SHORT PASSES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18995, 14 February 1930, Page 4

SHORT PASSES.

During a discussion among boxing men it was half-seriously suggested that a certain pugilist present might be matched against Carnera. “With pleasure,” said the boxer instantly, adding thoughtfully, “if you let me lean out of a second-storey window.” If Miss Neroli Smithson uhad a stronger physique there is little doubt that she would claim a much higher place in the Canterbury tennis world than she does to-day (writes a tenths correspondent). While playing she is a bundle of energy, and is never worried to any extent. * She can, at times, produce drives which are as good as, if not better than, those of any other woman in Canterbury, and often finishes up a driving rally with a speedy stroke that leaves her opponent standing. She is venturesome and is not afraid to make excursions to the net. & :s Peak form has been reached by many of the senior club sides in the Wellington Cricket Association’s competitions, telegraphs the Wellington correspondent of the “Star.” On Saturday Kilbirnie had a, day out at the expense of Hutt bowlers and compiled 460 runs for the loss of six wickets. Wellington were all out for 389 against Old Boys and Institute, without Dempster, put on 243. Petone was the only team to fail, but the valley wicket is rather inconsistent and this may have made a difference. As the competition draws to a close some great scores should be compiled as all the season the batsmen have shown a general mastery over the bowling.

Fritz Holland, a popular figure in boxing circles in Christchurch for several years, is now living in Gisborne. He was some time ago one of the best boxers in the world, and proved himself a very efficient instructor. Mrs Holland, who will soon be leaving to join him, will be a distinct loss in Canterbury tennis circles. She has played competition games for Sumner in the junior A competition, and for Shirley in the women’s mid-week senior competition. 5;

A. M. Hollings broke the season’s scoring record in Wellington on Saturday when he put on a brilliant 213 for Wellington against Old Boys. The fact that Hollings scored two-thirds of his side’s total was no reflection on the remaining members of the side. The Wellington representative took a big share of the bowling and played aggressively throughout. Three years ago Hollings appeared to be playing for a certain place in the New Zealand team for England. However, he failed when the real test came and was left behind. To-day he appears to have regained that old form and he will no doubt be a serious contender for a place in the next touring team- Hollings played brilliant strokes all round the wicket, a hook shot to leg from just outside the off stump being his most prolific run getter. He should be prominent in the Wellington-Auckland game on his present form. {.♦ j.* j; The New South Wales professional cycling authorities refuse to recognise Opperman’s * record-breaking ride from Sydney to Melbourne, on the ground that Opperman did not ride from post office to post office, but started at one city bicycle shop and finished at another. The distance cut was less than a mile, and since Opperman broke the record by eight hours the objection is farcical. The Victorian Cycling League has endorsed the performance as a record, and is referring the matter to the Federal control. x ::

R. M. Crook, a young Kilbirnie player, showed fine form in Wellington on Saturday when he compiled 120 runs in faultless fashion. Crook, who played for Institute last season, has always been regarded as a good batsman and his knock against the fairly strong Hutt bowling was creditable. He was one of the opening batsmen and he stayed at the wickets till after five o’clock. Crook is also a fine type of bowler, and with a little finesse in his deliveries will soon take a place among Wellington’s best all-rounders. Crook t scored freely off M’Girr who is in good nick as a bowler at present. Oxford, which has been having a bad time in sport at the hands and feet of Cambridge for some years past, broke the ice recently with a 9-0 win in the Rugby match at Twickenham. There were no fewer than six South Africans in the winning team, besides two Scots, a Welshman and a Maorilander. This was W. E. Henley, an Otago youngster. Cambridge fielded a dozen Englishmen, two Welshmen and a Scot. The Cantabs are disrespectfully referring to the Dark Blue side as an “all-Empire” team. *.♦ Wally Christopherson, who managed the Wellingtn Plunket Shield team in the match with Otago, played a solid and aggressive knock for a neat' century for Kilbirnie against Hutt in Wellington last week. The Kilbirnie skipper has always been one of the most consistent batsmen in Wellington for years but has not been lucky enough to qualify for the real big cricket. Last season he was second to Dempster in the aggregate with a score which would have created a record in ordinary events. He has not been so prolific this year but has always batted consistently.

When a boxer in a professional fight has the honours of the day almost in his grasp and is then disqualified for some indiscretion perpetuated in the heat of the moment the average crowd goes “ berserk,” and one reads in the papers next evening that “ pandemonium reigned ” and that there was “ prolonged hooting.’* Such a scene was enacted in Hastings recently, when Olympian Ted Morgan was disqualified for hitting an obviously all-but-finished Artie Hay when the latter was rising from a count of nine. For a time it seemed that the crowd would wreck the place, and even those in the ring and round it all seemed to have one idea — to find someone or something to tear up. However, Pat Connors, manager of the beaten boxer, made a fine amende at a social evening later in the night. Quite frankly he declared that, for the first time in quarter of a century’s connection with the ring, he had lost his head. He regretted it, he said, for on cooler reflection he recognised that there was nothing at which to cavil in the decision of the referee. Connors put the ring of sincerity in his words by specially asking that, when the return fight was staged, the same gentleman should be the referee. The veteran trainer won a high place in the esteem of Hawke’s Bay sportsmen for his sporting speech. It is rarely that such a declaration comes from the manager of a disqualified fighter. Quite often what some of those in the camp of the “outed” man say would never pass the sub-editor’s famous blue pencil.

