Sport And, Sportsmen.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19238, 27 November 1930, Page 11

Sport And, Sportsmen.

The New South Wales Rugby Union at its November council meeting adopted the draft constitution of the proposed Australian Rugby Union, which is to be composed of representatives of the New South Wales, Queensland, Victorian and West Australian bodies. The constitution was drawn tip at a recent conference between the three first-named Unions. When this constitution has been adopted by the other constituent bodies the Australian Rugby Union will automatically come into being. Its main objects will be to advise its members generally in all matters of Australian interest in football and the relations with other Rugby Unions. Mr J. A. Rigney, of Randwick, was the only dissentient against the new national body. Mr Rigney was of opinion that its formation would “bind New South Wales once more to Victoria. The southern State has been a millstone round our necks now for several seasons, and this is a move to implicate us still further,” he said. “I do not believe that there is hope for the game to grow in Victoria, and it would be simply a further waste of money to make any move in that direction.” N. C. Snedden, formerly a New Zealand representative cricketer, has been appointed manager of the Auckland eleben for the South Island tour at Christmas and New Year. George Alexander, who died in Mel- 1 bourne last- week, was one of the few remaining links with old-time cricket. He was a member of Murdoch’s 1880 team, and played in the solitar\- test at the Oval, this being the first of the long series. On the tour he averaged 14.61 with.the bat for fourteen innings. He went to England again in ISS4, but 'did little. His last appearance in a test was at Adelaide against Shaw and Shrewsbury’s team of ISB4-S5. One result of the recent decision of the New South Wales jcricket heads to resume the practice of covering the wicket has been the evolution of a cover which will not, like those of the past, “sweat” the wicket, and thus produce effects as bad as if there had been no cover at all (says a Sydney journal). The new gadget is a tarpaulincovered frame on wheels, which is ponderously pushed into the arena and anchored over the wicket, the peaked “roof” being some feet from the ground. The thing looks like a cross between a railway porter’s trolley and a marketgardener’s potting-shed, and is likely to give the “Hill” much opportunity for i genial comment when its guardians first trot it out.

Norman Smith, of New South Wales, may reconsider his intention of trying for the world’s speed record on the Ninety-mile Beach, Auckland. The other day he went up to Goulburn (New South Wales) to have a look over a stretch between Collector and Bungendore, which provides the necessary straight run of twelve miles or so with a hundred width. The track will need some preparation by a gang of workmen, and could be topped off by some of the Main Roads Board’s rollers, which are in the vicinity. If this can be arranged. Smith may prefer to make his trial there in preference to undertaking the long and expensive trip to New Zealand. Stuart Williams, who represented Australia in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race for motor-cycles and the six-day International Trial race in the European Alps, returned to Australia the other day after many interesting experiences on the other side. Though he did not score a winning bracket, the Australian made a very creditable showing. He is full of admiration for European riders, who have had much experience in this form of racing over mountain country, a phase of the game practically unknown in Australia and New Zealand. Victoria’s biggest amateur road race for cyclists, the 100-mile run from Colac to Melbourne, held concurrently with the professional Warrnambool-Mel-bourne event, is to be lengthened. Next year the amateurs will ride the full course from Warrnambool, 165 miles. The longest road race in which amateurs are catered for in Australia is the Goulburn-Sydney event of 131 miles, and as a rule the lilywhites have performed as well over the longer distance as the professionals -who ride the same course with them. The principal difference between the two races is that the Victorian fixture is practically on the level the whole way, while the Goul-burn-Sydney race ‘involves some stiff hill work. Brisbane is the latest centre to be disturbed over the Sunday sport question. Recently a bowling club proposed to play on Sundays on a green which is portion of one of the municipal parks. After much argument the council agreed to continue the lease, while pointing out that the city regulations did not permit games in the parks oil the Sabbath. «•» Among what may be called freak sportsmen, the man who sets out b\ T himself to navigate the world in a tiny craft ranks'high. There have been a good many of them at one time and another, a recent instance being the once-famous tennis player Allan Gerbault, who was supposed to be nursing a heart broken by Suzanne Lenglen when he went down to the sea in the Firecrest. A Imor edu ion i' one, Robinson, of New York, whose yacht, the Svaap, was last heard of in the Solomons, and cleared for Samarai in Papua. As he failed to turn up there the underwriters were beginning t«»

compute liability when news arrived that he had been discovered 500 miles up the Sepik River, which is some hundreds of miles north of Samarai. Apparently it only takes one round to win the world’s professional lightweight championship. Tony Canzoneri took the crown from A 1 Singer in New York recently in the first round, and Singer took it from Sammy Mandell three months ago by putting him to sleep in the first round. Arrangements have been made by the Sumner Cycling Club to hold another race next Monday at 6.45 p.m.. the course to" be round Sumner, via Wakefield Avenue, Nayland Street and Heberden Avenue to the School lor the Deaf. This will make a ten-mile course, and afford the residents an opportunity of witnessing the progress of the race at varying stages. The secretary states that there are already twent>'-two entries.