FLASHES FROM FIELDS OF SPORT ABROAD

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1934, Page 11

FLASHES FROM FIELDS OF SPORT ABROAD

Victorian Contribution. When the Australian Rugby team of 1931 toured New Zealand it included a tall young Victorian who was expected to develop into one of the best forwards that the Commonwealth had. The lad, only 19 years old then, improved his play rapidly on the tour, and with his game in the one Test match against New Zealand played by that team, set his feet firmly on the. ladder of representation of Australia in Rugby Tests. He confirmed in 1932 the good things expected of him, and widened his experience and fame as one of the Wallabies in South Africa last year. This year, when he is 22 years old, he has been one of the best forwards Australia has had against the All Blacks. The player is Owen L. Bridle, 6ft 2in tall and about 13st and a<-half in weight. Bridle is an Englishman by birth, coming, if we remember correctly, from Somerset, but he really developed his Rugby in Victoria. He should be in Australian Rugby teams, as a -flank-forward, for several years to come. He handles the ball very well and;has a Jot of pace.

Retirement Of Woodfuil. “Now that, with the assistance and loyalty of my team, I have regained the Ashes, I feel it is time I made way for younger players,” said W. M. Woodful, to Arthur Mailey, after the fifth Test, at the Oval. “I now say definitely that I shall retire from first-class cricket after the testimonial match in Melbourne in November.” Woodfull’s retirement, after this series of Tests was expected in Australia; it was known that' he wished to give more time to his work as a school teacher, as well as to make room for a younger player. At 37, he leaves first-class cricket with honours thick upon him. * * * For New Zealand And Australia. E. A. Jessep, front-row forward in the Australian Rugby team in both of this season’s Tests against the All Blacks, is the second man to play for both New Zealand and Australia against each other in Rugby. The earlier player was W. Hardcastle, who played for New Zealand against Australia in 1897 and for Australia against New Zealand in 1903. Both men were Wellington representatives when they were selected to play for New Zealand. There are several instances in which men have played for both New Zealand and New South Wales, and several more of players who had been born in New Zealand but who had not represented their own country playing for New South Wales or Australia against New Zealand. With R. B. Loudon in, as well as Jessep, the Australian team in the second Test against the All Blacks contained two New Zealand-born players. •x- * -XThc Mind Of A Prizefighter. “With the exception of one or two prizefighters who have kept their money, most of this class are so low mentally that they do not know money when they see it.” That was the nasty smack handed out by a judge of the Supreme. Court of New York recently, when Primo Camera’s love-affairs and financial difficulties again came up for consideration. The judge reserved his decision as to what part of the £17,600 deposited by the Madison Square Garden authorities should be impounded to satisfy the judgment of £3154 awarded to Miss Emilia Tersini in her breach of promise case in London.' The judge, however, did not reveal the true judicial mind when he judged all professional boxers by Camera’s mentality. # # “Hoolay For Our Side!” When the, Chinese merchants at Perth, Western Australia, announced recently that they intended presenting a radio set to nearly 50 Asiatics (nearly , all Chinese) in the old men’s home there they were asked if they could have it installed in time for the broad- ; cast of the fifth cricket Test between i Australia and England. “All li! We . want to hear our side win,” replied the i Chinese merchants. |

Great Full-Back. With the retirement of A. W. Ross and S. J. Malcolm from international Rugby, now that the All Blacks’ visit to Australia is over, Australia loses from this phase of the game the last survivors in it of the N.S.W. Waratahs who visited the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France in the 1927-28 season there. Full-back Alec Ross, the “Rock of Gibraltar,” retires with his prestige as one of the really great full-backs Rugby under the Southern Cross has produced, undimmed. s That is as it should be. He is 28 years old now, but he first played for New South Wales in 1925, and his first game for his State

was against New Zealand, in Sydney. None of the New Zealanders who played against him in that year has remained in representative Rugby this year. He has made many appearances for his State. For Australia, he has played against New Zealand in 1929, 1931 (in New Zealand), 1932, and 1934, against the British team in 1930, and against South Africa (in South Africa) in 1933. He is only sft 7in in height, and weighs about list 101 b, but he has always been very cool and sure in his play, a demon tackler, and a fearless rush-stopper. He has also been adept at starting, attacks. Ross captained the Wallabies in South Africa last year, and also captained Australia this year. He is a medical man. I *■ * * Lancashire’s success in the English county cricket championship takes the honour to that county for the fifth time since the Great War. This county and Yorkshire have won the championship 13 times between them in 16 seasons since the war. Last year Lancashire finished fifth in’ the competition.

