SHORT PASSES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18785, 14 June 1929, Page 14

SHORT PASSES.

In a competition match at Timaru last Saturday, Archie Strang put the ball over the cross-bar seven times. A week earlier in a seven-a-side tourney, he kicked eleven goals out of twelve attempts. Alan Robilliard is not likely to be playing again this season, owing to a bad knee injury. Canterbury will miss him badly in representatives games. The Southland union wrote to the New Zealand Rugby Union asking for a definition of the word “hacking,” as used in the rules. It was decided to reply that “hacking” meant “indiscriminate kicking.” An Auckland critic says that J. R. Hawkes of Canterbury College, was one of the best backs on the field in the third test against Australian Universities. j: *-• Ces. Baddeley, 1921 and 1924 All Black, has been transferred from Auckland to Hamilton. He is a keen and skilful Rugby coach these days. :*: The first instance in Otago this season of a senior Rugby player being ordered off for rough play occurred in the Southern-Taieri match, when Geary, one of Taieri’s hookers, was given marching orders by the referee. Complaints are being made in North Island Rugby circles to the effect that soft jobs have recently been found for a number of prominent players, so inducing them to shift from one centre to another. 25 25 25 In order to handle the big crowds expected next year when the British team travels, the New Zealand Rugby Union is considering the purchase of a big moveable steel stand that can be taken to pieces and erected anywhere in the country. 25 25 25

Canterbury over late years has produced some really noteworthy threequarters. Witness “Jockey” Ford, Bill Elvey, and Alan Robilliard. Looking through the “comers,” one instinctively sorts out George Hart, the young Christchurch flier,

as most likely to join the ranks of |t h e champions. Hart learnt his foootball at Waitaki. and since the Christchurch Club has given him his chance in the senior team, he has caught the eyes of the Canterbury selectors more than once. Hart has astonishing pace, and each year sees him score sensational

tries. Moreover, each year, this young player puts on weight and becomes a more dangerous man on attack and a more solid one on defence. That is but natural, for he’s not much over twenty years of age. Hart has yet to pick up a few tricks of the trade, such as the in-swerve past the last line of defence, but he is learning fast, and has shown on many occasions that he has the determination and heart (no pun intended) that first-class wings are made of.

The announcement that E. D. Andrews, Zealand tennis champion, is to visit the Dominion during the coming summer should have the effect of putting our leading players on their mettle. Andrews not only defeated Hunter at Wimbledon last year, but won the singles at Newcastle, Noiwich and Scarborough. At Newcastle he defeated A. H. Lowe, 6-0, 6-3, 6-1, later he beat Nigel Sharpe m straight sets just after this player had defeated H. W. Austin. His visit should lend unusual interest to the next Dominion championships.

Hazlett, the 1928 All Black, will be available for Southland this season. It was thought at first that he would be able to play only against Otago at Invercargill, but he has now stated that he will be available to tour with the Southland^team. The Australian Rugby League team’s test matches in England will be played at Wembley on October 10, at Leeds on November 9, and at Swintori on January 4. 2*2 25 25 Of the twenty-four players announced to go to Australia this month, Canterbury has five representatives, Wairarapa four, Auckland three, North Auckland two. Hawke’s Bay two Otago two, and East Coast. Southland. Wellington, Taranaki, Bush Districts and Nelson one each. T. Roberts has left Invercargill for Dunedin on transfer. Roberts has hooked for several years for Southland, and it is said he will link up with Kaikorai (savs a Dunedin paper) 25 25 K Two ex-Wellington Rugby players in Malcolm and Clarke were seen as the respective full-backs for Kaikorai and Pirates at Dunedin on Saturday. Gregory, Austin and Collins, who represented the British Isles against South Africa, were members of the English tennis team which toured abroad last year, and it would appear that the experience which they gained is now standing them in good stead They defeated South Africa without the loss of a match, but were fully extended in almost every case. In view of the proposal that a South African team should visit the Dominion next year, the full scores in this match will be awaited with interest. All that can be said in the meantime is that the New Zealanders should hold their own. 15 25 25 A. E. Gilligan, who will captain the English cricket team to tour New Zealand next year, had only a fair average in county cricket last season—29.73 runs for 35 matches. As a bowler ne took 68 wickets for 1728 runs. 25 25 25 For the first time since 1919, when an Australian team went up against the famous A.I.F. side, a national team will be seen in action against the All Blacks on Sydney Cricket Ground on June 29. The home side will be selected from New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria by a committee of three with a chairman having a casting vote. The chairman will be T. H. Bos ward, who may be fairly credited with starting the Waratah principle that the best defence in football is attack.

The British women’s team to meet America in the Wightman Cup at New York will be minus the services of Eileen Bennett. England’s foremost tennis flapper, because her mamma is unable to chaperon her, and papa shudders at the thought of his daughter going abroad unguarded.

Bert Grenside is worth his place in the New Zealand team. Up to the present he has scored 53 points for the Hastings Club, including thirteen tries.

The first Ranfurly Shield match of the present season will be played on July 20, when Hawke's Bay will endeavour to regain the bauble from Wairarapa. Then Wairarapa will be called upon to meet Manawhenua on August 17; Canterbury on August 28; Southland on August 31; and Otago on September 4.

There will be right throughout

general satisfaction New Zealand that | Charlie Sonntag, of i the Kaikorai Club, Dunedin, has at last found a place ! in a New Zealand team. It is an honour long overdue. Though Sonntag has not formerly achieved the honour, he is a. better all-round for-

ward than many who have worn the silver fern in recent years. He is a tire-

less grafter all the time, and never lets up. He was picked for the All Black trials in 1927, but was unfortunately not available. Sonntag first represented Otago in 1915, then he took part in the big war game in Palestine and since his return he has represented the province in nearly every season since 1921.

