In the Open Air

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13880, 17 April 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

In the Open Air

SPORTS AND PASTIMES. Two New Zealanders had the honour of 'captaining tun two rival Kugtiy teams or Uuy's Hospital and Louuuii Hospital at xtichmonu last month, and both were presented to the i'rmce of wuo was an interested spectator of the match between the two hospitals. A. li. Stringer, of Ciinstclnircn, leu the uuy's team, and London were captained uy J. Al . Jlehaitey (of ln-Vci-eargill), late of Otago University. The maceu, which was one of the semifinal ties for the Hospital Cup, "was notable more for the liveliness of the three thousand students in the crowd than for the excellence of the football, .both teams were too excited to play -very well, though Guy's . icept tueir heads better than the' London team and showed better lorm. After a rousing game Guy's won by eight points (onegoal, one try), to nil, fjonclon being fairly and squarely.beaten.

Some plain speaking by Corinthian in the " London .Daily Chronicle " The colossal incompetence of the judges will ever be the most easily remembered feature of the National Sporting Wrestling Championships in IUO9. 'ine to\;rnament euded in fashion quite characteristic, when the referee adjudged that John Lenim, of Switzerland, uad put down Pat Connolly (Ireland) in the final for Heavy Weights, whereas vne latter.'s left shoulder was something like six inches from the mat! This was the last " decision ' of the tournament. in view of ail the monstrous inefficiency of the referees, it will ba almost criminal on the part of the promoters of the tournament if they allow the same system to remain in force next year. Fortunately, one cannot regard these almost innumerable mistakes as having altered the probabilities of all the results. Lemni would have won the Heavies, and there was certainly no wrestler in the Light Weights superior to Rose.

Bob Fitzsininions possesses more than an average share of confidence, judging by his breezy remarks on evening, when he was introduced at Wonderland (says the London "Sporting Life" of January 27). On taicing the ring the Cornishman received a veryflattering reception, and annouuc.r George Harris commenced to introduce him in his usual very capable manner. But he was quickly pulled up by ■'Fitz," who refused, to be termed the ex-middle-weight chnanipion, and after the M,C. had gone on another tack, and styled him the retired champion, "Fitz" shouted " No, sir! Now just let me explain myself." Bob, in., a loud voice, proceeded: "I am the ex-heavy-weight champion of the world It is my first visit to the ring in London, and I do not feel a stranger. I have had 369 battles in the ring, and I am now prepared to defend the middle and light heavy-weight titles, and also ■to meet anyone for the heavyweight championship, Jack Johnson preferred. lam going to make a tour through England, and I want to meet any of your middle-weights; in fact, I would not he adverse to meeting two or' three a night."

THE SILVER THREAD. "A wonderful conundrum, which requires more intellectual power to solve than I possess, has presented itself quite recently in this district,""(said a wellknown member of the 'Warwickshire County Crickflt- Committee to a writer ih the London "Sportsman" the other day. "Not long since I. had a discussion with a .gentlemaiywho has taken an active part in both cricket and football, and is now deeply interested in the question of alleged veiled professionalism. He quite agreed with the action of the Scottish Imion, who declare that any touring-footballer receiving 3s per diem as 'pin and 'baccy' expenses lost his amateur status and was a professional. Now the conundrum to mf> is how can the amateur cricketer who reepjyes daily £1 Is for f-xpsnses —and, mind you. it has been paid ami IS paid to-day, for 1 speak with knowledge—still continues to ho an amateur? Is there om law for the amateur cricketer and. another for the footballer? We in Wwrwicksh'ja have made this allowance. It is a strange definition of amateurism which allows expenses at the rate of £1 Is per diem for one sport, hut denies any daily' allowance at all for another."

The matter of amateurs having their banking accounts augmented by money derived from playing cricket is almost j threadbare as a subject of discussion in ! the newspapers. Some little time back readers were made acquainted with the views of Lord Harris. Here are a few reflections on the question by Mr' A. G. Steel, once tlic foremost allround player in England, or .second perhaps only to W. C. Grace, Mr KJtpol visited Australia with a team in the early eighties, and was one - of the principal contributors to the Badminton Volume on Cricket:—"ln the cricket world, as we all know, this dispute lias been a great evil for many years. In the seventies the subject first cropped up. It was then decided, nnd, T think, rightly, that amateurs playing for counties should be paid their out-of-pocket expenses for any match they took part in. There were ; many ama-

