SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18890, 15 October 1929, Page 9

SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

“A very good sporting bird, difficult to shoot,” was the description given by Mr C. M. Gordon, secretary of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, to the Asiatic quail which has recently been liberated in small numbers in the Lower Waikato. They fly a somewhat zig-zag course, not unlike the snipe of Great Britain, which is generally recognised as the most difficult of all to hit. According to advice from Toronto, the rapid development of air navigation in Canada during the past few years promises to culminate in an aviation event in this country which, it is expected, will rival in importance the race for the Schneider Cup, now the international classic of Europe. In view of the fact, as a result of the training received in the war, Canada has a considerable body of expert air navigators, and with the inevitable tendency towards international air meets, one company contemplates a contribution of 50,000 dollars for the purpose of promoting an international race to be called “The Imperial Air Derby.” This race will begin at some prominent flying centre in the United States, and end at a Canadian field, on some date next year to be announced later. St St St J. Jacobs, former Canterbury representative batsman, is the only player of note who will be new to Dunedin cricket this season. lie will play for the Carisbrook . Club, as will Hawkesworth, a wicketkeeper, who will replace the Wellingtonian Clark, the last-mentioned having left Dunedin. The senior elevens of the other clubs will be # ; very little different i from what they i were last summer. Eric Brown, a J. Jacobs. promising batsman who played for Grange a couple of years ago and then went north, is back again and has joined up with Dunedin. There. is some talk of Carisbrook’s nominating a second first-grade team to fill the vacancy in that grade. For years the club ran two first-grade elevens, both of which invariably did well. A Soccer team from Worcester (United States) crossed the Atlantic last month to play a match against Worcester (England) in one of a series of contests designed to develop the fellowship movement between the two places. Appropriately enough, the match, which aroused great interest in England, resulted in a draw—six goals each. is :: st G. M. Butler, the well-known runner, and H. P. Jacob, the Rugby international, were both married in England last month, Butler to Miss Edith Dalzel Sherer, elder daughter of Colonel and Mrs John Sherer, of Bath, and Jacob to Miss Eileen Katherine Nolan, second daughter of Mr and Mrs Patrick Nolan, of Seabrook Hythe. Writing to the London “ Daily Mail ” last month, the Rt Rev J. E. C. Welldon, Dean" of Durham, said:—“Within a week the new football season will have begun. In view of it the following extracts from an article in the * Sunday . Dispatch * may be thought to possess a rather ominous significance:— Teams have been engaged regardless of expense. The cost of eleven players to a club may be anything up to £50,000. The struggle for existence in Soccer has now a gold basis. There is a want of honour in football—too much elasticity on the honour which clubs are pleased to observe, particularly when it comes to the buying and selling of players’ services. This is the frank opinion of a frontrank club manager: “What is to be the end of it all? Discerning people fear that it will cause Soccer to drift into a similar position to that of professional baseball in American sport. If so, it is doomed except as a commercial undertaking and a spectacle.” Where, then, will be the spirit of true sport? Appreciation of the enlargement to the Hagley cricket ground was freely expressed by players on Saturday. The general opinion was that there was now a much better background, and. strangely enough, many players said that the light was better. “This seems to refute the suggestion that we have no hard-hitting cricketers,” said Councillor Thacker at the meeting of the City Council last night. He was referring to a report from the Reserves Committee. The report stated that the committee had received a complaint from the owner of a property adjoining Richmond Park witb regard to cricket balls being hit ever the fence on to his property. The complainant 6tated that on a recent Saturday afternoon four balls were hit on to his property, on one occasion narrowly missing his wife. With a view to preventing a recurrence of this trouble, the committee has arranged for a twelve-foot post and wire-netting fence to be erected between this property and the park, and has asked the Cricket Club if it is prepared to bear half the cost.