An interesting point of golf law cropped up on a Sydney course recently. Following up his drive, a player found a brown snake cuddling the pill. Losing his self-possession he struck the snake several times with the iron he was carrying, with the result that his opponent claimed the addition of several strokes to his card. To this he demurred, but there is no doubt the claimant was well within his rights. There is the question of grounding the club to be considered also, to say nothing of whether the player should not have lifted the snake.

The first meeting between British and German teams of athletes since the war, was held at Stamford Bridge the other day. The Achilles Club, a combination of Oxford and Cambridge athletes, met a team selected from the Berliner and Deutscher Clubs and won by 61 points to 41. Australia was represented by the Queensland Rhodes Scholar Harrison, who was third in the long jump with 21ft 6rin. The surprise of the meeting was the defeat of the Olympic hurdler Lord Burghley in the 120 yards hurdles by the German Trossbach. How is it that Victoria wipes the eyes of the other Australian States in the matter of cycling, and especially of road-racing? The season for the latter is now in full swing, and every weekend sees a couple of long-distance events at least being contested on the roads around Melbourne. The amateurs and professionals are catered for alike, and it is quite common to get an entry of 100 riders or more for an event over twenty miles or so. Indeed, in one event for amateurs held at West Footscr-iy the other day, entries for the different sections of the event totalled 270. 25 25 35 Souter, the second Otago man chosen for the 1929 All Blacks, has an excellent

record in Rugby for a young player. In 1926 he was a member of the Otago junior rep. team, and the following season he was in the Alhambra first grade team. In his first year in senior football he was picked to represent the province, and was a member of the Otago team that toured the N orth

Island at the end of the 1927 season In addition to being a good hooker, Souter is a splendid forward both in scrummaging and in the loose, and another qualification is that he is a firstclass place kick. 25 25 25 An impression formed after witnessing the game on the oval last Saturday : " Bill ” Dailey, a triton amongst minnows. 25 35 35 A football writer in the Sydney “ Bulletin ” says:—“No one has ever accused the New South Wales Rugby League of being a shrinking violet, but its latest exhibition of ‘ nerve ’ takes the cake. This consists of an impassioned appeal in the League Press for the immediate dissolution of the Sydney Cr'cket Ground Trust—the execution of the members is not actually insisted on, though this may be inferred from the tone of the article. It appears that the Trust earned the opprobrium of all right-minded persons when it shooed the League off the ground and leased it to the amateur Rugby Union, ’nd it is pointed out with tears that the change has resulted in a considerable loss of money to the Trust. Some might say that to be rid of the League was a matter worth paying for. The Trust certainly does need revision. It should be made impossible for the trustees to ever again lease an area granted for purposes of amateur sport to a blatant professional organisation.”

Bert Geddes, the sole Southlander selected for the New Zealand Rugby | team to tour Australia, is well known in the south both as a footballer and an athlete. Y oung Geddes, who is the son of the All Black Rug by selector, Mr A. J. Geddes, is a chip of the old block, and is one of the finest all-round sports in Southland. He is a product of the Southland Boys’ High School, being a member of the school fifteen about six years ago. After leaving school he linked up with the Pirates Club, and has represented Southland for two seasons. He is a fast and determined wing three-quarter who is likely to do very well in the New Zealand team, being as keen as they are made. He was third in the last New Zealand 100yds championship, and is the holder of the Otago' 100yds and 220yds championships. He has also held the 440yds title, in addition to being a champion sprinter. Geddes was a good cricketer at school, and played senior cricket for Appleby in Invercargill. As a sprinter Geddes has shown | wonderful form on occasions, he has rarely shown his best at the New i Zealand championship meetings.

Britain’s Great “ Comeback.” NEW YORK, April 28. The British victory in the Ryder Cup is causing a renewal of deep interest in Great Britain's Remarkable return to pre-eminence in the sporting world during the past nine months, ousting the United States from the premier position. Attention to Great Britain’s sports revival was first attracted last summer when, during the Olympic Games at Amsterdam, the British defeated the Americans in the so-called “aristocratic” speed events. Major Segrave then took the world’s motor-car speed record from America, and now American golfers are compelled to bow to British superority. These three British successes, which were gained on neutral soil, American soil and British soil respectively, are regarded as an extraordinary series of ! triumphs, especially coming so soon after the great war, in which many British athletes were killed and wound ed. There is much disappointment at the failure of the American golfers, who started for the British tour full of confidence. Nevertheless, many Americans see a wholesome lesson in the way the British are excelling the Americans in sports, expecting that it will have a moderating influence on “hundred per cent Americanism,” which has shown a tendency to regard the rest of the world as inferior and deteriorating in masculine attainments.

What About Merritt? P.K. writes: “The more I see of Merritt, Old Boys’ wing three-quarter, the more I am puzzled. At tunes he does really splendid work, and then again he seems to suffer from an attack of inertia that is most provoking. I am disposed to think that if he could sustain his interest and maintain his enterprise for the full period of a match he would be the most useful local wing three-quarter available, for, in addition to being the best opportunist scoring three-quarter he is a splendid place kick when he pleases to concentrate on that particular line. In his placekicking, as in his play, he conveys the impression of being much too casual. Possibly that is due to his youth, and the consequent inability to realise responsibilities. I am inclined to think that Merritt’s undoubted abilities would be stimulated were he playing for some other team than Old Boys, in which he knows that as often as not any mistakes by him will be covered up, for there is no team in the senior competition more capable in this respect. I regard Merritt as having great possibilities, and were he to take the game more seriously, and come to a full realisation of his duties and responsibilities, he might achieve in football the high honours he has reached in cricket, and share with his club-mate, M. L. Page, the distinction of dual national representation.”