Sport and Sportsmen.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18576, 26 September 1928, Page 9

Sport and Sportsmen.

“Yes,” said a club bridge-fiend thoughtfully, “I’ve always admired a good loser, especially at the moment when he’s squaring up.” 24 K By defeating Vincent Richards in four sets this week, Karel Kozeluh, professional tennis champion of Europe, gave America a taste of his quality ; the victory lent emphasis to the claim that he could beat most of the world’s leading amateurs. Vincent Richards was a famous American amateur, and became a professional soon after Suzanne Lenglen. In partnership with F. T. Hunter, he, in 1924, won the men’s doubles championship at Wimbledon. Kozeluh is a Czecho-Slo-vakian, and trained this year’s British Wightman and Davis Cup teams. x J. G. Hatfield, who had already won the event on five occasions, again secured the English long-distance swimming championship, decided over the course of 5 miles 60 yards from Kew to Putney, in the River Thames, on Saturday, August 25. He covered the distance in lhr 4min 44sec, which is only 1 3-ssec outside his personal record of lhr 4min 42 2-ssec, made when he won his second victory in 1914. The record for the event, however, is lhr 3min 12 2-ssec, standing to the credit of T. S. Battersby (Wigan S.C.) in 1910. Thirty-four of the thirty-five entrants started. Hatfield was challenged by E. W. Pascoe, last year’s winner, for the first half mile, but then he took the lead and kept it. K « K. The inevitable Englishman and Scotsman were playing a ding-dong golf match in which quarter was neither given nor expected. Going to one hole the Scottie lost his ball in the rough and after a five-minute search his opponent claimed the hole and the game went on. A few holes later the Southron lost his ball and the Scot im mediately stood still, pulled out his watch and counted the minutes. At the end of the specified period he said, “Time’s up. My hole.” Then, lifting his foot:—“And here’s you ba’, mister.” « 24 « Play in the New Zealand ladies’ golf championship will begin at Middlemore, Auckland, to-morrow, and good entries, including 49 for the championship, have been received. Over 20 clubs in various parts of the Dominion will be represented. Although Mrs H. Collinson, of Palmerston North, last year’s championship winner, will not be able to compete owing to sickness, the entrants include such well-known players as Miss Olive Kay, Miss M. Paton, Miss R. Gambrill, Miss D. Chrystall, Mrs Dufaur and Mrs Guy Williams. The programme for the meeting is as follows: Thursday, September 27—North Island v. South Island match. Friday—First round for New Zeaand championship, followed by Coronation medal competition. Saturday—Second round for championship, followed by bogey handicap Monday—Third round for championhip, followed by competition for L.G.U. Challenge Bowl. Tuesday—Fourth round for championship, followed by competition for Donnelly Cup, and teams match. Wednesday—Semi-finals for championship, followed by second bogey handicap. Thursday, October 4—Final for the championship over 36 holes, and medal foursomes match. r-2 « 24 Auckland Rugby enthusiasts got a surprise on Saturday when the Taranaki fifteen put the home side under by 6 points to 3. For Taranaki Ike kicked a penalty and Robinson scored a try. Finlayson got across for Auckland. Sweeping rushes by the visiting forwards were a feature of the game. a N. Bellringer, who won the big cycle race on Saturday from Hamilton to Auckland, is a nephew of Mr C. E. Bellringer, M.P. for Taranaki. After the race the victor said:—“l never wasted a second the whole way, and I never thought that I had a chance at any stage, but I’ve won. I have ridden 12 firsts, but I have never yet won such an important race as this. Last Saturday Yardley beat me by a minute in the 30-mile championship.” In this race Yardley (also of New Plymouth) was second. n x m The tennis court is almost as rich a field for the faux pas as is the ballroom, and there are many amusing stories of “slips” or “breaks” on the courts. An Australian, living in the Argentine, was an enthusiastic player, and disliked mixed doubles as firmly as any woman-hater could. With a friend one day he was about to begin a singles game on a public court, when two very large and very unattractive enoritas entered the court, obviously desiring to play a mixed. The Australian said in English to his friend at the other end of the court, “Oh, h——-1 Must we play with these?" The reply came from one of the girls in excellent English, “I always thought an Englishman was a gentleman.” The second faux pas was made on a court adjoining the grounds of a Deaf and Dumb Institute. One player made an excellent mis-hit over the fence in the direction of a group of bamboos. He limbed the fence and began looking for the ball, without success. He then saw two men working in the grounds, and he approached the nearer. With his tennis racquet and a rolledup handkerchief he went through the pantomime of striking a ball and watching its flight over the fence towards the bamboos. Then in the style f Hollywood stars, he registered .peechless but intense inquiry, indicating that he wished to know if the man knew where the ball had landed. A stare of blank bewilderment was his reply. Next the tennis player painfully spelt out on his fingers in deaf and uumb language “H-a-v-e y-o-u s-e-e-n a b-a-1-1?” But that was as far as he went, for the deaf mute in front of him suddenly turned away and shouted to the second deaf mute, “Hey, Alf, you can do these sign things: tell this simp we threw the ball back.” 24 24 D. J. Hill-Wood, the left-hand bowler who has been awarded his Blue at Oxford, played twice against the New Zealand cricketers. He is the son of Sir Samuel Hill-Wood, the Arsenal Soccer club director, who has been in charge since the resignation of Sir Henry Norris. Young Hill-Wood is a keen supporter of the Arsenal, not only being a regular visitor to Highbury, but he often accompanies his father in trips away from home. a a a A. W. Carr is surely an unlucky captain (says an English cricket writer). It may be remembered how he put the Australians in at Leeds and how the move let him down rather badly. Worse happened from his decision in the match with Surrey, when he declined to make the southern county follow on. It is easy to be wise after the event, and he has, of course, been roundly blamed, but no doubt he thought that his bowlers were tired and he could not reckon on the utter collapse of his batsmen. Carr may, with Lord Hawke, say, “Never again 1” The old Yorkshire captain made it a deft-

nite rule always to bat on winning the toss, no matter what the state of the pitch. » What’s wrong with British amateur golf? asks a London critic. The diplay at Prestwick in the championship was the poorest I have seen in the event for twenty years. Most of the competitors seemed frightened of the game. They crept round the course at a pace that would have shamed an old man, and they fiddled and fussed about on the greens as if putting were a torture. “ They are just like a lot of Saturday afternoon golfers," exclaimed one looker-on. The trouble all round was timidity, or, if you like, fear that the shots would go wrong. On such form we have not a hundred to one chance of beating the Americans in the contest for the Walker Cup. Phil Perkins, the new champion, was a shining exception in the midst of all the mediocrity, and it was no wonder that he won. As a matter of fact, he was picked out as the probable winner at the end of the first 'round.