The All Whacks

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17410, 12 December 1924, Page 3

The All Whacks

winning try. The present English XV'. would run rings round Newport, who only scrambled home by a point a fortnight ago against a mediocre blackheath XV. The trouble with the All Blacks is with the forwards; they are good enough individually, but they don't seem to be able to get together as a pack. The backs are good, but great—no, decidedly not. To compare them with Gallaher's 1905 combination is absurd. The Alderson who scored all the points for Durham, is probably some connection of the famous F. H. R. Alderson, of the same county, who was a shining light in English Rugby a good many years ago. This gentleman was very sever© on the 1905 All Black team when commenting on their match with Durham, accusing them both ot rough and foul play and lack of skill. The sequel came when David Gallaher’s team faced the Hartlepools, who were fathered "by this high and mighty ex-international. For once in a way the New Zealanders “ took the muzzle off.” and the Hartlepools went through it to the tune of 63 to nil. When the Davis Cup matches were played at Forest Hills, U.S.A., the following articles were under the umpire’s chair at the disposal of players: One pair scissors ; several packages safety pins, steel pick for removing dirt from spikes; roll of adhesive tape in widths of Cinch. 1 inch, inc hes, 2 inches and more : spirits of ammonia; smelling salts (to taste); chewing gum, several flavours; rosin (po-wdered and lump) ; grip wax (in a tin box) ; shoo laces (black and white) ; one buttonhook ; copy of the laws of Dawn Tennis and .Manual for Umpires; pieces of cloth for cleaning eye-glasses; sliced lemon ; stick to measure height of net; tongue scraper; evestones ; a seven-minute watch; one hammer; one pair pliers; on© shoe horn : one can talcum powder; lump chalk; handkerchiefs; extra belts ; extra garters ; one penknife. An indication of the great interest : that the All Blacks are creating in ! Great Britain can be gathered from the attendance at the various matches. In cases, of course, the attendances may seem small when the size of some English cities is considered, but against this it has to be remembered that at many of the matches the accommodation was taxed to its utmost capacity. The largest attendance to date was at the game against Wales, when it is estimated there were 50,000 people present, and even then the rentes had to be closed long before the match started. It is not known what was the attendance at the game against Oxford University. The number was not cabled, and the account of the match by mail has not yet come to hand. At the other twenty-two matches there has been an aggregate attendance of 493.000. so that with the Oxford match it is safe to say that the aggregate is now over half a million. Followin'? aro_ the estimated attendances at the various matches: Devonshire . . . 16,000 Cornwall . . . 14,000 Somersetshire . . 12.000 Gloucestershire . . 20.000 Swansea . . . 30.000 Newport . . . 35,000 Leicestershire . . 30.000 North Midlands . . IS 000 Cheshire . . . 12,000 Durham . . . 12,000 Yorkshire ... 12,000 Lancashire . . . 40,000 Cumberland . . 16,000 Ireland . . . 26,000 Ulster . . . 12.000 Northumberland . . 16,000 Cambridge University . 7,000 London Counties . . 40,000 Oxford University Cardiff . . . 40,000 Wales .... 50.000 Llanelly . . . 20.000 East Midlands . . 15,000 :: Total * . 493,000

