SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18406, 7 March 1928, Page 9

SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

A Wellington Press Association message says that R. A. Rose notified the selectors that he did not desire to be considered for selection in the Olympic team. After strenuous racing for eight years, he is taking a spell until next season. He has not, however, the slightest intention of retiring. G. Ollivier, who has created a record by winning the singles championship of New Zealand seven times, was congratulated by the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association Committee at its meeting last night. The nearest approach to Ollivier’s record is that of H. A. Parker, who won six times. During the progress of the Canter-bury-Australia match, some wag suggested that he would like to see Warwick Armstrong and Schneider batting together. So far, C. V. Grimmett has proved the most successful bowler for the Australian cricket team. His thirteen wickets in the Canterbury game brought his total for the tour to 36, at a cost of 532 runs, an average of 14.77. The next biggest bag of wickets is that of Blackie, who has taken fourteen. Morton and Oxenham have taken eleven each. With the exception of their score of 375 against Wellington, the Australian cricketers have made over 400 in the first innings of every match they have played to date on the tour. Their highest score was 507 for nine wickets against Southland. Canterbury’s score of 305 is the highest that has been made against the visitors so far. Only two centuries were scored for the Canterbury representative eleven this season. J. Newman made 112 not out against Otago, and R. Read 105 against Waikato. Both have been added to the honours board in the pavilion at Lancaster Park^ In England, despite the thousands who flock to international Rugby and Soccer matches, despite the enthusiasm and publicity concerning cricket test matches between England and Australia, despite the glamour of Wimbledon, there is only one rival to the Derby as the Motherland’s greatest sporting event. That one rival is the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, on the Thames, over four and a quarter miles of the historic Putney to Mortlake course. Fully half a million spectators annually witness the contest. In connection with the raising of funds for sending a New Zealand team to Olympia, Mr H. S. Alpe intends to walk from Palmerston North to Wellington on March 17, collecting at all tow-ns en route. On the Friday there will be a street day in Palmerston. Mr Alpe will set out very early the following morning, and expects to reach Wellington some time in the evening at the Basin Reserve, where a sports meeting will be in progress. Mr Alpe will be accompanied by motor-cars to do the collecting. It is an ambitious project, as the world's record time for such a distance is in the vicinity of eighteen hours. He is New Zealand’s veteran long-distance walker, having covered 2755 miles in aid of various charities and sports funds, and having collected nearly £4OOO. x x Members of the Australian and New Zealand team of cyclists were due to leave Melbourne by the Otranto this week to take part in the world’s greatest cycle race—the Tour de France. Definite cable advice was received from paris recently that Oppemian, Watson, Bainbridge and Osborn will be attached to the “Ravat” team, organised by one of the most important cycle manufacturers in Paris. At the universities, though a "Blue” in any sport brings fame to an undergraduate, rowing hold a position of importance peculiarly its own—ahead even of Rugby, cricket and athletics. In America, too, at the universities and in the navy, rowing as a sport holds a very high position, and on the Continent it had a firm hold long before most of what we are pleased to term British sports were extensively practised.