Flashes From Fields Of Sport Abroad

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1935, Page 12

Flashes From Fields Of Sport Abroad

Swimming Invaders. The doings of Jean Taris, middle-dis-tance swimming champion of Europe, and Emile Poussard, French high-diving champion, in Western Australia, and of the Japanese, M. Kiyokawa and T. Sakagami, in Queensland attracted a great deal of interest in view of the Melbourne Centenary and Australian swimming championships at Melbourne from January 19 to 26. The breaststroke champion of China, Kwok Chung Hang, a young university , student, will also appear at these carnivals, but the invaders will meet real opposition from Australia’s champions, Noel Ryan, Andrew Charlton, Bruce Hodgson, Gordon Parsons, Reg Clark and H. Tickle. «■ * * Blind Luck. One of the best of the recent hole-in-one stories in golf—and it is authentic —is of a happening on a Middlesex golf course when London and the surrounding country were under dense fog. F. H. Rowse, a plus-one player, and W. R. Thomas met in a match. The result depended on the last hole (202 yards), and Thomas hit a' good shot into the fog. When the two players reached the green they searched and searched in vain for the ball, but just when they were thinking of calling for electric torches Thomas looked in the tin—and there the ball was! The hole-in-one gave him the match, though Rowse had gone round in 68. w * * An English paper says that although hockey is included in the programme for the Olympic Games to be held in Berlin next year it may be taken for granted that none of the four British countries —England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland —will enter. s * * * Then —And Now! Before Jack Metcalfe went to the Env pire Games as an athletic representative of Australia he did not believe in specialisation. While at London taking degrees in athletic education he revised his ideas ana expressed himself strongly pro-special-isation. “It is the only thing,” he said. And yet we find at the Dunn Shield meeting the other day that this talented athlete gave full rein to his versatility and competed in five events (says a Sydney paper). Not only that, but he passed over the hop, step and jump in order to contest a division of the pole vault. In view of Metcalfe’s recent admission that was rather a remarkable programme, although, perhaps, he sacrificed the principle on the altar of

club interests. Metcalfe went away to the Games as Australia’s greatest allround athlete. That honour may still be his, but since he returned, the University star has, nevertheless, been something of an 'enigma. In the hop, step and jump he has not bettered 46ft, the high jump bar has been raised to only 6ft 2in, for his post-Empiad best, while he has not caused the measurers to stretch the tap beyond 23ft m the broad jump. Metcalfe won the Empire triple leap with 51ft 3Jin, only 3Jin below the accepted world’s record of Japanese Nambu. Before he went away, he established Australian and State records for the. high jump at 6ft 6iin, and the broad jump at 24ft OJin. Perhaps he feels as Jack Crawford felt, and as Fred Perry now feels—“mentally tired of if” In a six-day bicycle race at Toronto recently, a Canadian team of three men' set up a new record for the world, in distance-riding, of ’3045 miles and six laps. A British Empire team which included a famous English rider, was beaten by a lap. * * •» Busy—Outside The Ring. It is nice to. be a world champion boxer, even if one doesn’t box any longer (remarked an overseas papei’). Max Baer, since he defeated Camera, has been almost everywhere except in the boxing ring. His secretary is kept busy turning down more offers to ngnt than any one man could compass in a lifetime. Baer hasi so many interests outside the sport that brought him fame. A film star, night club host, vaudeville artist, broadcaster, and wrestling referee has not much time for the strenuous training needed before putting on the gloves. But now has come an offer of £5OOO to Baer to give an exhibition 10 rounds in lowa. Baer may just find time to do that.