"William Howell, junior, promD-sa keep the family name on the scroll of fame as a cricketer. Playing at Richmond (Sydney) the youngster notched 11 runs, hitting three tourers and a sixer, the ball landing high up in a tree outside the ground. “Old Bill." not to he outdone, fdione as a* bowler, capturing six wickets for 32 runs m the first innings and three wickets for 42 runs in the second. Blues with Brains.- -Among tho names of Oxford athletes who have cored in the final honour of jurisprudence, is A. Shacksnovis, the Rugby due and international, who is placed in Class 11. Shacksnovis. though a Rhodes scholar from South Africa, was born in Yorkshire, while his father formerly played Rugby for the Yorkshire University, when it was known as Queen’s College. C H. Knott, the cricket captain, and J. Tv. Redder, tho hooting blue, are both in Class IV in the honours schools, while Egan, the boxer, is in Class 111. Some of the papers at Home have been very free with their talk of obstruction on the part of the All Black ream. A rather striking commentary •in this talk is contained in a photograph in tho London “Sporting and Dramatic News.’’ The photograph in question—a beautifully clear one—shows a palpable piece of obstruction shown tackled by a Leicester player, Brown, tho New Zealand centre, is shown tackled by a Leicester palyer, ■laving just passed to Nepia. The ball is in mid-air between the two New Zealand players, and Nepia has his irms outstretched to receive it. but he is being well and truly tackled by a Leicester player before the ball has reached him. Tho photograph is a splendidly clear one, and there is no possibility of mistake os to the position. There arc many things that a team souring “down under” has to oppose, besides the cricket talent- of the Commonwealth, said a London critic before- Oilligan and Co. sailed. M r Douglas, who has captained a side mt there, once said that people in England have no idea of the strain imposed by t-hs boat and the long journeys. The climate often puts the visitor off his food. yet cricketers must eat heartily if they have to spend long days in the field. Our men look like getting plenty of this sort of thing this winter. There is the moral of the side to bo kept up likewise. Another English captain stated how downcast his “boys” were when they went down in a test over there, and read about the “decadence of England.” He had to talk them round by pointing out that after all England itself had not failed, “only a cricket team” representing a very popular game in the homeland Lovers of cricket and lawn tennis are not likely to agree with the Bishop of Gibraltar in his recent description of Rugby football as “the best game the heart and mind of man has ever invented,” writes a correspondent of tho “Manchester Guardian.” As a contrast to the Bishop’s extravagant praise, they might quote tho equally extravagant dispraise of Sir Thomas Klyot. In “Tire Boke named the iovemour,” published in London in lot Sir Thomas held that, certain games ought “to be utterly abjected of all noble menne.*» One of these was “footballe. wherein is nothying but beastely fury, and extreme roilence, whereof proccdeeth hurte, and conseouentlv rancour and malice do remayne. Wherefore it is to be put in perpetual silence.” Tennis courts and clubs and players are so many in and about Sydney and Melbourne that it lias become necessary to grade them. Almost everyone who plays is registered as belonging to a class. Matches are between A players or B players or C players. The man in the top class plays chieflv with his peers. There is rejoicing shared in general by bis acquaintances when improvement in play enables a man to gain a class. He is as proud as a boy who “gets hi.s remove.” Doubtless- such organisation is tho natural sequel to the multiplication of players, and this is due chiefly to climatic reasons. You may play lawn tennis all tho year round and make a. hard court by no more laborious process than scraping the surface and putting a roller over the ground. Counsel (cross-examining a witness in a case at the Supreme Court sittings in Invercargill:; "How fast was the car going!-'" Witness: “Abo litas fast as an ordinary man can run.” Counsel: “Mow fast would that be?” Witness: “As fast as I can run.” Counsel Ci t-rifle impatiently): “How fast is that?” Witness : 44 About. a, mile in 10 seconds.” Counsel: “A mile in 10 seconds!” a mile in 10 seconds, and if you doubt me you can look up the 4 Win ton Record’ of a few years back.” The amared counsel returns to his seat, while His Honour takes up the cudgels with this self-styled wonderman. “ Don’t you mean 100 yards?” Witness (sudtinly coining down to earth amidst the titters of the court): “Yes Your Honour.”

