SPORT AND SPORTSMEN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18451, 30 April 1928, Page 9

SPORT AND SPORTSMEN

The coaching of the Poneke Rugby team (Wellington) this year is in the hands of Mr A. J. Griffiths, with Mr W. J. Wallace assisting in getting the backs into shape.

“ He rows like the champions whose form he watched while a coxswain.”

said the president of the Union Rowing Club (Mr D. in referring to George Toner, aged sixteen, at the club's smoke concert on Saturday night. " George was a* coxswain until recently, and last season he rowed with success in the President’s Cup, J.0U13son four and Watson Cup events. While coxswain he

watched the form of the men. and now he has a goo 1 style.” George Toner has three brothers who are coxswains for the Union club. The four brothers will be. great!y niisted from the club when the Toner family leaves for Australia next June.

j.j ;.j " It is a great pity that the New Zealand eight-oar crew were not able to get to the Olympic Games.” said Mr J. Stinear at the Union Rowing Club’s annual smoke concert on Saturday night. “ Canterbury was well represented in the eight.” “ Rowing is the king of sports. It is a manly, sport. You must get into training for it, and then it is a pleasure,” said Mr F. D. Kesteven. president of the Canterbury Rowing Association, at the Union club's smoke concert on Saturday night. A. Petty, the Taranaki footballer, was injured recently in a match at a Territorial camp, and he now proposes to retire from the game. Mr J. W. Ndrrie is again chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union. and Hawke's Bay have confirmed June 4 as the date for their annual match, which will be played at Napier. The return match will be plaved in the Wairarapa on a date in July. x as « J. B. Egan, the.baby member of the Waratahs, will not be piaying vhis season. He has decided to submit to an operation with a view to having the torn fibres of his leg muscle sewn together. A Dunedin Press Association message says:—Leckie, who beat Gillespie on Saturday, broke his nose on Friday night when sparring. Saturday night's gate was £6OO. It is not often that a Crown Prosecutor engages in such a *;trenuous sport as football. The recently appointed Crown Prosecutor, Vernon H. Treatt, who played Rugby Union football for Oxford. England, afid later for Manly, considers himself young and vigorous enough to take the field (states a Sydney paper). *He will be a partner with his Oxford confrere. A. C. Wallace, in the Glebe-Balmain threequarter line. X S M New Zealand Rugby players in England arranged two matches in Cornwall during the Easter week-end. They were to plaj r at Redruth and at Camborne. The team was known as C. R. M’Cullough's New Zealand XV., and played under the captaincy of that popular Middlesex and London-Scottish forward. The following accepted the invitation to go on the tour:—C. R M’Cullough (captain), G. V. Gerard (who is playing for Blackheath), H. N. Knox, J. N. Peart, H. S. H. Gilmer (St George’s Hospital), K. With, J. R. Page, F. L. Davis, K. R. J. Saxon (so promnent in Cambridge). W. G. Kaiaugher (Cambridge), R. C. Richmond, Dr J. G. Skeet, O. G. Moore, N. M. Sproat. The golf match between Compston and Hagen, which was won by Compston, was for £SOO aside. Compston and Hagen are the professional champions of their respective countries, so that their meeting was a test of the golf of the two countries. When Hagen was last in England, two years ago. he made a bitter attack on the British professionals, declaring that their golf was so poor that it was no longer worth while to come across and meet them in open competition. The British championship, in fact, had lost its value. His criticism caused resentment, but, despite his ruthlessness as an opponent, Hagen is very popular. and he was forgiven for his outburst. In a message to the New Zealand Union, notifying that he would be unable to attend the farewell dinner to the New Zealand team. Mr A. J. Geddes (of Southland), who is one of the Dominion selectors, stated that he felt, confident that the team could equal the 1924 team's record. A message from Mr W. A. Guy (Taranaki), also a selector, stated: "I feel certain that when the team returns New Zealand will still be champions ot the world.”