Sport and Sportsmen

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18008, 19 November 1926, Page 8

Sport and Sportsmen

NEWS, GOSSIP AND COMMENT

BY

"ONLOOKER."

Wellington’s provincial tennis ladder is likely to be:—E. D. Andrews. L. France. D. G. France, Edward Smyth. Xoel Wilson. J. O. Peacock, j. Parker. Edwin Salmond. C. Mayo, S. Wheeler. R. Perkins, Roy Donovan and Camille Malfroy. Kilby's display was one of the best witnessed in Invercargill for some time (says the “Southland Times’’ regarding a recent score, of 66 by the young Invercargill batsman). He took his time, but was death on the loose stuff. .Anything overpitched on the otf was despatched boundary wards in first--lass style Kilby favoured the cover drive and put plenty of power into his shots. At Dunedin last Saturday Blunt’s first appearance attracted a few enthusiasts who refused to be discouraged by the weather to the Xorth Ground, but at first it appeared as if he would not stay long at the wickets. lie gave a couple of chances off the first few balls he received, but when Dickinson joined him he settled down, and he showed, if nothing else, that he will not be long in getting into his stride. The conditions were most discouraging, and an impressive display could not have been expected of any batsman coming into new company as Blunt was.. Nevertheless, he sent some of Shepherds and Blamires’s deliveries away in a manner that showed he is a craftsman, and his score had reached 22 before a ball from Shepherd came off the-edge of his bat, and Duncan was given an easy catch. Dunedin is to have something unique in the way of cricket matches shortly, when local clergymen and doctors will meet in a friendly game. The ’arrangements have not yet been completed, but it is certain that there will be plenty of players to make up the teams. The clergymen’s team, which "'ill include Dr Merrington and Archdeacon Fitchett. will be fairly representative. The former played regularly in Queensland some time ago. The Rev E. O. Blamires will lend strength to the team. Bishop Richards and Dean Fitchett will be present, and they ■"'ill probably officiate as timpires. A number of doctors have already signified their willingness to play. The loam will probably include Drs Fergus, Barnett. Reid. Jenkin. Ilotop, Williams and Greenslade. Recent mention in this column of Trumper and Hill's great partnership in Xew Zealand recalls the historymaking feat of Victor Trumper and J). A. Gee (says a writer in the “Sydney Daily Telegraph ”). It was on January 31. 1903. that this pair scored •123 runs in the short space of 135 minutes for the first wicket of Paddington against Redfern, in the latter's ground, which then measured. 120 yards by 100. Of that number Gee made 172 and Trumper was not dismissed until he had scored 335 —a record which stands to-day. Paddington altogether obtained 618 runs for nine wickets (innings declared closed) in 235 minutes, as follows:—Fifty in 20 minutes (Trumper 45. Gee 5b 100 in 45 (Trumper SO, Gee 20 b 200 in 75 (Trumper 105. Gee 95), 300 in 100 (Trumper 166. Gee 125 b 352 in 120 (Trumper 200. Gee 143 b 402 in (Trumper 242, Gee 159), 423 in 135 (Trumper 242. Gee 172 b 501 in 167 (Trumperd 301), 558 in ISO (Trumper 325 b 601 in 210, 618 in 235. Trumper hit 22 fives (there were no sixes) and 39 fours. Gee 2 fives and 24 fours. From boundary strokes Trumper scored 266 runs. Don ” Blackie, the veteran bowler of the St Kilda Cricket Club. Melbourne. put up a record the other Saturday. in a match against Fitzroy. He took the whole ten Fitzroy wickets at a cost of 64 runs, and this feat constitutes a record for Melbourne pennant cricket. Blackie bowled unchanged, and at one stage had four wickets for 63 runs. In three overs, however, he broke loose, and routed the rest of the Fitzroy batsmen at the cost of one run. His figures were: 21.2 overs. 7 maidens, 64 runs. 10 wiekels. The last three Fitzroy wickets fell for 11 runs. Blackie gained four lbw ‘decisions bv cleverly disguising the straight one. Blackie, though getting on in years, is still a force to be reckoned with in Victorian cricket, and, although he bowls against the same batsmen season after season, he is never collared, and continues with his slow stuff, and the swerving right arm beguiles the batsman, lie is a master of spin, and can be ranked with A. A. Mailev and C. V. Grimmett as one of the three best slow bowlers in Australia. Hector Morrison. N.S.W. amateur champion, wrote some facetious comment in a Sydney paper when he returned from the Xew Zealand championship meeting. Among other things, he said: Miramar (X'.Z.) members don’t refer to the holes on the course by number as is done in Australia. Every hole is named. There’s Potiki. Wakainga, Kaikoura. and the rest. One of the X.S.W. visitors, who competed in the recent open championship, had just completed his first round of the course, in one of Wellington’s best winds, when a member of the club came up to him and said: “Well, and how did von get on at Toe-Toe?” The Australian did his best not to look bewildered, and murmured polite! v, “So, so.” LOVE OF SPORT. Everyone who has taken a practical interest in sport will agree with the following views ns epressed by Mr Frank Brown, sports editor of the. Melbourne “Sporting Globe”: -Though sport has been improved by modern efficiency T fell continues that a little joy has departed from it Perhaps the demand for efficiency is the cause. Still, that demand is insistent and we must listen. After all. it affects only the t.np-not.chers. The average man ran toddle along and be as inefficient. as he. likes. Provided that he enjoys himself and benefits from the exercise, who shall sa.y that he is wrong? Still, we have some national pride, and wc desire to take our proper place among the sportsmen of the world. Always there will be some voung men. who will make the effort and the sacrifice demanded of the topnotcher, but. . . . spring is here, and this is no season for moralising. Bet us get our flannels, our bathing togs, and other summer gear and start to play* There will be some who will play harder than others. A few will make their play a business, but they starfed off playing for' fun. because they loved a sport, and it is safe to say that they will continue to love it. Love of sport is sport's best safeguard.

