FIELD, FLOOD AND RING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18500, 22 February 1930, Page 16 (Supplement)

FIELD, FLOOD AND RING

One of Southland’s rriost prominent rowing men in the person of Mr Thomas Mitchell, at present in business in Dunedin but formerly of Riverton, was among the visitors to the recent Bluff Regatta. In company with Mr V. Metzger (president of the 1930 Bluff Regetta Committee) and Messrs S. Perry and A. Cameron, Mr Mitchell was the v/inner of the Interprovincial Fours at Lake Waihola in 1903. Mr Mitchell expressed his extreme pleasure at again meeting his one-time colleague, Mr Metzger, and at the fact that he was still interested in the sport and going strong as was his wont. Andrew Charlton intends to seek selection in the team to represent Australia at the Olympic Games at Los Angeles in 1932, says an Australian paper. He has recovered from his recent illness, and intimated that he is returning to the country in the middle of this month. Charlton will not compete in swimming events this summer, but will again take part next season, with a yiew to representing Australia for the third time.

The New Zealand Rowing Council is still considering a suitable design for the certificates to be presented to the crews of winning interprovincial eights (writes “Stroke” in the Evening Post). Several designs have been submitted, but it seems to be the colouring which is striking the artistic eye of the members of the council, and so far no definite colour scheme has been decided upon. The design of , the certificates is very attractive, and when they are completed they should make a pleasing and sensible record of a noteworthy event. They are about the size of an ordinary photograph of a football team, and carry at the top, in the centre, the New Zealand coat-of-arms. At the bottom is the oadge of the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Assiciation, and the lettering, which includes the words” Interprovincial Eights,” is prominently displayed. Underneath the coat-of-arms is a space for the date, and then there are sufficient spaces for the names of the members of the winning crew, the coxswain, and the coach. The council has to distribute certificates to Canterbury and Otago crews, winners of the eights for the last two seasons, and the distribution will no doubt be made as soon as the certificates are complete.

Otago athletics w’ill suffer one of the biggest losses fc>r years by the departure to Christchurch of Mr R. Swinney, one of the most capable and popular administrators that has ever graced the Otago Centre. In his day Bob Swinney was a half-miler of class, being credited with round about 2min 2sec for the distance, and he was also a very solid crosscountry performer. Good as he was on the track, however, his services, especially as secretary for a number of years and later as treasurer, in an administrative capacity have made him best known to presentday athletes, and the writer is expressing an opinion that is held by many athletic followers when he states that the organisation of the New' Zealand championships at Dunedin in 1924 and 1926 was as good as that of any championship meeting that has been held since the war.

Jimmy Carlton, the Australasian sprint champion, has undoubtedly proved that he is fit for any company in the world. He has been breaking evens for the hundred consistently this season, and at the first international athletic carnival in Sydney a week or two ago he won the 100yds from scratch in hollow fashion in 9 4-ssec. There was an assisting wind, so that that record could not be granted. Dr Peltzer after this performance predicted that with careful coaching Carlton had a big chance of winning the 100

metres Olympic title at Los Angeles. E. W. Carr, the former Australian star, said that Carlton was in world’s class despite the fact that he is only twenty years of age. He also equalled the Olympic record for 60 metres (7sec),

but failed to better Carr’s world’s record of 6 3-ssec. At the Australian championships at Melbourne, Carlton capped all previous efforts by winning his heat of the 100yds championship in 9 3-ssec, thus equalling the world’s record. The final he won in 9 4-ssec. L. Smith, who was second in the final, did 9 4-ssec in his heat, and only recently was credited with 9 7-10 sec for 100yds. though this was not granted as a record.

Recognition as the world’s professional half-mile record is being applied for by the North Canterbury Centre of the New Zealand e Athletic, Cycling and Axemen's Union on behalf of the Australian professional runner, J. D. Fitt, who recently registered the time of lmin 53 2-ssec for this distance at English Park.

On the business side of the Sanders Cup racing a number of controversial remits will be presented at the Dominion Yachting Conference (says the “Sun,” Auckland). As far as possible, these will be held over until the bulk of the racing has been put through. The purpose is that delegates may thus have time to get to know one another, and therefore be in better trim to see opposing points of view. Contentious questions, the text of which are now well enough known, and which spring from Otago, Wellington, and Canterbury, must be thrashed out fearlessly and exhaustively if the contest is to be placed on a more enduring footing than at pre-

sent. Remits which have been sent forward from the south, notably that suggesting the contest be held at the various centres in rotation, deserve adequate examination, though their proposals may at first tempt one to impatience. To sum up, let us now go all out to make the contest a success, no matter what our personal views may be. One Auckland club has a motto which seems to put the spirit of yachting in a nutshell: “Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.”

A swim from McKenzie's Beach. Rangitoto to Takapuna Beach, a straight-line distance of about three miles, was accomplished recently by Cecil Webster, a younger brother of the well-known Auckland long-dis-tance swimmer, R. J. Webster. Web-

.ster’s time was one and a-half hours, a fine performance in view of the fact that he was swept some distance up the channel by the incoming tide. The swimmer left Rangitoto about 12.30 p.m. accompanied by a dinghy. The water was calm all the way across and he used the double-overarm stroke throughout. When he reached Takapuna at 12.15 p.m. he was quite fresh. Webster intends to attempt to swim from Brown’s Island to King's Warf,

a distance of approximately six and a half miles.