Sport and Sportsmen.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18577, 27 September 1928, Page 9

Sport and Sportsmen .

Jack Crawiord, the Australian tennis player, is a victim of misfortune, says a New York message to a Melbourne paper. He lost his postponed match wiih Francis Hunter in the quarterfinals of the U.S. National Singles Championship, mostly through circumstances.

When play was resumed one set was needed to decide the result. Hunter won the set 6-4, having rolled up a lead the day before with 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Crawford, always a slow starter, was unable to raise the game to the heights that he showed in later stages, while Hunter started out furiously. Crawford was handling Hunter’s forehanders well. Then the American began sending up rising shots interlarded with chops, lobs, drives and volleys. Crawford’s errors enabled Hunter to sweep four straight games. The set required twenty minutes. Crawford scored five placements to Hunter's four, but the Australian’s errors in the last games caused his downfall. Tennis writers unanimously praise Crawford’s play, piedicting great things. Most of them declare that the crowd’s yells and the postponement of the match cost Crawford his place in the semi-final.

Advice has been received that F. Cuhel, the noted American hurdler, and Nick Carter, American middle-distance runner, have definitely accepted the invitation of the Victorian Amateur Athletic Association to tour Australia this summer. G. R. Hyde, of the Australian team at the Olympic Games, had been negotiating for the visit of an American team to Australia, and he was able to send that advice by cablegram to Melbourne before leaving England recently on the return trip to Australia. It was also stated by him that a reply was being awaited from Frank Wykoff, the American champion sprinter, and a recommendation nad been made by Hyde that H. M. Osborne, American all-round athiete and world's champion high jumper, be also invj.ed to take a place in the team. The New Zealand Amateur Athletic Council, through Mr H. Amos, manager of the New Zealand Olympic team, endeavoured to secure a visit from English and Canadian athletes, but it was not successful. Attention was then turned to the question of inviting a team from America, and the result of negotiations in this direction is being awaited. It is reported from Australia that there is a possibility of New Zealand co-operating with Victoria in bringing the four athletes to the two countries.

If plans are carried out as scheduled two world star runners, and possibly four, will be in Australia early in January (says the Melbourne “Globe”). star middle distance runner, and Cuhel, star hurdler, have accepted George Hyde’s invitation as the representative of the V.A A.A. to visit Australia, and it is quite on the cards that Wykoff, the boy speed ace, and Harold Osborne, the high jump marvel and Decathlon champion, will also accept Victoria’s invitation. Amateur athletics boomed last season, but the coming international stars would send the sport forward by leaps and bounds. » K X

A golfing vicar who was on holiday picked up a partner who, in moments of difficulty, was apt to burst into the most dreadful language. Once, after a sulphuric outburst in a bunker, he turned to his opponent and said, " You must excuse me, sir, but I’m just a plain-spoken man who always calls a spade a spade.” “I should have thought, observed the clergyman distantly, . “ that that is about the very last thing you would have called it."

