Sporting and Athletic Review

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17352, 17 May 1924, Page 25

Sporting and Athletic Review

“Tho Star/’ on more than one occasion, Ims expressed disagreement with those who support tho uoutinuitjico of tho Interprovincial Four-oarcd race, and has given reasons for its attitude. Recently it saiil that possibly supporters of tho event might bo able to present views which would be sufficiently potent to command support. In this* connection, .Mr H. Ayres, who coached the Canterbury crew which competed for tho event at Pioton on Easter Monday, writes as follows: In answer to vour remarks with respect to the Inter-provincial Fours. You say that the race can serve no good purpose. To this I cannot agree. In Australia the inter-State rowing races are the biggest aquatic event they have. Don't you think it a greater honour to be chosen as one of four to represent your province than to find your place in a club four to row in the championship fours? Then again, do you not think that those members who are elected to fill this representative four are going to learn something by this combination cf the four best oarsmen rowing under the best coach available? Take the crew that represented tho province in 1922 and 1923. I think they will admit that they learned something by their experience and I believe the Avon Club profited by their experience in the improvmertt shown in the club’s four-oared rowing. Why do you have inter-provincial football, cricket, tennis, etc., etc? I feel sure if we persevere with this race and overcome the initial trials and tribulations it "will eventually be our best four-oared race. There is just another reason tha? T may mention in favour of this event. How seldom is it that a club is in a position to send a crew for the championship fours, simply because tliey have only one or two men fit for that class; consequently these men have to look on and this may be the same position in all the clubs, one or two seniors in each. These men know that in the event of interprovincial contests they have a chance of getting their colours, and rightly so, too. Take football... I mention this branch of sport because I am an old representative. A man may be playfng for a club team that is last in the competitions rnd yet get his place in The All Blacks. This applies equally in the ro ing world. I hope that ?h?s letter may be the means of winding you over to the side of the interprovincial Fours.” The reasons set forth ore not very convincing, but Mr Ayres is to be thanked for hatfiiig given a lead, and others may be induood to forward Weir views.

A committee at Dargaville lias raised a sum of £SOO for a professional single sculling race on the Wai- j roa River, and the money has been subscribed locally, we are told. Just ! think of it! A small community raised j what in sporting parlance is known ! as a 1 ‘monkey” for an event which is j of no interest whatever from a sport- { ing point of view, while appeals to the whole of the Dominion for funds to have representatives at the Olympic Games, which have a far-reaching influence, fell on ears tht mostly were deaf. The Dargaville committee say the race will be for the Australasian championship, though its authority on i this point seems to be a bit doubt- j ful. Hannan declares'’he won the Aus- J tralasian championship when he de- ‘ i-'eated Felton at Nelson in 1923, and successfully defended the title against M’Devitt in their recent race at Auckland, scoffs at the proposal that he should take part in an open race for a title he holds, and asks who gave the Dargaville committee the right to promote a race for. the championship. When the match between Hannan and M’Devitt was announced as being for the championship of Australia, “The Star” pointed out that while there was no governing body for professional sculling in existence, there was a body in Sydney which had been constituted for the purpose of exercising control over the world’s single scull championship, and that that body might direct its efforts to secure the formation of a body in New Zealand, preferably at Wanganui, with a view to joining forces in controlling sculling matches in the two countries. It is stated that the proposal of the Dargaville committee has been approved by the Sydney body, and if that if so then Hannan’s claim will be dismissed without further consider- . ation. Hannan’s claim. indeed, is framed on a very flimsy foundation. J Because he and Felton agreed between themselves to add a title —unrecognised at the time- —to their match, and he and M’Devitt included that title in their articles, that is not to say that Press and public would recognise it. The reverse appears to be the ease. As Hannan has announced that lie will not compete in the race at Dargaville on June 7, and if the race lias the sanction of the Sydney body, then Hannan’s wisest course, if lie hankers for the title, is to challenge the winner.