The Englishmen will not get the Ashes unless they put more fire into their play. R. O. Blunt is in good form with the bat this season. To date in the senior competition he has made the following scores, 7, 67, 131, 44 and 101. a total of 350 runs. His aver age is thus 70. Dr Ward, a llew member of the West Christchurch senior cricket team, made useful scores in the first two matches this season, but against Sydenham last Saturday he gained a pair of spectacles Last- season the Plunket Shield was won by Wellington, whilst Canterbury, which failed to win one match, came last. Yet the season before Canterbury won the Shield, being successful in all their matches. It was a strange reverse. Another 44 reverse ” back to tli*e position of a couple of seasons ago would be very welcome to Canterbury supporters of the game. After a good deal of negotiation an agreement had been reached between the Auckland, Wellington. Canterbury and Otago C-’icket Asociations with regard to the Rlunket Shield matches this season. Under the arrangement, Auckland wiil play Canterbury in Christchurch at Christmas time, while Wellington will play Canterbury here at New Year. The Canterbury v. Otago match is to be played at Dunedin later in the season. "When Dan M’Bth did the “hat trick ” at Sydenham Park on Saturday a spectator raised the question as to whether it was still the custom to giro a new hat to a bowler who performed the feat. Another spectator venture.! the opinion that in these hard times tho price of hats was to) high and lie thought perhaps the custom had fallen into disuse. Still the • hat trick ” is such a comparatively rare feat that the bowler who i>erforms it is deserving of a new hat. even if it runs to a first class Stetson. The fourth round of the Canterbury Cricket Association’s senior competition will be commenced to-morrow. The games ore: St Albans v. Most Christchurch; Riecarton v. East Christchurch ; Lin wood v. Sydenham. West, East and Sydenham look likely winners but there have been so many surprise victories in the senior compe tition this season that he would he a bold man who would peculate on the final results. No more remarkable last-wicket stand has been made in New Zealand for many years than that of Knight j and Douglas, playing for Otago against Southland last week. Nine Dunedin men had been dismissed for 154 —33 behind the southerners’ total. Tlieu Knight and Douglas altered the state of the game and put their side 335 ahead.

Cumberland, last season’s county champions, were completely outclassed, says the “ Times ” weekly edition, the speed and handling of the New Zealanders coming as a complete revelation. not only to the Cumberland side themselves, but to the large company who watched the game. “ Like moves in a game of chess.’* That is how one man described the patient skill with which certain of tlie South Island’s leading tennis players have been manoeuvring to get the best possible in the way of partners for the New Zealand championships at Auckland. In the cricket match at Brisbane this week, we read that when the Australian eleven were batting the second time Douglas, the English captain, did not look on matters too seriously. Then he completed the farce by putting wicket-keeper Strudwick on to bowl. Surely this was scurvy treatment of the cricketing public. Furthermore, it was a, waste of time and money. Australia’s most promising colts were sent to Brisbane from ]*iaces as far away as Adelaide and Perth so that they might get a chance of impressing the test selectors, but the good derived from the fixture appears to have been small. It might well l>e cut out of future tours and the money saved devoted to buying bats for school-boys. Marathon tennis was witnessed in the Victorian championships this month. In a grim fifth set. Clomenger and Les Baker only defeated Wertheim and •Schlesinger after the games bad run to 23-21. What made the match all the more praiseworthy, was the fact that play was abandoned on every other court, owing to several heavy showers. Each player had to wear spikes. J’he balls were black and covered with mud. and the back of the court was a. quagmire. The " Daily Mail,” which picked Wales to win, puts in the boot:—They packed solidly and even the extra mau did not help Cumberland to hold them when they chose to use their weight. Nor, when they chose, did the tourists fail to secure the ball, which was generally when Porter put it in. The Colonial captain often skirts ti» 3 border line of obstruction, but ho is very clever with it and he was rot often penalised. In a tennis ladder match played during the week at Auckland, E. L. Bartleet successfully defended his position on the ladder against V. Johns. Johns played well and captured the middle set but be failed before Bart Sect’s battery of shots in the third, which the defender won. 6-1. Johns used a steel racquet and the wonderful and extraordinary shots lie at times brought off with this instrument seemed to worry Bartleet for a time. The full score was 6-3, 1-6. 6- 1 in Bartleet’s favour.