The New South Wales cricket team to play Queensland in the first Sheffield Shield match of the season has been chosen. Incidentally, the match will mark Queensland's first appearance in Sheffield Shield cricket. The team is: A. KIPPAX (Waverlev, captain). A. RATCLIFFE (Glebe). G. MORGAN (Glebe) X PHILLIPS (Gordon!. X. < AMPRELL (Gordon). A Si'ANES (St. George'. I). SEDDOX (Petersham). A. lACKSOX ( Balmain). R. McXAMEE (Randwick). L. WALL (Paddington). G. AMOS (Marrickville). K. STEELE (Marrickville). The match against Queensland will start on November 26. and be continued on November 27, 29 and 30. “NO HAS EENS** PLEASE.” Rightly, many North Island writers are strongly urging that our young players should be given first chance in the cricket team for England. This is what the “New Zealand Times’* says: “While discussing the prospects of a New Zealand team in England, one is constantly . met with the proposition that a goodly proportion of old ’uns must be included to stiffen the team. Why this idea is so prevalent is a puzzle to one conversant with the game. There seems to be an obsession that, the age of miracles is not past, and that a team of old men will turn the trick. This nonsensical notion is held in spite of the eperienee of touring teams from Australia and South Africa having proved its futility.” lillilllllillllllillilllHlillllljlllllllllllllllill

A ‘‘Bulletin’' writer says:—That strike of ALL. League footballers reminds me of one that occurred in Maoriland itself. Two forwards from a country club were added to the strength of a touring team on the sayso of their officials. Tried in early games, they turned out duds, though big and hefty enough, and were dropped from subsequent matches, much to their disgust. Came the final foray at Invercargill. The side being by this time full of crocks, the two malcontents were selected. They refused to play, and when one of the selectors went to argue they told him off . He was a huge and aggressive person, one of the toughest forwards of his time. When he had finished, both the epnehies ’ had joined the other casualties, but not through football injuries. CYCLISTS CAUTIONED. An unpleasant occurrence during the recent race from Palmerston North to Wellington has been invetsigated by the Wellington Centre of the Xc\v Zealand Amateur Athletic Association. It appears that a motorist who had made himself a nuisance during the event, caused Carswell, the well-known Wellington rider, to get in behind his car, and thus receive shelter. The cyclist’s excuse was that he had no alternative but to receive this assistance. The centre took a serious \ icw of the matter and agreed that this kind of thing must be “nipped in the bud” immediately. Carswell is to be severely cautioned for the part he played in the affair, and a general warning is to be issued to all cyclists .warning them that such practices will not be permitted under any circumstances. £2OO PAID FOR LEAGUE PLAYER’S TRANFER IN SYDNEY. (Special to the “ Star. ”) SYDNEY, November 11. The engaging of Frank Burge, the champion Leaguee forward, by St George Club, at a fee of £2OO for the season, is the first instance known in metropolitan football of outright payment to a club representative. Among other transfers noted, the next outstanding is that of E. Lapham from South Sydney to Ipswich (Queensland). Frank Burge, the greatest forward the Rugby League has had. will play for St George next football season. ’ That much was made known at a meeting of the Rugby League last night when the Qualifications Committee received a notification that Burge had transferred his residence to Amcliffe, which is in the St George footI ball district. I Burge had a leg broken early last | season, and it was thought he would I never j»Jay again. Whether be will be ‘ able to do so is problematical, but. St I George has secured bis services, at a fee of £2OO for next season. Burge, as | a coach, would be worth the money in any case, as there is no doubt about his ability to impart his knowledge to others. That much was proved last season when the tactics he introduced enable Glebe to administer the first defeat of the season to South Sydney by 14 points to 10. The Glebe methods that day simply destroyed the South Sj r dney attacking machinery. And Burge was almost solely responsible ! When next they met—Burge was out of the Glebe team with a. broken leg—South Sydney won by 29 points to 5. The outright payment to a playing representatitve by St George, is unique in metropolitan Rugby League football, and is regarded as the first step towards the system which has been in vogue in the Northern Union of Lpgland for so many years.

