FIELD, FLOOD and RING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18659, 30 August 1930, Page 16

FIELD, FLOOD and RING

An amusing story was going the rounds in Wellington on the morning of .the fourth test. A business man from the south had fitted in his engagements in order to see the Rugby test. On entering a certain hotel on the morning of the match he found that members of his staff had also decided to make a trip north to see the match.

Billy Edwards, at present In Australia, holds that he has been the busiest wrestler in the United States with the exception of Strangler Lewis. Last year he averaged nine matches a month, apart from exhibitions. There was so much travelling that he frequently went by air. Open-air bouts are becoming popular in Texas and Florida. Edwards says in the United States 40 per cent, of the audiences are women.

Australia’s swimming prodigy, Miss Jean Cocks, of Bondi Ladies' Club, who has received recognition for her 50 yards performance of 29sec. at Bondi, last March, now holds 15 records. Her time for the 50 yards equals that put up by the famous swimmer, Miss Fanny Durack, at Drummoyne 15 years ago, which was wiped out by new regulations made last season by the New South Wales Amateur Swimming Association to govern record attempts.

Although he did not do well at the beginning of the cricket season in England, C. C. Dacre, the New Zealand cricketer at present playing for Gloucester, did not take long to strike his real form and his fine performances have helped materially in putting his county well up on the championship table. In a recent appearance at Lord’s ground, London, Dacre compiled a sterling 95, his score containing a generous number of boundaries. Several times the batsman rattled the score board at Lord’s and had the spectators in an apprehensive mood with his mighty hits. A prominent London paper summed up Dacre’s innings with the following announcement on its posters in six-inch type:— ‘‘Lord’s Too Small for Dacre.” The latest information states that Dacre has scored over 1600 runs so far this season.

The tour of the New Zealand League team will cost about £3OOO and in the first eight games the recipts have totaled only £l2lß, making £IBOO required from the remaining five matches. On the figures of the earlier games in Sydney, the additional receipts will hardly be more than £BOO. As a result the £IOOO provided by the Australian Board of Control to aid New Zealand will not be repaid, and jvill remain a dead loss for years.

When the New Zealand Rugby League team met Ipswich, Abbott, the only half-back chosen for the tour, played on the wing, while Seagar was given a place behind the scrum. Australian critics comment adversely on the decision to take only one hooker on tour. The team’s failure, particularly after Stephenson was injured, is attributed to New Zealand's inability to win the ball from the scrum. One Sydney writer says the position is difficult to explain and only reveals bad judgment in selection.

Strangler Lewis, who is expected to appear in New Zealand on the completion of his Australian contract, won his wrestling bout last week-end in Melbourne. He formerly held the heavy-weight championship of the world, but was defeated about a year ago. Although the account of his match in Australia did not give him any credit he is considered one of the most formidable and knowing matmen in the game. His head-locks always cause his opponents great trouble. He is 38 years of age and has been in the game for 20 years.

Instead of the European swimming championships, which have been cancelled this year. Germany is promoting a European water polo tournament at Nuremberg in August (says the “Athletic News”). As we are not seeding a team of water polo experts to the Empire Games, our men are free to compete. There will, I take it, be the usual trial matches, and it is to be hoped that an early basic team selection will be made, so that the probable British players will be given ample opportunity to play together as a team. A lesson the all-conquering German and Hungarian finalists taught us was to keep the team unchanged as many years as anno domini will sanction.

The proposed constitution for the annual conference of centre representatives, and cycling representatives were discussed at a recent meeting of the Wellington Amateur Athletic Centre. It was decided to recommend to the council of N.Z.A.A.A. that the chairman of each conference should not be a representative of the New Zealand Council, and also that the council representatives should not be officially represented, but invited only in an advisory capacity. Mr A. Nattrass and Mr H. Rose were appointed to bring these suggestions under the notice of the council before the new rules are printed.

