Sport And Sportsmen

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 9

Sport And Sportsmen

The one man in the New Zealand team who has no rival for his place is K. C. James, the brilliant Wellington wicketkeeper. Rowntree is ’keeping well, but age seems to have put him out of the running as far as test teams are concerned. Burns is about the next best stumper in the Dominion, but even his stoutest admirer could not call him a batsmen of class. Against the M.C.C.,

James caught one and stumped one, the number of byes in the two innings being only 5. He also made a very useful 22 in Wellington’s first knock and 13 in the second. In the Canterbury second innings he caught two men, and the byes amounted to 8 and 24, though James was not responsible for most of them.

He also hit up a bright 39. James is always a power to be reckoned with in the batting, as Canterbury people found last season when James and Lowry each made centuries. He goes about his work quietly, and without flourish, but he has been compared advantageously with the world’s best behind the stumps. James is young, and should play for New Zealand for a long time to come. 55 55 X The British rowing world has been stirred to its depths at the news that the Oxford and Cambridge boat race has been postponed to April 12, or nearly a month after the close of the Lent term at Oxford. This means that the Dark Blue crew will have to stay up for a fortnight before shifting to London for the final preparation on the Thames. Oxford has mighty hopes of breaking the Light Blues' long run of success since the war. The two crews boated in the recent trials contain a fair sprinkling of Antipodeans, including Dutton, from Adelaide; Ingles, of Tasmania, who was No. 8 in last year's crew; and Platts Mills, from New Zealand. As a golfer Bronson has always been noted for a tendency to give undue vent to his emotions under stress, says an Australian humorist. He was all square in the monthly medal competition at the Gumnut Club recently, and played a beautiful wood off the tee for the 18th, while his opponent landed in the rough. However, when Bronson followed up his drive he found his ball fomi two feet down a newly-made rabbit burrow. As he stood regarding it speechlessly, his caddie took a risk. “ Try yer niblick, Mister? " he piped. “Niblick! ” cried the maddened Bronson, hurling his driver into space. “Niblick! No, blast you! Give me a ferret! ” 35. A new Australian speed-boat record went up on Botany Bay the other day, when J. P. McNamara’s Eagle got over a measured mile in 58 l-ssecs., 62.07 m.p.h. The same craft won two races in the afternoon, averaging 48.05 m.p.h. over a 10-mile course, and 53 m.pJi. over 6 miles in a handicap event won off scratch by lOsec. ” I met the New Zealand tennis champion, E. D. Andrews, recently, and he had just enjoyed his first singles combat with Tilden,” writes a London correspondent. "He admitted being nervous in the first set, which went 6-2 against him, but he took the next to 8-6, and won the third. He is the only person, outside of Lacoste and Borotra, to have taken a set from Tilden. E. D. Andrews is now ‘ :omething in the city,’ as recently he joined a firm of accountants. The day he came up from Cambridge, he bad everything except what he stood up in stolen by motor bandits, including all his trophies. He has just added his name to five world champions on the South of England cup.’* :: x x There was rather an unusual occurrence in the Hawke Cup match between Taranaki and Manawatu. M’Vicar sent down a ball which grazed the bails, and removed jome varnish from one. The bails, however, were not dislodged. During the same game, when Taranaki were batting, the batsman at the bowler’s end was backing up. A smart throw in would have had him run out had the fieldsman's aim been accurate. So astray was it that the ball struck the umpire, to the amusement of the spectators. :: With the need for bowlers in the New Zealand team, the performance of J. Kane, of Timaru, medium-pace righthander, ipust have caused the selectors to think. Against the M.C.C. he took five wickets for 77 runs in 27 overs, five of which were maidens, incidentally getting five of the first six wickets to fall. A cricket enthusiast who saw him play against the Englishmen said that he was first-class, and should be seriously considered by the New Zealand selectors. He got absolutely no assistance from the field, though M’Beath also suffered in this respect. Kane is one of those natural bowlers who never tire, and if he could have had a chance of playing in Christchurch, or one of the other centres, he would have been more than a possibility for the test team.