Three Senior matches under Rugby j Union rules were decided at Lancaster Park on Saturday, and what a tame and uninteresting display was witnessed in all of them. True, in the game between Old Boys and Sydenham. the latter were shorthanded, starting with thirteen players and carrying on with twelve after the interval. and in consequence it was only a practice spin for Old Bovs, whose score of 50 points could easily have been doubled had they l>een in the mind to go all the way at top. The play in the Albion-North Canterbury match was of the crudest description, team work being apparently a thing unknown. Both sides possess some fine material, but neither showed even a nodding acquaintance with a set plan of action, a combination of force welded for a given purpose. It was just a game of follow the ball. On the Oval, play certainly was better, but § here again concerted action was conspicuous by its absence, though frequent instances of individual excellence were in evidence. At the present time the only two teams which impress as working on preconceived ideas are Old Boys and Christchurch/ with MeK--1 vale improving every Saturday. But, I taken all round, the exhibitions given j by the Senior teams are deplorable. { The Council of the New Zealand Ath | letic Association has turned down the recommendation from the Dunedin | Conference that a lOOvds Ladies’ Chamj pionship event should be added to the i list of events already on the Champion- ( ship programme and that the event should count in championship points. Mr Amos said he was sufficiently conservative to think that women Would be better occupied in other ways than competing in athletic meetings. Possibly there are many of both sexes who will agree with Mr Amos. The views of the president, Mr Davies. that * there is the matter of girls travelling from one part of the countrv to another. It might not alwavs be desi* ] able, will be approved by sonic sndv

resented by others. But does the position end with the Council’s decision ? Will the athlete young women of the Dominion accept it as ending their hopes of championship honours, and if the council refuses to budge, will they combine their forces, snap their fingers at male athletic legislators and form a Women’s Athletic Association, as their sisters have done in England ? When one looks over the field of sport one cannot bu.t note how the weaker sex has taken to the robust form of athletics since the war. Particularly is this the case in our conservative motherland and on the Continent. In America there is probably far more competition for females at all forms of athletics than there is in England and France combined, but then it is not public competition such as prevails in Europe, but is almost entirely confined to the schools and the colleges. Australia has little public competition for women, and it is comparatively new in this country, but the germ is at work and there is no telling how far its influence may extend. This is the age of sex equality, say the more advanced women, and if the female human makes up her mind to imitate the male to the best of her abilty in the strenuous athletic sports, what’s to stop her ? Sermons and lectures on the possible harmful results won’t, that’s certain. The Wellington centre is championing the cause of the women athletes, and has decided to draw the attention of the council to the fact that the recommendation with respect to the institution of a ladies* championship was made by the representatives of the various centres, and must, therefore, be given the serious consideration it warrants.

The Paris Olympic Games are expected to attract 5000 athletes from* 30 nations. The arena will occommodate 60,000 people. There are a special railway station, garages. hotels, houses, a camp, a village of 200 villas’ restaurants, a post office, and 50 telephone boxes all of which are practically complete, according to cable niesage from Paris.

The most spectacular sporting event of the winter in Sweden took place recently when the historic Vasa ski run was held over a sixtv-mile course through difficult country. There were 119 entrants in the race, which was witnessed by 20,000 spectators. The race was Avon by J. Lindgren in less than thirteen hours. The greatest monarch of Sweden, Gustavus Vasa, more than fourteen hundred years ago covered the same course from the heart of the Daleearlia to the Norwegian frontier. The race is held in commemoration of this run by the man who is regarded as the founder of modern Sweden.

A determined effort is being made by a group of Swedish newspapers to induce Sweden to boycott the Olympic Games this year unless Germany is allowed to enter a team, says London ‘ ‘ Sporting Life” of March 11. The movement commenced m Stockholm, and has been adopted h.v other papers of German sympathies, but the majority of the Swedish Press oppose the campaign. Those behind the movement have little knowledge of the laws governing tho games. Before Germany can enter the Olympic Games either this year, or any other year, she must be unanimously voted to her

pre-war status among the nations composing the International Olympic Committee. As Great Britain, our colonies, America, and most of the European countries concerned objected rather strongly to Germany’s Olympic aspirations at the last meeting of the International Olympic Committee, there seems little hope of the Swedish newspaper campaign succedeing.

In referring to the death in England of Frank O’Keefe, the Australian cricketer, a Sydney “Bulletin” correspondent writes of wellknown Australians who have figured in first-class cricket in England. Hlxe writes:—A long list of Australian cricketers have represented English counties, as amateurs or

pros. Lancashire has had Dr Poidevin, the Waverley (N.S.W.) captain and a noted writer on cricket, and Alec Kermode, whom Maclaren took to England after his second visit to Australia. Kermode, a slow bowler, plays occasionally with Balmain. Middlesex has fielded Tarrant and Le Couteur, the Vic Rhodes scholar, as well as Albert Trott, Mick Roche and Alar* Marshall. Murdoch helped Sussex for years, while Ferris, C. T. B. Turner’s famous collaborateur, forgot how to bowl, but became a first-class bat with Gloucestershire. Somerset claimed Sammy Woods, and Queensland supplied Leicestershire with Dr R- A. Macdonald. At one time or other they all figured for the “Gentlemen’’ or the “Players.”