Good Performance. > For* a man who had -no first-class I cricket in the current season in Eng- ; land until this: match, the perform- > ance of E. H. Bowley in scoring 24 ; and 63 for Sussex against the Ausi tralians, and taking three wickets for • 71 runs with his slow bowling, ■ was very good. The county’s invitation to : him to play. in the match. was ‘ a com- . pliment to a player , who gave it excel- ; lent service for many years before he ; retired to become coach at Winchester ; College. The college vacation in August gave him the opportunity to play. Bowley is 44 years old. It was just 20 years ago that he first scored over 1000 runs in a season of first-class cricket. «• # * ■ American Amateur Championship. While some golfers in Great Britain have been advocating the adoption for the British amateur championship the American idea of qualifying competitions and 36-hole matches, the United States Golf Association has been considering the adoption of conditions similar to those in Great Britain. It has decided to make a big change in the conditions for the United States amateur championship, ■ which will be played for at Brookline, Massachusetts, from September 10 to 15. Instead oi only 32, there will be 480 players eligible for match-play stages. Former amateur champions' and ’ the British amateur champion will be exempt from the qualifying rounds. Another similarity between the conditions govern, ing the British and United States championships is that of adopting 18-hole, instead of 36-hole,. matches. Last year only the first-round and second-round matches were over 18 holes: the remainder were over 36 holes. This year the first six rounds will be decided by 18-hole matches. * * * Inspired Complete Loyalty. There have been captains of teams in Test cricket -who have been more skilful tacticians, than W. M. .Woodfull, but there hag . been none to whom, was given more readily the respect and loyalty of his players. He is a man of fine' personality, with both strength of character arid an equable,: sunny disposition, and invariably courteous arid pleasant He has had some very difficult times in the last two series of Test matches—times when a captain with a less equable temperament ' probably would- have precipitated crises that would have strained international cricket relations severely—but he has come through these ordeals with great credit to himself. Australia has been very fortunate in having W. M. Woodfull in command of its team. • • * * The Football Association of England has announced that it regrets it will be unable to acept a visit from an Australian Soccer team in the 1934-35 season in England, but hopes to accept a visit from such a team in the 1935-36 season.

Why Australia Won. •An extract from some remarks by ■ Arthur A. Mailey, former Australian Eleven player, accompanying the Aus- ; tralian cricket team as a . newspaper correspondent, on the result of the Test rubber: “Australia owes much to Bradman, Ponsford, McCabe, Grimmett, O’Reilly, and Oldfield. The value of these great players cannot be over-esti-mated. Ponsford has been marvellous. Here we have a player who, if certain Australian critics had had their way, would have been thrown on the. scrapheap. My opinion is that against all types of players no better stroke-players have graced Australian fields than Ponsford and Bradman since the days of Macartney and Trumper. The Australians won the Ashes because they were more virile, because Bradman is still the greatest batsman in the world, and because in O’Reilly and Grimmett they had the best two spin-bowlers in the world.” * * # Yorkshire, which has lost the English county cricket championship after holding it for three consecutive years, has not won the competition in any season since the Great War in which an Australian team has visited England. This season it had to contribute H. Sutcliffe, M. Leyland, H. Verity and W. E. Bowes to England’s Test team. Lancashire has won the championship in three of the four seasons in which Australian teams have been in England since the war—l 926. 1930, and 1934. Middlesex won in 19.21. # * * Genius Of Lovelock. In a recent reference to the trouble which J. E. Lovelock has had with a knee, and much consequent worry and loss of training, a leading English athletic critic said: “But there is a quality in Lovelock which may set all these handicaps at naught. In a higher degree than any other post-war runner he has genius, which in running takes the form of that divine madness which entered into Glenn Cunningham when he broke Lovelock’s world’s record. About once a year, without warning or foreknowledge, Lovelock is ‘wild with running.’ ” * * * It is stated by Arthur Mailey that the ball with which E. W. Clark bowled W. A. Brown in the first innings of the fifth cricket Test, in which this young Australian scored 10, probably was the best ball seen in the Australian team’s tour. Harold Gilligan and a few other old players argued for a quarter of an hour afterward about how Brown should have played it. As Mailey remarks, if they finally decided that they could not agree, perhaps Brown did the only thing possible. in being bowled! # & * In a good-class club cricket match in London recently the batsmen associated in a second-wicket partnership scored 228 runs in 90 minutes. :

