CANTERBURY TEAM FOR N.Z. EVENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18189, 23 June 1927, Page 9

CANTERBURY TEAM FOR N.Z. EVENT.

CROSS-COUNTRY RUN AT CASHMERE HILLS. The following team has been selected to represent Canterbury in the New Zealand Cross-country Championship, to be held at Cashmere on Saturday week: M’Kee, Hillary, Austin, Kane, E. B. Taylor, Simpson. Emergency: R. O. Page. (Contributed.) Last Saturday’s race for the Canterbury Cross-country Championship was the most successful in the history of the race. The rain which had fallen previously had left the course very heavy, but no rain fell during the race. The greatest surprise was the failure of E. B. E. Taylor and D. Bain to get round the course. Taylor had leg trouble, and he will not start in the New Zealand Championship next week without his doctor’s permission. Bain is evidently stale, and, in view of the hard season he had on the track, will need to have a good spell if he hopes to do any good next summer.

J. M’Kee, the winner, ran a fine race, and thoroughly deserved his win, which w r as very popular with the runners. Last season was M’Kee’s first year with Christchurch Harriers’ Club, as he had done all his previous running in Wellington, where he was a good performer across country, and on the track. Last winter he ran second to Taylor in the Canterbury championship, and in the summer he won a race or two and was placed on other occasions. On Saturday M’Kee ran the last half of the race alone, and it is expected that he will improve on his time of 40min 52sec next week, when he will be opposed by much hotter opposition for the New Zealand Championship. R. J. Hillary, who was second, was the winner of the junior championship. Being only eighteen years of age, he should improve a great deal by next season if he does not overdo it. Hillary ran in rubber shoes, but next week he will wear spikes, and he will find them a great help, particularly on the hills. He will also find last Saturday’s experience an asset for future events. A. D. Kane, who was second in the junior event and fourth *in the senior, is an ex-Dunedin harrier who has been running very consistently in Christchurch this season. Kane, like Hillary, should improve a lot by next year. R. O. Page, fifth on Saturday, has been coaching the local runners for the New Zealand Champion .hip next week, and his work has brought about splendid results. Page was the veteran of the field, and he did well to finish so close up. F. F. Simpson, who was sixth last week, is a son of the great distance runner, the late W. F. Simpson, who won so many fine races before the war. Simpson lives in Waimate, where there

is no harrier club, and he had very little training for Saturday’s race. The race should do him a lot of good, and if he comes up for the New Zealand Championship next week his time will show an improvement on last week’s effort, which was a very good one under the circumstances. C. G. Mahan, who was seventh, will start in the New Zealand Championship as an individual, and he may do better than on Saturday,