The Australian Swimming Union has at length made up its mind to invite a team of Japanese swimmers this season. Takaishi, a sprinter, and Takahiro Saito, a distance performer, left Japan for the Commonwealth on November 17, and will swim in all the States. Both cleaned up the best in Hawaii recently, so their class should be quite good enough for the best we have here—unless Charlton returns to the game, which is unlikely.

It is anomalous that Australians, keenest of cricketers, have for years been content to import all the implements of the game (says a Sydney writer). Many thousands of expensive bats are sold in this country every year, yet no one here seems to have attempted to cut into the lucrative trade by starting bat-making on a. large scale, or investigating the possibilities of Australian timbers for bats or wickets. The Australian cricket ball has definitely arrived, and the recent importation of fifty “slips” of the cricket-bat willow by the Commonwealth Government—they are to be planted out at Canberra —may mark the beginning of batmaking in this country. There will be a long wait, for a tree must be twenty years old before being felled, and must be pollarded then the “billets,” split and not sawn, have to season four years more. It might be a quicker job, after all, to ferret out some Australian wood having the necessary qualities. Rugby football seems to be bred in the bone in New Zealand, says Y. S. Beaumont in the Leeds “Sports Echo.” So long ago as ISSS we saw the wonderful adaptibility of the Maori for the game, and Rugby football, which was first played in the Dominion in 1572, has always been the best loved game of our cousins in the two big islands. Everybody who can carry his football memory back a decade before the >var will recall the wonderful side led by the late David Gallaher in 1905, and Baskerville’s great part? that brought a new interest into the Northern Union game two years later. The unbeaten Rugby Union team of 1924 was admired by everyone who understood good Rugby, and now we are having visits from two more combinations from overseas, both of which will no doubt emphasise the extraordinary strength of the game in the Dominion. It does not matter to the real lover of the game that the teams come to us under different flags. Both ‘are welcome, as welcome as those remarkable Rugby Union sides of 1905 and 1924. One’s only regret is that no touring team can meet the strongest side of the Homeland. That is the penalty we pay for divided opinion. Mr Ward Price, the well-known correspondent of the “Daily Mail,” has just been to Deauville, and written an article in which he has coined an expression that has become the popular catch-word of the place, for he has written of Deauville as of a place divided into two camps—the day shift, adopted by people who love to indulge in sea and sun bathing, tennis, and other rational outdoor day sports, and the night shift, given over to those whose idea of a perfect life is one spent in jazzing or leaning over greenbaize baccarat tables. Since this has appeared, the popular form of greeting among Deauville-ites is: “JIcllo! Are you on the day or the night shift tliis week?” CANTERBURY HAS* PROFITED. Under that heading, the “New Zealand Times” says:—“Three seasons ago Canterbury adopted the policy of trying out its cojts in Plunket Shield matches. The reward of this action is a 1 read}' being reaped. To-day Canterburv boasts such brilliant voung performers as Oliver, O. G. Crawford. R. O. Talbot, M. L. Page, and Cox, all of whom have yet to reach the height of their form. “In passing iX must be remembered that last season Canterbury entered upon the Plunket Shield matches minus the services of “Billy” Patrick, Blunt, Oliver, Cunningham, Mcßeath, and Crawford, ail absent with the New Zealand team in Australia. Had Canterbury met Wellington at full strength probably a different story would have been told.” FAIR PLAY ASKED FOR IN ATHLETIC TROUBLE. MR WILTON COMPLAINS OF OVERBEARING RULING. (Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON, November IS Regarding his suspension from the Council of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, Mr F. Wilton says:—“The decision of the meeting is, in my opinion, so opposed to the accepted standards of justice and fair play that I have informed my centre that in no circumstances will I renew my connection with the council unless and until the motion of suspension is expunged from its records.” Mr Wilton points out that immediately following hig remark that the council was acting in the matter of tours by overseas athletes “like an enterprising showman,” the president ruled as follows:—“I am not going to tolerate that kind of thing. You will either withdraw your remarks, Mr Wilton, or take no further part in the meeting.” “That hasty ruling appeared to me,” says Air Wilton, “to be so extreme in comparison with mv alleged offence that I lodged a protest, which was overruled. I thereupon exercised the option which was given me, and took no further part in the meeting. I now maintain that' no amount of special pleading or raising of irrelevant issues can justify my suspension for alleged1v failing to Obey the ruling of the chair.”