Flasks From Fields Of Sport Abroad

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1934, Page 11

Flasks From Fields Of Sport Abroad

Falwasser In France. Among the players for English Rugby League clubs who have been released from their engagement to allow them to become player-coaches for clubs in France, where the league game has now been established, is A. Falwasser, the Taranaki Maori who represented Hawke’s Bay, the North Island, and the Maori team in England, as a dashing threequarter in the Rugby Union game before he turned to the league code. The Rochdale Hornets Club granted Falwasser a free transfer to enable him-to go to the Villeneuve Club. 'A* 4 The South African Cricket Board of Control has announced that only men who are resident in South Africa will be selected as members of the team which is to visit England next year. Among the South Africans now resident m England who will thus be debarred from selection are H. G. Owen-Smith, D. P. B. Morkel, and A. Melville, * * * Inflated Golf-Balls. An English firm of manufacturers of golf-balls has placed blown-up golfballs on the market. By means of instruments which look like hypodermic syringes air is pumped into the balls when they are finished, paint and all but the marks which the needles leave are almost invisible. Another innovation is the substitution of the usual core by one of pure honey. A substance like soft soap is also bein'* used as.the core; it is claimed that this ball can be driven farther. But whether golf-balls are inflated, honeyed, or soapy, some of us will continue to miss our putts and use words which are not honeyed. * * .* , . League cricket clubs in Lancashire, which have taken players from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the West Indies to play for. them as professionals, are now turning their attention to India as a recruitingground for “star” players. The Colne Club, in the Lancashire League,, has been negotiating with Amar Singh, Indian Test match player, fast-medium bowler and versatile batsman. * * * Perry And de Stefani.

If G. de Stefani, ambidextrous Italian player of lawn tennis, carries out his intention to compete in the Australian lawn tennis championships this season there will be world-wide interest m the prospects of a match between him and F J. Perry. It was de Stefani who beat Perry in the French championship this year, and that, as it happened, is his third victory over the Englishman. So the Italian has been able to plume himself on his being able to beat a man who has demonstrated his ability to beat almost everyone else. On the strength of his win over Perry at Auteuil this year de Stefani was “seeded” at Wimbledon, and, moreover, was drawn in Perry’s section. But he was removed from Perry s patn then by G. M. Lott. So Perry wilLhave a great desire to show in Australia that he can do on turf what he had failed to do on the sand courts at Auteuil.

Among British amateur athletic records which were approved recently by the International Board of the Amateur Athletic Association of England, the Scottish A.A.A., and the Northern Ireland A.A.A.. are G. L. Ramplings 440 yards in 48sec, and the 51ft 3jm for the hop, step, and jumn achieved by J. P. Metcalfe, of Australia. * * *

A Young “Dark Horse.” When the Australian cricket team played the last match of its tour of England and Scotland, it. was noticed that a player named Wigram scored 28 runs not out, m the North of Scotland’s second innings of 98, although he was last man in. English players asked each other who Wigram was It is learned now that he is a schoolboy of 19—the youngest player, and the only schoolboy, to play against the Australian team of 1934. He is the son of the King’s private secretary. Sir Clive Wigram, and, having just left Winchester College, he was staying at Forres when the Australians played there. Young N. Wigram, who plays in spectacles, seemed less nervous than the other batsmen for the North of Scotland. In scoring his 28 not out he hit a six and five fours, all off A. G. Chipperfield’s bowling. # # . Rugby is reported to have made great progress in Italy during the last five years, because of Government encouragement, it being considered to develop all the finest qualities of manhood.” Every “Young Fascist group has a Rugby team. In Rome itself there are 12 clubs, and throughout the country there is great enthusiasm. An Italian report emphasies that the game is conducted on a strictly amateur basis. w * * Taxation Of Tennis. Treasurers of lawn tennis clubs generally will have a little extra sympathy for the official in charge of the funds of the Sporting Club de Pans, who has received a tax-demand for 154,000 francs —say about £2OOO in English money at the present rate of exchange —after paying turnover tax, poor tax, and other charges. A legal dispute between French lawn tennis clubs and the National Exchequer has been going on for years, and it was thought at one time that the lawn tennis organisations had succeeded .in obtaining exemption from an impost which groups them with gambling and social clubs. According to its secretary, the Sporting Club de Paris, which confines its activities to lawn tennis, will be compelled to close if it has to pay this big sum, which is “extra taxation” for 1933.

Someone must have “told a tale” to the Rosslyn Park Rugby Club, one of the more important clubs in London Rugby. When the new football season in Great Britain was beginning it was announced that among the new players for Rosslyn Park was “G. H. Owen, a three-quarter who comes with a big reputation from New Zealand, where he played for the South Island against the North.” It would be interesting to know who he is.

Jules Ladoumegue, the French professional runner, has found a temporary haven in Russia. In response to an invitation from Moscow he travelled by air from Paris and competed at a meeting. Apparently administrators oi athletics in Russia are not troubled by distinctions between amateurs and professsionals. Ladoumegue ran in two races, 1000 metres and 1500 metres, winning both. His rivals, some of whom recorded times worthy of first-class international runners, were what in other countries would be termed amateurs. * - -x- * Remains In England. In the course of the 1933-34 Rugby season in England it was announced that H. Rew, a front-row forward for England, who was a member of the British Rugby team which visited New Zealand and Australia in 1930, and who has a commission in the Royal Tank Corps, was to go to India for duty there. Rew packed his luggage, and awaited final

