Sport and Sportsmen.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18548, 23 August 1928, Page 9

Sport and Sportsmen.

It has long been a moot point among players of Australian-rules football as to whether a police constable has any right to enter upon the enclosed playing area of a club and arrest a player whose conduct has warranted arrest, in the John Hopp’s opinion (says a Sydney paper). There has never been any doubt about it where other codes are concerned, but the peculiar rules of the Australian game, which will not permit the intrusion of a medical officer, even, without the invitation of

club officials, have supported the theory. Doubts were set at rest by a decision in the Albury (N.S.W.) Police Court, the other day, when a central umpire who had sought to prevent the entry to the ground oi a policeman bent on intervening in a fight between two players during the game was fined for obstructing the police. The players were also fined on a charge laid by the officer.

The first of the reorganised Australian road cycling championships, which are to be held in the various States each year, was the fifty miles event, decided at Brisbane. The winner was the Victorian rider, C. Foster, whose time was 2 hours 18min 15sec; Queenslander W. Muir was second, and G. Gould (N.S.W.) third. Only seventy-two seconds separated the first and third men. The event was decided as an unpaced time trial, each man riding alone and against the watch. I'l 3 3 English cricket writers have been speculating on the possibility of R. H. Bettington, the old King’s School and Sydney University cricketer, who has had such a successful career with Oxford and Middlesex, playing in Australia when he settles down in Sydney. He has been bowling better than ever, and it is suggested that he may be called on for the Tests if the regulars are found wanting. Bettington is a slow bowler, and, in that particular, Australia is pretty well fixed, with Oxeoham and Grimmett, to name only two divergent but effective types. It is in the fast and medium department that the attack needs strengthening, though if Blackie keeps his form of last season, and young a’Beckett comes on as he promised to do then, there will be a first-class pair of spin bowlers to build on. For the second time this season a coursing meeting at Kensington (N.S.W.) has achieved notoriety by the massacre of the half-starved and untrained hares employed. According to the Melbourne “ Herald,” many of the hares on this occasion “were so weak that they' were incapable of reaching the escapes before they were overtaken and killed.” Another hare “collapsed” before it was seized, and yet another, before the dogs were slipped, was in such a feeble state that it was picked up by an attendant. Blumpton coursing is as much a medium of gambling as the tin hare, that and the collection of money at the gates being the reason for its existence. Do away with the betting and the “sport” would disappear, as cockfighting has done in all civilised countries, and pigeon-murdering in most (comments a Sydney writer). Coursing nowadays serves no useful purpose, as it did in the days when it was a legitimate form of the chase. The breed of dog it encourages is of no value, except for a loathsome variety of gambling.

Though English and Continental riders are taking to the new game, the Australian riders continue to dominate in the dirt-track motor-cycle races which are threatening to shake the fur out of the tin-hare industry in Britain. Among the winners of recent big events are Westralian R. Johnston and Frank Arthur, of South Australia. Arthur heads the winning list with 154 points, Queenslander Vic Huxley being second with 129; Billy Lamont, of New South Wales, is third with SO.

The sad case in which New South Wales Rugby League football finds itself this season was further emphasised in the final inter-State match of the season against Queensland at Brisbane (remarks the Sydney “Bulletin”). The home side won by 21 (5 tries, 3 goals) to 10 (2 tries, 2 goals). The Northerners were without two of their star backs, Gorman and Craig, but their superiority was obvious Colin Laws took Gorman’s place at centre three-quarter, and played the back game of the day. Other newcomers in the Queensland side were Wright, alongside Laws, and Cruden, a new wing three-quarter; Cruden was particularly effective, scoring twice The forwards overran the Welshmen in the second half, Sellars being outstanding, though the Blue forwards got most of the ball, thanks to Justice Queensland has won three of the four inter-State games played this season, and how it lost the second game in Sydney is a mystery. The Americans are an eclectic lot. It is many years since a Melbourne dentist showed university students in California the art and science of Australian football, but the seed has borne fruit in a contract which “Cargie” Greeve, the Geelong player, has signed to act as instructor to the University of California. It is felt over there that some of the finesse of the Australian game would help to debrutalise the display of crude force which passes for football in the States. Golf, like most games, lias its queer happenings. Sydney furnished one the other day, when a New Zealand player, using one of those wooden pins which are now being generally adopted for tees in place of the old “nievefu” of sand, drove off without any apparent contretemps and then played a good second on to the green. Setting down to his putt, he found that his ball had been transfixed by a tee-peg. Whether it was the one from which he drove off or one picked up on the way to the next green no one seems to know. The modern golf-ball has an outer casing almost as impervious as a steel plate. How the peg in this case penetrated it—and not through the centre, but just through a segment of the circumference—is another puzzle. The question of the penalty to be incurred or to be remitted in the circumstances is too deep for off-hand decision. A Sydney tennis writer says:—“J. Knucklebone” waxes indignant because of Tilden’s and Borotra’s reluctance to accept points due to bad decisions. What’s wrong with the principle of t.hs thing, anyway? If a man knows he’s been unfairly credited with a point, why shouldn’t he make it up to his opponent? “Mr Knucklebone's” analogies with cricket and football are quite false. When a cricketer drops a chance deliberately, or a footballer voluntarily muffs a ball, he cannot reckon the consequences of his chivalry; he might be recompensing the other side over-much or under-much. Consequently, the tradition of these games is that a mistake must be allowed to stand. But in tennis, a man can definitely offer a quid for a quo; if A loses a point because of bad umpiring, B can return him the exact quantity Knowledge of this is leading up to the establishment of a tradition in tennis: and I, for one. welcome this indication l

that men can play with the same sportsmanship at Wimbledon as they use on the back lawn.” The Canterbury Rugby League may send a junior representative thirteen to the West Coast this season. The matter will be dealt with by the finance committee of the League. The value of football in establishing a clean, sporting spirit and promoting a strong feeling of co-operation between the various members of the team, was recognised fully at the third grade match at the Borstal Institution, when the home fifteen met a team from the Southland Boys’ High School and defeated the visitors by 3 points to nil (states the “ Southland Times”). Football has come to be a vital part of the life of the inmates of the institution, and at the conclusion of afternoon tea, kindly provided by the ladies at the end of the match, the Superintendent (Mr C. G. L. Pollock) took the opportunity of thanking the vistitors for meeting the Borstal team. He went on to congratulate both teams upon their fine performances and said he was proud of the Borstal fifteen. He concluded by referring to the good work of the coach (Mr W. J. Sutton) who had brought the team to a fine degree of efficiency. What a tragedy it was when Grenside broke away on Saturday that there was no one on the New Zealand side speedy enough to race up to take the pass (says the “Dominion”). Grenside had to go on a solo run. He might have beaten Tindall, the South African fullback, but the watchful Brand came over from the opposite wing, and he and Tindall hurled the Hawke’s Bay man on to the comer flag. Commenting on the third Rugby test, a Wellington paper says: It was not a big beating, as South Africa only scored three tries to New Zealand’s two, but reading between the lines it is clear that the Springboks were our masters in all departments of the game. Their wonderful forwards even beat the New Zealand pack at their own game, winning 31 line-outs to New Zealand’s 21, and carrying 28 scrums to 17 dominated by the All Blacks. One does not want to be told any more than this. But it is now clear that the South African backs were too fast for the New Zealanders. The All Blacks in the past have possessed fliers such as G. Smith. D. M’Gregor (“The Flying Scotsman”), J. Steel, J. Parker and A. Cooke, who were as fast as any men they were likely to meet, but it is now certain that the 1928 All Blacks sadly lack men of pace.