teur cricketers in certain counties who did not like this innovation, ana refused to accept their expenses. This made it a dififcult and invidious task for the committee, and certainly in'one county, if.. riot in - more, it was decided that every amateur must accept his expenses. Now, there is no doubt, —I mention the name of no county or of an individual cricketer—that ' these expenses have gradually increased, and in some cases claims have been made for far more than could in any light he legitimately considered ' out-of-pocket' expenses. This is an evil, but I believe that it. is gradually improving, and is not nearly so bad as it was some years ago. A great many people have been under the impression that certain great amateur cricketers .in the past have been paid for their services. I have had a good deal to do with cricket and cricketers for the last SO years> and' 1 have never actually knpwii of a payment being made to an English or

county amateur. I have heard rumours but never had any. real evidence to cause me to believe in their truth. I may mention here a fact which I have never put on paper be fore , v that a good many years ago a cricketer was offered a very large sum of money (£1000) and expenses to go to Australia and play there. He refused it with scorn. This is the only instance of a money offer to an English amateur of which I ever had real evidence. With respect to the.recent trouble in Australia that has arisen between the cricketers and the Board of Control, we must remember that cricket and cricketers in Australia are on a very different footing from what they are in England. They are few, very few, professional cricketers, as we know them in Australia. Ever, since 1878'; when the first Australian team came over, the individual player has always received remuneration. The amount, of course, varies according to the financial success of the tour —roughly, each player getting something between .£'7oo and .CJOOO. All the Australian cricketers are in business or are Government clerks, and they consider —and colonial r publie opinion is with them—that an 'absence from their work of six months entitles them to remuneration. I sincerely trust that the unfortunate dispute' will he amicably settled."

INTERNATIONAL BOXING. BRITT OF AMERICA DEFEATED BY SUMMERS ON POINTS. ' (By "Corinthian" in London "Daily Chronicle," of February 23rd.) Johnny Summers, of' London, defeated James Britt, of San Francisco, on points at the end of twenty rounds of the most clever boxing that one could, wish tto see. The Englishman had much less to spare at the finish of this contest than he had when the verdict was given against him in the previous meeting between these two. l'ossiufy no glove contest has ever yielded more that is atumraole in box\n" as a sport than this affair at the National Sporting Club. The open, free, English, style of Summers contrasted strangely with the crouching of the American, whose one fault was his continual holding with the right hand and hitting wnile still holding with the left. „„.,,, ~ , The finest feature of Britt s display was the remarkable coolness with which he received Summers' numerous straight-from-the-shoulder hits. The Londoner, with those: beautifully-timed straight hits that for force beat al upper-cuts and swings t (the mam stock or blows that Britt possesses) appeared on many occasions to have a cnauee of knociring the American out. But Britt gave one of the gamest displays imaginable. ■ ._ • In the seventeenth round Summeis, with a perfect, tremendously hard right cross, hit Britt on the left side of the i'iw Had the blow been an inch or two' lower the American would surely have' been knocked out. As it was Britt's eves looked towards the ceiling and wore an ominous glaze. He tottered for a second, but clenching his swollen lips he seemed by strength of mind alone to recover his great coolness, nnd by clinching and leaning over lasted out the round. It was a wonderful instance of strength of purpose, and most men would have been forgiven if they had failed to survive such a. terrific onslaught as that which Summers made. Britt received ihany blows nearly as hard as that during the contest, but his ring generalship was as fine as any boxer ever showed. He was always in the centre of the ring forcing Summers to the ropes, and always made the pace of boxing slower after receiving one of Summers's hits, which seemed half as hard again as any of those delivered by Britt. \ The American's best hit was a sort of left-swing and upper-cut combined, which <was responsible for the damaged appearance of the right side of Summers's face. ' But Britt's craftiness was far in advance of that of Summers, who, however, did some wonderful ducking out of the way of the American's left hand. It was a bout of great endurance, and although so many tremendously hard blows were delivered 'one had to watch the laces of the men yerv closely indeed to distinguish any sign of harm being done. The fortitude with which hits were taken was so great that not until that splendid hit by Summers in the seventeenth round did either man betray an inner feeling of having had his physical comfort seriously interfered with, feeling of bavins bad Ids physical comfort seriously interfered with. The. bout will go down as one of the finest boxing-contests ever witnessed. Neither man could have done much better, and if either had little worse he would have lost. Britt at the end did not think he had lost and innd" a subtle little speech as follows:—"I liuvp fought in many countries bo ore, .ami -tills is not the first time I mvo lost, according to the refeiee- I have no complaint to make, hut 1 still think that I am the best man.' The contest was for a sum of ,-£1,001), and it was indeed worthy of the great patronage it received.