There are instances on record of a player being caught after two, and even three, runs have been completed, but in all such cases the batsmen concerned has had at least an inkling as to his possible fate, says an English paper. No such anticipation could have been entertained, however, by A. Ratcliffe in his second innings for Cambridge University against H. D. G. Leveson-Gower’s eleven at Eastbourne. The fact that he was out must indeed have come to him as a shock. He had scored 12 and seemed to have settled down, when, in turning round to liit a

ball to leg, he kicked his wicket. He and his partner, intent on watching the ball, had run three before it was pointed out to them that a bail had been removed, whereupon Ratcliffe had to retire ‘hit wicket.” Quite as unexpected and certainly even more unpleasant an experience befel the late H. T. Arnall-Thompson, when batting for Leicestershire v. M.C.C. at Lord’s in 1889, he was out “c. and b. Shacklock.” The ball flew off the edge of the striker’s bat on to his eye- j brow and rebounded to the bowler. Arnall-Thompson was momentarily | stunned and, as the blood flowed freely, suggested he should retire and j finish his innings later. It was then ; gently broken to him that he was out. ' A humorous conclusion to a road j cycling race is recounted by an English cyclist, W. H. Nicholls, writing in a London paper. “I was a competitor in a 50 miles cycling race held over Essex roads, in which the late Leon Meredith was on the scratch mark.” he said. “The race was run at one-min-ute intervals. I started one minute before Leon, but he caught me up at a village named Littlebury. This place has a very sharp double bend. We were both doing more than 20 miles an hour, when we ran into a herd iof cows. I hit one broadside on and i shot clean through the window of a cottage, where the tenants were breakfasEing. A little girl came downstairs and wanted to know if I was the uncle they l)ad expected the previous night.”

“In view of the greatly unwarranted publicity given the casual meeting of Karel Kozeluh and myself, when we ' practice with each other for no reason 1 more important than our personal pleasure and benefit, I will hereby give the true facts of the meeting at ( Beaulieu,” writes W. T. Tilden. “It j was a nice day and the cry of tennis j was on me. Moreover I had no 1 scheduled match for that morning, so in a burst of energy I asked Karel if he would play. He was booked up for the morning, but we decided to play during the lunch period. Unfortunately we started late, without umpire or any particular notice being paid to jus by any of the committee. There | was no announcement of our meeting, | due to the fact that no one except I Kozeluh, Mr Simond, from whom I i wheedled the centre court, and myself, I knew of it. However, before we j finished there was quite a gallery, inI eluding the Press, which latter element j saw a story and used it. For a matter •of completing the record, I won in straight sets, 6—4, 6—4.”

“Conan Doyle was a much better cricketer than many of his biograherS would have us believe,” says a brother novelist of his. “He was quite a sound bat, and the M.C.C. called upon him frequently at one time to play in minor matches. He used to have practice nets at his former house on Hindhead, and his brother-in-law, Hornung—the creator of ’Raffles’—frequently bowled and batted there. I myself once bowled, to him on that green, and got him first ball, by an amazing ‘fluke’; after which I retired from the contest, much to his amiable annoyance, for I am quite sure I should not have bowled him again in a fortnight.”

At the National Sporting Club, Holborn Stadium (writes Bombardier Wells), I saw and heard one more example of the ignorance of the average spectator regarding what constitutes points. A Frenchman named Gourdy was fighting a Birmingham man, Bert Taylor, and because the verdict was given by Eugene Corri to Gourdy, the members and friends booed it. Now, I watched the fighting as closely as I do any I go to see, and there was hardly a single blow landed by Taylor that was not with the open glove. ! Time and again I heard open-gloves | blows landing, and then an “Ah!” from | a section of the spectators, as much as l to say, “By jove, that was a hefty wali lop,” when it was nothing of the kind. The blow that knocks out a man or does him real damage is the kind that no one hears. The punch you do hear all over the hall neither hurts (unless, of course, a wrist comes into play) nor is it legal nor point scoring. Yet that error is constantly being made. Next time you are at a fight, judge for yourself, and if your neighbour ejaculates when he hears a loud smack, you may take it from me he knows very little about the noble art.