SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 76, 30 March 1931, Page 7

SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

Few games have such constant supporters as has lawn tennis. Every Saturday during the season the courts at Wilding Park are crowded, and club courts are also eagerly besieged. As the season wanes, the enthusiasm remains unabated. There is little of the boredom which seems to affect players of most other games, and even whan competition matches are over, players continue games until the light fails. The grass courts at Wilding Park will be closed in a few weeks for top-dress-ing, but the Canterbury Association will conduct a men’s winter competition on the hard courts, and it is safe to say that there will be a big entry. Members of the same family meeting in competition on the sporting field are fairly common, so common that it hardly excites comment. The annual inter-club tennis tourney, which entered its final. stages on Saturday, had several interesting examples. In the women’s championship singles, doubles and combined doubles, the Misses I. and T. Poole both took part. They won the doubles event, and will be opposite each other when the final of the combined doubles is played. Another case occurred in the semi-finals of the woman’s handicap doubles, when Miss Ngaire Irwin and partner met' Mrs Irwin (Miss Irwin's mother) and Mrs Storie, and won. « *: Cheviot on a Saturday is usually as quiet a corner as can be found in North Canterbury, but last Saturday afternoon things were different. It was the occasion of the annual athletic meeting of the Cheviot Amateur Sports Club, and the small township saw a good deal more animation than usual. In one bound the population more than doubled itself. From near and far came the. country folk to enjoy the pleasures of the day. Highlanders in national costume awoke the echoes with their bagpipes. There were dancers further to enliven proceedings, and mothers will claim that the baby show was by no means the least important event of the day. v : The match between Technical and Rakaia in the Ashburton Cricket Competitions Association’s junior grade was concluded on Saturday and resulted In a win for Technical by nine wickets. At the conclusion of the first day's play, Rakaia had made 94 in their first innings and Technical had replied with 175. In their second strike on Saturday, Rakaia compiled 140 and Technical scored 71 for the loss of one wicket. In their match against Power Board, in the same grade, High School won by nine wickets. On the first day. Power Board made 59 in their first strike and High School replied with 111. Power Board made 70 in their sscond innings and at the call of time High School had one wicket down for 20 in their second innings. In the third grade, Celtic, playing against High School, won by 75 runs. High School went to the crease and made 86 runs; Celtic replied with 161. :: Hughie Weir, manager of the Australian team that competed at the Empire Games, brought back many new ideas, and at the Victorian athletic championship meeting some were tried out with success. For the field games events large marks across the field gave the distances of Victorian, Australian, and world records, and for the sprints the distances were plainly marked for 25, 50 and 75 yards. The lanes for the quarter and 220yds were also indicated with numbers so that onlookers knew exactly what was doing and when records were broken. ♦*♦ Queensland is keen to entertain a visit from international swimmers next season, and is already moving in that direction. The Q.A.S.A. executive decided to ask the Australian Union to issue invitations to the Japanese champions, T. Jriye and S. Makina, to appear in December or January. Iriye is the holder of the world’s backstroke records, and ' Makina, although only fifteen years of age, has beaten many of Borg’s records. The matching of Boast and Iriye, and of Ryan and Makina, would prove wonderful attractions. In 1923, Arthur Newton, a South African farmer, ran fifty miles over rough, hilly country in shr 53min ssec. He was then thirty-nine years of age, and had never run a race before. When he was forty-five he ran 100 miles on the Bath-London road in 14hr 43min. This is a record which has never been equalled and may never be equalled under the same circumstances. When Newton ran from London to Brighton in 1925 he beat the previous professional record by more than 40min, and the amateur record by over an hour.