable owing to the fact that drenching rain fell, and pools of water lay not.only on the fairways but on the greens. In fact, the conditions were so bad that at one time the St. Andrew’s authorities reared they would have to abandon play for the day and cancel the scores returned. All the players from overseas were ’ successful in getting into the select list. The leader was Macdonald Smith, who 1 has lived for over twenty years m America. The championship is taking place at Carnoustie, the adjoining Barry hnks also being used for the purpose of. the qualifying competition, and Macdonald Smith was born there. Desperately keen to win on his native heath, he name oyer l in March,and has been practising on the : course almost daily ever since. How he 1 benefited by the experience he thus gained was indicated by his performance in establishing new records for both courses. He went round Barry in 70, and Carn- : oustie in 72, and at the end he led the field by two strokes from Archibald . Compston. It was unfortunate for r Macdonald Smith that these brilliant ' scores did not count in the championship J proper. Twice before he has made an equally fine start, and failed to sustain " his effort. Indeed, though he ranks as e one of the soundest players in. the World, s he has never won the championship. The Americans appear in the event in formia--6 able ai-ray, with perhaps Sarazen, h are rell, Horton Smith, and. Armour as the v most dangerous challengers. The chief ‘ British “hope” is Compston, but he is t well supported by Percy Alliss, Henry f Cotton, and Aubrey Boomer. □ BETTY NUTHALL . DISAPPOINTED. ; " Miss Betty Nutball failed in her attempt to win the triple crown of French 1 lawn tennis after a very gallant eflort. X She shared in victories in the mixed and womeiVs doubles, and she reached the e final of the singles. Moreover, she had played so brilliantly that her success m ' this was taken for granted. But unl" fortunately she has not yet shed her erratic tendencies, and she was very sura prisingly defeated by the German girl, ° Fraulein Aussem, ..who had beaten ’ Senorita de .Alvarez, the Spanish player, f/hn. Rpmi-final. r a •

jn the• senu-nnai. ; , i-J-Miss Nuthall -gave a wonderful display, before the final, against another German rival, Fraulein KrahWinkel. The latter, shows exceptional tactical ability for one ‘so young, and the game which she. played was cleverly designed; to take her .to victory. That’is to say to slow the game down, and tease Miss Nuthall into errors. . _ + ?L-i o But the latter,; hitting in -great frtyle, went boldly for the shots her opponent about the court until' she had to stop to regain her breath. After this wreat performance Aliss Nuthall s success in the final was regarded as a certainty. She was in fact proclaimed as-the winner of the Wimbledon chainpiofisliip, afid it was believed that she had improved to,such a marked extent tnat she might have.beaten Mrs. Helen Wills Moody,’if she had come over to defend her title. But' unfortunately Miss Nuthall has only one game, and she has not learnt to vary it. She must attack; she must o-o for the shots. In the circumstances, it follows that she must make them accurately, or run a great risk of beating herself. This is what-largely happened against Fraulein Aussem. The latter played very steadily, but her success was mainly achieved through her opponent’s errors. They were not very bad ones, but Miss Nuthall was- not hitting the ball so truly as in her previous games,. and the ball too often passed narrowly over the base line. . CRICKETERS’ FIRST DEFEAT. The New Zealand have had a/trying time since they opened theii tour, dwing to the unsettled weather, almost every match has been played bn a different-pitch, and most of them have been on’ the slow side. Still, they have done extremely well _,

Only now'have the tourists met with their first defeat. This was in a game with Middlesex at Lords, ,and the wicket was in such:a state that, the county side undoubtedly gained an advantage in winning the toss and batting first. ® e ‘ sides, Dempster had' strained himself, and. was unable to play. Finally, in : their second innings, they, were set 310 ; runs to win, and they failed by 79 to make this number. ! The weather has also had a consider- ■ able- effect, on the championship, the leaders in which are Kent, Gloucester-. : shire, and Middlesex, and though luck in respect to the conditions may even itself but during the season, so far some sides have been worse hit than others. This is- specially true in the. case of Yorwshire, whose games have been seriously interrupted ’by ' unfavourable we'ather. Still, rain got Yorkshire, out . I of a threatening situation against Kent-, i The latter' on.’ the first day scored .296 1 for- fpur wickets, Woolley, who .has just completed twenty-five years w’ith .the county, playing a brilliant century innings, but afterwards the pitch became saturated. and the match had to. be abandoned.

In regard to individual performances, the bowling of Parker, the Gloucestershire veteran, has been outstanding.. So far he has captured 70 wickets for just over twelve runs apiece. Freeman, the little Kent bowler, has 65 batsmen to bis credit, and their wickets liave been little more expensive. Larwood, too, has returned to his old form, and Tate,, after his winter’s rest, has regained his old bite. Sutcliffe beads the batting averages with a total of 546 runs for eight innings. Bowley, of Sussex, with 623, has th© highest total, whilst Jack Hobbs is the only other player who has passed the six hundred’mark.