Resourceful Half-Back. Although S. J. Malcolm, who, like A. W. Ross, has announced, his. retirement from “big” Rugby, is a year older than Ross, he has not been in representative football for so long. In the earlier part of his career he was at Newcastle. He played for New South Wales in England before he represented: it within the State; he was chosen as; secondstring scrum-half for the New South Wales Waratahs in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1927-28 season there. F. W. Meagher being the first-string half. Meagher played against Ireland and Wales, Malcolm in the later matches with Scotland and England, as well as against France. His first game

against New Zealand was in 1928, in the New South Wales team’s tour of the Dominion. Malcolm has played for Australia against New Zealand in 1929, ISJ3I (in New Zealand), 1932, and 1934; against the British team in 1930; and against South Africa (in South Africa) in 1933. He was vice-captain of the team in South Africa. Malcolm has been a very skilful arid resourceful half-back, and he : is, like Alec Ross, very popular with New Zealanders. For several years he has played for the Manly Club, in Sydney. He is 29 years old. Malcolm has captained New South Wales more often than any other ; man.

I. A. R. Peebles, who has not been bowling well lately—he has lost his leg-break again, and has been playing much more cricket with Sir Julien Cahn’s private team than with Middlesex—was so amused , when he received his invitation to attend at Kennington Oval in case he were required to play for England against Australia in the fifth Test that he telegraphed back to the selectors: “Will be pleased to play, providing Oval spectators don’t lynch me.”

In Australia And In England. • One strange aspect of the recent rub- ; her of Test cricket matches in England i was' the apparent inability of W. R. r Hammond to play a good innings against the Australians until the second , innings of the fifth Test, although he was scoring very freely in county matches. Just before the third Test one of the leading cricket critics .in England remarked: “Hammond certainly ought to think of the fact that he has never played Grimmett successfully in. this country from behind the ciease.” It is noticeable that, although Grimmett obtained Hammond’s wicket only once in this year’s Tests, that batsman fell to the spin bowlers five times out of seven in eight innings, being run out in the other innings. W. J. O’Reilly dismissed him thrice, and A. G. Chipperfield once. It is interesting to compare Hammond’s Test averages against Australia in Australia with those he has made in Englands In the 1928-29 series in Australia he scored 901 runs at an average of 113.12 and in the 1932-33 series in that country 440 runs at an average of 55.00. In England four years ago he scored 306 runs in the Tests—making 113 of them in one innings—at an average of 34.00. and in this year’s rubber he scored' 162 runs at an average of 20.25. ! Unwinding Irresistibly. > In discussing the distance racing at 'the amateur athletic championships of England held a few weeks ago, a writer in a London paper says: “J. Kusocinski (Poland), the Olympic 10,000-metre champion, did not ‘disappoint’ us like so many of the other foreign entrants by standing down from the three miles. Clearly he was out for the British record made by his great rival, L. A. Lehtinen (Finland) last year, for he sped straight ahead from the gun, and won as he liked, so that the interest became chiefly academic, although this race aroused the 30,000 spectators, as had others, up to this point. At one mile he led W. J. Beavers, R. V. Draper, and ,A. Burns by 50 yards in 4.31 1-5, and at two miles he was leading by 75 yards in 9.24 4-5. He had a bare chance of the record with one lap to go, and so set off as if the race were half a mile. The soft surface . was, however, against him, and he failed by 4 2-ssec. There seemed to be no special reason for his success. He is smaller and less remorseless than Lehtinen, but he did the second-fastest. three miles ever run in England. He just seemed wound up like the watch in his hand, and to unwind irresistibly.” * * * Among the comments on the fifth cricket Test which were cabled to Australia but not to New Zealand was a tribute paid by J. B. Hobbs to W. J. O’Reilly. Hobbs said that O’Reilly’s slow leg-break, faster leg-break, googly and fast off-break, with variations of flight and changes of pace, made up a wonderful battery for a man who did not seem to lose his length.

Kippax And Sussex. Alan Kippax, who scored 250 for . the Australian cricket team against Sussex, the other day, seems to like the Sussex bowling. In three innings against that county he has scored 460 runs, ; for twice out. He made 158 and 102 not out in the match which the Australian team of 1930 played against Sussex. The highest score that Kippax has made in first-class cricket is 315 hot out, for New South Wales against Queensland, in the 1927-28 season. Two seasons before that he played - an innings of 271 not out for New South Wales versus Victoria. What is regarded as his greatest innings in .firstclass cricket, however, is that which he played for his State against Victoria, at Melbourne in the 1928-29 season. Nine wickets had fallen for 113 runs when H. Hooker joined Kippax, who had gone in second wicket dowh; These two put on 307—a world’s record for the last wicket, Hooker scoring 63 and Kippax carrying, his bat for 260 runs. Kippax is one of the most delightful batsmen in the world when he is well set and scoring quickly.