CHRISTCHURCH NEWS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 31 December 1926, Page 10

CHRISTCHURCH NEWS.

(From our own Correspondent.) CANTERBURY ELEVEN. The Canterbury cricket eleven will begin its second Plunket Shield game of the season on Saturday, when it will meet at Lancaster Park. Having been beaten by Auckland, Canterbury are now in the position that they will have to beat both .AA’ellington and Otago to be in the running for the Plunket Shield. The poor start made by Canterbury against Auckland prejudiced their chances of success from the outset. A disquieting feature of the match was the failure of the province’s leading batsmen. For the game against AA'ellington two changes have been made in the Canterbury team. Cox and Burrows have been dropped, and AA r oods and Mcßeath replace them. It was generally expected that Cox would be omitted from the next team. He has not struck form this season. A large number of followers of the game are of opinion that AAroods should have been in the team from the very start. Last season he headed the Canterbury batting averages for Plunket Shield games. AVoods has also been hatting well this season. His inclusion should strengthen the batting.

CAR SOMERSAULTS. When his motor car overturned at the corner of Palmer’s Road and River Road, New Brighton, at about two o'clock in the morning, Peter Grant., a single man, aged 23, driver and sole occupant of the car, had a miraculous escape from death. Grant was returning to his home after taking home some friends from a party. In turning the corner from Palmer’s Road into River Road, his car left the road, and while still swinging round, the car ploughed into the grass a few feet off the road, and then, striking a mound of earth, somersaulted, coming to rest upside down at the foot of a clump of sapling willows, pinning Grant underneath, where he lay for nearly three hours in a semi-conscious state before assistance came to him. In ordinary circumstances, Grant would have been killed. At the particular spot where his car came to rest, there is a large hole In the ground about a foot deep, and to one side of this there is a heap of debris. AA r hen the car overturned and lilt the ground, Grant was flung into the hole. The back of the car coming to rest on top of the mound, was held up about a foot, leaving just enough clearance for Grant to lie underneath. Had this not happened Grant would probably have been crushed by the weight of the car.

"FINEST IN THE WORLD.” After visiting many of the racecourses in other parts of the world, Mr P. Selig, formerly president of the New Zealand Trotting Association, who returned to Christchurch this morning, is firmly convinced' that New Zealand racecourses are among the finest in the world. “In England, with the exception of Ascot, and one or two other famous courses, they don’t cater for the public at all,” said Mr Selig. "They cater only for bookmakers, owners and punters, and the public gets no consideration. I was quite disgusted with the lack of conveniences for the public. They can see practically nothing of the races until they are almost finished.”

Mr Selig added that he was in England during the so-called bookmakers’ strike, when the bookmakers declared that they were not going to make bets, because of the Government's intention to introduce a betting tax. It was amusing to him, because he could see the chance there was for the introduction of the totalisator. Tho bookmakers quickly came to their senses again, after the question of the totalisator was mentioned.

“I was asked to write some articles on the totalisator, hut as I was leaving London then, I was unable to do so. However, I gave the newspapers as much information as I could about the working of the totalisator.”