instructions for embarkation. While he was still waiting he played three more games for-England. His departure has been deferred from time to time. Now the instructions that he should go to India have been altered. He is to stay in England to take a course as an instructor in physical training.. So he should be playing Rugby again in the current season in England. ** ■ * The Amateur Swimming Association of England has received from the authorities of amateur swimming m Hungary an apology for the action of the Hungarian water-polo team in declining to finish a recent match in London after a goal obtained by it had been disallowed.. */ . * * A Golf Theory Falsified. There is an old . theory in golf that “two up and five to play never wins a match.” It was falsified m the final of the women’s championship of the United States of America, played at Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania,', a few weeks ago. In this final Virginia Van Wie, of • Chicago; holder of the title, was two up, with five to play, against Dorothy Traung, 20-year-old “sensation” from San Francisco. . The younger player gave the champion a very hard fight over the last few holes, but Virginia Van’Wie won, two up and one to play. Virginia Van Wie, who will be 26 years old in February, has now won this championship for three consecutive years—a feat performed by only three other women in the 38 years of the championship’s history.

To help in spreading the gospel of Rugby football in Italy leaflets about the game are distributed among the spectators at matches, an expert with a loudspeaker explains the game while it is in progress, and women have free entrance to the ground (so as to attract all the young men!). The last-men-tioned idea might well be copied in other places, but we cannot conceive of a running commentary by an expert with a loud-speaker being popular with New Zealanders; they are all experts! * * * A Rugby Exchange. Rugby footballers in London, remarks an English paper, never cease to marvel at the terrific amount of work undertaken by the London Rugby Fixture Exchange. Its title is self-explan-atory. It exists for-the arrangement of matches, for filling vacant dates caused by . late scratchings, and also for fixing up games for individual players. Last season 188 clubs joined the exchange, and no fewer than 1207 teams were provided with games. But very few people have known that the person responsible for all this intricate work is a woman. She is Mrs A. J. Trollope, and she is the wife of the, secretary of the .London Referees Society and the Surrey County Rugby Union. Mrs Trollope does all the business in her own home, and every week-day except Saturday club secretaries can telephone her, ask that she arranged matches for their teams, and know that she will not let them down. She keeps Saturday free; she earns it.

A Royal Success. At the age of 76, and more than 30 years after, as Crown Prince, he won the Swedish doubles championship at Saro, the King of Sweden has won the “old boys” lawn tennis doubles at Stockholm, open to players over 45. His partner was J. Soederstrom, who is ranked No. 5 in Sweden, and who was a finalist in the Swedish covered-court championship last year. It is reported that after the final of the “old boys” doubles Soederstrom said that the King was the “best of the four.” Of course, at his age King Gustav cannot have the speed, either of foot or of stroke, of younger players, but he is a very capable and experienced tactician —he first played lawn tennis over 50 years ago. He is very tall, too. King Gustav plays a great deal of lawn tennis on the French Riviera during the season there, and he has already announced his intention tc compete in open tournaments on the Riviera next season.

It is not surprising that the French Rugby Federation has a great deal of difficulty in eradicating abuses in the game in its country, especially in the national championship competition. So much does money enter into the environment of this competition that last season the federation itself received more than £5OOO from it. That fact was reported at the federation’s recent annual conference. * * * Professional Lawn Tennis.

After watching all the play in the professional lawn tennis tournament at Southport, England, at which W. T. Tilden and most of the members of his troupe appeared, the lawn tennis critic of the “Manchester Guardian” remarked that it gave one some idea about whether or not similar meetings would be successful. He continued: “All is well if an outstanding figure is on view, such as Tilden, a master beyond question, certain to produce strokes that are masterly and, moreover, a real personality. Anart from this, however, one is confronted with a sense of unreality; there is no excitement, one does not find oneself able to will this one or that one to win. It becomes just a spectacle of stroke-making, and if the strokes are not dazzling, then in time they become just a little boring. A five-set match is no longer thrilling unless one’s home professional is struggling against a foreign challenger: if two foreign experts are at grips that is apt to leave the spectator rather cold after, say. a couple of sets. If one can witness the truly great in action then the thrill can .be present, but the truly great are so few. Our best professional is D. Maskell, and he has been our best for years, but he is no thriller.” * * » Singing While Swinging. A story about a golfer who controls the rhythm of his swing by singing comes from the North of England. He uses the harvest festival hymn “We plough the fields and scatter.” The words “We plough the fields and —” take him to the top of the swing "scat—” is synchronised with the down stroke, and “—ter” is his follow-through. What he sings when he misses the ball .is . not stated. The player claims that his singing while he’s swinging has reduced his

handicap from 14 to 6. But club members complain of his lack of musical tone; they have protested to the club’s committee that while the vocal accompaniment may be helpful to the “musical” member it is just a pain in the ear to them. ** , *

The United States National Boxing Association, which does not have jurisdiction in boxing throughout the United States, has evoked some derisive smiles again, because of its ratings in a list of “world rankings” it has just issued. Jack Petersen, the British Empire and British heavyweight champion, is not ranked in the world’s first six; the N.B.A.’s rating in this division runs: Max Baer, Steve Hamas, Art Laskey,. Primo Camera, King Levinsky, and Tommy Loughran. In the light-heavyweight division 1 Len Harvey, the British champion in this class, is ranked fifth.' The Australian champion, Ambrose Palmer, is among those who are preferred to Harvey. . Maxie Rosenbloom, holder of the title, •is omitted; the N.B.A. recently suspended him. A British boxer, Jock McAvoy, is ranked fourth among the middle-, weights, but this list is vitiated by the fact that Marcel Thil, the holder of the championship, is not listed. In the flyweight division the N.B.A. does not list either Midget Wolgast or Jackie Brown, although these are the leading two boxers in this class.