An American writer has been analysing the temperamental influence of various games on their players, and proves to his own satisfaction that the victim of golf suffers the severest pangs. The agony of the cricketer is soon over, one way or another, while the footballer can find reHef in “donging” his opponent. But the golfer, isolated and unfriended, must suffer a long-drawn-out martyrdom from driveoff to the final putt, and with his every error apparent to the multitude, as well as to his own stricken conscience —if he has a conscience. . a a a Tommy Miles, the champion sprinter from Bundaberg (Q.), has shown that he has completely recovered from his leg injury by running 100 metres in 10 9-10 sec. Miles broke down badly some months ago, and it was feared that his career as a professional runner was over. His time knocked a tenth of a second off Tim Banner’s Aus tralian record; Charles Paddock holds the world’s record with 10 2-ssec. ;.j *5 jf For athletes, gymnasium work is good, but it is not so health-giving as training in the fresh air. Boxers and wrestlers recognise this. The wise ones see that they get plenty of road work, which means fresh air in the lungs and the consequent development of stamina and the impro\*ement in health. In Europe, Germany especially, the value of fresh air is fully recognised. At one time the people of these old nations trained their muscles in stuffy rooms. To-day they discard their sweaters, and practise everything in the open air, clad only in short trunks. They realise that fresh air is not Only good to inhale, but also as a bath to the naked body. t: a » Wellington is to be represented in the 100-mile amateur cycle road race being held in Canterbury on Saturday under the auspices of the Papanui Amateur Sports Club, whose representatives carried off principal honours in the Palmerston North to Wellington race last Saturday. The Wellington Amateur Athletic Club has decided to send M. Gane and D. Toomer to the Christchurch race, and the Petone Club is sending J. Morris. 96 X The N.S.W. Rugby Union is already preparing for big games next season. Some, at least, of the matches against the All Blacks will be staged on the Sydney Cricket Ground, from which the Union has been excluded by the League monopoly for years. It has been decided that, if possible, one of the three test matches will see players from Victoria, Queensland and Westralia included against the All Blacks. It is a worthy aspiration. The London “ Evening News ” states that Hammond, the test player, will marry on his return from Australia, Miss Dorothy Lister, a hunting girl and a keen sportswoman whom he met during a festival match at Scarborough in 1925. Hammond’s father, an officer in the Army, was killed shortly before the armistice. The bride’s father is a wealthy Bradford business man. It is understood that Hammond will accept an appointment in Mr Lister’s business and will revert to amateurism in 1929, in which case he is likely to become captain of Gloucestershire. There are several precedents for first-class professionals becoming amateurs. X M Humour reigned supreme at Gisborne when the annual charity Rugby match between teams representing the “Times” and* Fire Brigade (says a Northern paper). On previous occasions the public have responded to this worthy cause, but on this occasion the attendance was a record for a char-

ity mi.tch in Poverty Bay. A further attraction was the presence of Mr and Mrs Tom Heeney. Tom generously acted as referee, maintaining a firm control of the game throughout, and being compelled on several occasions to warn players for using rough tactics. Within five minutes of the start the Mayor was ordered off “through causing a disturbance on the field.” Mrs Tom Heeney was presented with a beautiful bouquet of red roses, red and pink sweet peas, and asparagus fern. t: « k The athletic organisations of Victoria, British Columbia, have launched a movement which is not likely to appeal to those who were recently engaged irt London in paving the way for InterEmpire Games. The movement has as its object a drastic alteration to the amateur definition. Supporters urge that the Canadian bodies governing amateur sport should agree to allow a professional in one branch of sport ta play as an amateur in another branch. For instance, a professional golfer would be allowed to play amateur tear nis. The movement will be pressed before the British Columbia Amateur Athletic Union and similar bodies in other provinces in an effort to secure national support for it. Those who are sponsoring this proposed change contend that the present rule, barring a professional in any sport from all amateur sport, is unfair and unnecessary.

55 J 5 A London cable message to Australian papers states that Lord Dewar presented 11. R. Pearce, winner . of the Olympic Sculls, with a silver loving cup in “the name of British sportsmen,” in recognition of his achievement. In acknowledging the gift, Pearce recalled that it was only two years since he won bis first amateur sculling contest. “Now,” he added, “I have won the world’s championship in a boat presented by Mr Peter Dewar. It is the best in which I have ever rowed, nnd I am taking it back to Australia to wrap it in cotton wool.”

k Speculation has been aroused in sporting circles by a report that the International Amateur Athletic Association has issued a ban on the practice of “doping” athletes prior to a race (says London “Sporting Life.”) A rule has been made that persons “knowingly ‘doping’ or assisting in ‘doping’ ” shall be excluded from any event run under the association’s rules. “Take it from me,” said an A.A.A. official, “there is ’.ittle or none of it in this country. In fact, I have never know: and in any case the continual use of drugs would do an athlete far more harm than good in the long run.”