The big Australian tennis carnival in Melbourne brought to light a most promising youngster in- Miss H. Hood, a nineteen-year-older from Queensland. Quick on her feet as a cat, with great stamina and hittinj§ powers, her game is full of dash and abandon, yet well controlled. All the tennis heads were unanimous that the Bananalander was the find of the meeting, and one likely to follow in the footsteps of the Lenglen and Helen Wills if the gods are only a little bit kind. The latest averages from Australia show that the team for England has some excellent batting ability, but also is likely to have a tail. The features of the averages are the phenomenal performances of Bradman and the high position on the list of M’Cabe, quite a newcomer to big cricket. The batting averages of the players in first-class cricket are as follows:

It is recorded that two puglists, who were old enemies of the ring, met in a hostelry at holiday time. Said one with the old-fashioned courtesy of his kind, “ I wishes you the compliments of the season, laddie.” And the other responded with a careful look at the other’s “ cauliflower,” “ And a happy new ear to you. mate.” Alan Telfer, the Wellington hundred yards crack, is reaching brilliant heights in handicap racing. Lately he has been running from about the five yard mark and has been walking away from his opponents. His test wall come now when he will be very close to Jenkins and Fleming. Telfer will keep the field busy for most of the distance at the Wellington provincial championships to-morrow week.

Baiting The Champion. “K.M.” writes:—Certain recent criticism.' of Dr Peltzer was to my mind in the worst conceivable taste. For some years the baiting of champions has been a popular but unpleasant sport in Australia and in parts of New Zealand, the barbed shafts coming sometimes from the bucolic wits on the bank and sometimes from the pens of particularly brainy (they say so) but anonymous newspaper critics. Few of these" people know anything at all of the difficulties that beset and surround a champion. But that ignorance does not deter them. If the champion is careful in his manner of living and rather punctilious in the matter of appointments, they level an attack at the man calling him fastidious, temperamental, fussy Ah! The generous people. If the champion relaxes, if he loses an event through letting his proper training routine slide so that he can attend an hospitable Junction or two, then the critics bay like a pack of tripe-hounds—“he’s not the class”— “what’s this, a joke?”—“old New Zealand shows ’em.” Surely it is about time we showed a little of the sportsmanship our All Blacks expect to meet when they go to another country. Let us as hosts be generous and considerate to our guests. Let us show our guests that we are glad to see them for themselves alone, quite apart from the fact that. they can actually pot a goal, hit a six, or run one hundred yards in evens. The records are but trimmings. Dr Peltzer is not only a fine athlete but a prominent German citizen of high standing, a man whose very presence in this country hqrls aside the last of the narrow barriers set up by war, hate, and parochialism. Betty To Marry? (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, January 4. Friends of Miss Betty Nuthall, the lawn tennis player, and pf Dr Patrick B. Spence, fre-

quently her partner, are expecting that an announcement of their engagement will shortly be made. At Mrs Nuthall’s house last night a Press representative was told that there was “ no official engagement ” between the two. Miss Nuthall first came into the lime-

light when she appeared in 1926,34 Wimbledon. She was hailed as a wonder player, and there, were great hopes that she might beat Miss Wills. Although these hopes were not realised, Miss Nuthall is still regarded as the best girl player in England. Dr Spence came to England from South Africa just after the war to study medicine, and he is an all-round athlete. He has had many victories in the mixed doubles championship at Wimbledon.

Dr Spence has recently accepted an appointment in Richmond, close to Miss Nuthall’s home. Morrie Brownlie, All Black Rugby forward, is a man of parts, and is fam ous in Hawke’s for many things beside football prowess. Just recently, however, the big fellow branched out in a new form of activity, appearing as a leader of the “ more sensible dress for men ” movement. According to a report in a Napier daily, he appeared at the recent Wairoa races in a tennis shirt, white shorts and golf hose in place of the usual male attire. Those who know the Rugby forward say that, if this is true, it would be no mere affectation on Brownlie’s part, for he would be genuinely serious about the whole thing. There would be nothing of novelty in it for him. On the broad acres of his sheep run he keeps fit when not playing football by a routine of rigorous physical training that is almost Spartan in its severity. He rides the run, dips the sheep and shears off the fleece, wearing nothing but a pair of football shorts and a pair of tennis shoes.

Wellington athletic fans opened their hearts to the famous German athlete, Dr Peltzer, last week. In conversation with the Wellington representative of the “Star,” Peltzer said he did not expect such a reception. He would’ have # every reason not to forget his visit to* New Zealand apart altogether from the fact that he had run his fastest half mile since he had left Germany on the present tour. Jack Fleming, the Wellington 440 champion and New Zealand record holder (local resident), is in brilliant form and the quarter title would appear to be at his mercy this year. Fleming is a fine powerful runner with a big heart and plenty of brains. He judges pace well and gathers in his field at the right moment. A match race beween him and 9 the Australian craclc, Golding, would be a real contest and no one would like to forecast the winner. They would probably finish fifty-fifty over a series of four matches. Golding may be a shade more brilliant but he certainly has no more determination than the Wellington runner.

cdto 1 g? 3 !5 K K <! T>. G.'Bradman . 12 1 452* 1400 127.2 A. Jackson .... 9 1 182 607 75.8 W. M. Woodfull 5 2 100* 181 60.3 S. M’Cabe 13 1 SI 695 57.9 A. Kippax .... 10 — 170 561 56.1 V. Richardson .. 12 — 126 573 47.5 W. H. Fonsford . 11 — 131 439 39.9 A. Fairfax .... 14 — 64 379 27.0 E. Ij. a’Beckett . 6 1 56 121 24.2 C. V. Grimmett 13 2 53 239 21.7 P. Hornibrook i. 7 3 24 62 15.5 A. Hurwood . . 11 — 51 130 11.8 C. Walker 13 2 33* 105 9.5 T. Wall 11 4 33* 58 8.2 W. A. Oldfield 3 — 7 13 4.3 * Not out.