For the Stawell Gift,. the big Australian professional sprint handicap, the prize-money next Easter will total £5OO, with £3OO to the winner, £l2O to the second man, £5O to third, £2O to fourth and £lO to fifth. This is the richest prize in the world for a foot race. The handicap is over 130 yards. The Stawell meeting will carry the distribution of over £lOOO in prize-money, and in each of two distance races the prize-money will total over £lOO. * w Praise For King. It is clear that R. K. King, former Sydefiham Club and Canterbury Rugby Union representative forward, has fitted well into the Rugby League game, as a member of the Warrington Club, for which R. Hazelhurst may also play. In commenting on Warrington’s recent form, one of the Rugby League critics of a Manchester paper says: ‘!King is as good as an extra loOse-forward. He is always on the ball, and uses it so well that not only has he made many openings for others, but has scored more tries than any other forward in the league.” * ■* * Lieutenant-Colonel W. B. du Pre, as captain of the English croquet team now in Australia and holder of the British open croquet title, knows quite a lot about croquet. He calls it “billiards on the green, with a dash of chess.” * * * Return To Form. The opening carnival of Melbourne’s swimming season recently was sensational in that it marked the complete return to championship form of G. Vockler. He rehabilitated himself after a total eclipse last season by winning the Victorian Amateur Swimming Association’s 100 yards handicap xn 0.55 2-5. His first and second lap times were 0.16 2-5 and 0.35 2-5. Vockler’s effort was of special significance for Australian critics generally believed that there was no one to provide worthy opposition to the Japanese sprinter Sakagami. * * * Hitherto very little six-a-sjde hockey has been played in England. Now, however, big efforts are being made to popularise tourneys of this form of the game. It is anticipated that over 100 teams will be entered for a six-a-side tourney which will be held in London in April. * * * A Vital Necessity. “You let your boys start cold. That’s no good. They can’t do themselves justice, and may do themselves harm.” Thus Eddie Tolan, champion of the world, from a seat in the Press box at a Melbourne sports meeting recently, when he watched thinlv-clad athletes on a chilly afternoon hopping about to keep themselves warm while waiting to start. An Australian writer, in. recording the remark, comments on the necessity for athletes to keep warm until they go to the mark, and on the fact that not one-tenth of the athletes in Melbourne possess sweat-suits, which are a commonplace in the United States. * w « Son Of Abe Mitchell. Here -is another golf story which has the merit of being strictly true. Abe Mitchell has a son aged 12. Said Abe to his son: “I will give you a stroke a hole at all but the short holes on this course' (Verulam, St. Albans, England), and if you can beat me it’s worth 10/- to you.” “Right, Dad,” said the son. And it was right. The boy had a score of 85 for the round—and the standard scratch score is 77. Now.instead of the 10/- he is having a matched set of clubs especially made for him. -

Nerve In Croquet. Sir Francis Colchester Wemyss, who is manager of the English croquet team which is now in Australia, ana who toured New Zealand a few seasons back, considers that, in first-class croquet, as much nerve is required as in .any other sport. Nerve, he declared to interviewers in Sydney, was essential. ‘I dont say the game is as thrilling,” he said, “but if one loses one’s nerve at a critical moment the game is lost as well. He added that croquet had a'greater following in Australia and New Zealand than in England, where it was mainly restricted to the leisured classes. «• * * The Australian amateur track cycling championships will be held at Hobart, Tasmania, on March 13 and 16. A bitumen track is being laid down for the meeting. Mians Retiring. When playing as right-wing threeouarter for the Blackheath Rugby Club, in London, recently, P. C. Minns broke a bone in his foot. The former Rhodes Scholar and Auckland Rugby Union representative had been showing fine form for Blackheath since he returned to England from Wellington last year. Now it is reported that he has decided

to give up playing Rugby. In any case, he will not have many more opportunities, even if his injury mends quickly. Minns has been appointed to the Civil Service in Uganda, though he will not go there for some time, a s he is first acquiring some knowledge of tne Swahili tongue. * * * Enrique Maier, representative of Spain in Davis Cup lawn tennis, who is now in Australia, has stated that lie will retire from first-class tennis immediately after this tour. * * * Excellent Swimming Times. Some excellent times have been put up by Australia’s front-rank swimmers in their training for the international meeting at Melbourne this month. Outstanding were Noel Ryan s 220 yards in 2 21 1-5, Bruce Hodgson’s 220 in 2.26, and Andrew Charlton’s 440 yards m 5.20. Among the women, Pat Norton has covered 100 yards in 1.6, and Sybil Tunks took 0.2 2-5 more for the same distance. At a special carnival at the Crawley Baths, Perth, to welcome the French swimmers Jean Taris and Emile Poussard, Percy Oliver bettered the 100 yards backstroke record by clocking 1.5 4-5. At the same meeting, the 220 yards breaststroke title went to Len Hobbs in the new record time of 3.7 2-5.