SPORT AND SPORTSMEN

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 188, 10 August 1931, Page 7

SPORT AND SPORTSMEN

When Gloucestershire played New Zealand in June, the county team made 132 and 86 for four wickets. New Zealand made 89 and 65 -for six wickets. The annual North Island v. South Island match will be played at Wellington next Saturday. On the same day Canterbury play Wanganui at Wanganui. In the final on Saturday of the Ashburton Rugby Union’s senior competition, Rakaia defeated Mayfield by 6-3. The last occasion on which Rakaia won the championship was in 1913. Representative basket-ball matches between Canterbury and Mid-Canter-bury were plaj'ed at Ashburton on Saturday. Canterbury won the senior match by 27-10 and the junior game by 15-14. Strang’s defence, which nipped the Canterbury movements in the bud, his | generalship in exploiting the Canterbury weaknesses and the dash of the forwards gave victory to South Canterbury on Saturday. In all the matches he has played in this season, Andrews has shown splendid anticipation. On Saturday as wingforward against South Canterbury this was again a feature of his play and he showed plenty of dash around the scrum. Andrews does not attempt much in the way of obstruction and keeps well behind the ball although he is fast to move once it is clear. In Saturday’s Rugby match on the Oval, the South Canterbury men had definite ideas which worked rather well. They went all out for possession from the scrums, but in the line-outs they always had a ring round Manchester. Though the Canterbury line-out specialist secured the ball cleanly a great number of times, he rarely was able to get the ball clear. With so much attention being paid Manchester, some of the other forwards should not have required to do much scheming to leave themselves unmarket. Primo Camera worked in a circus as a wrestler. This accounts for his superb muscular development (says an American scribe). Primo was like the rest of the wrestlers, for when the going became tough he started to fight. Nowadays when the gaing gets hot for fighters they start to wrestle and the wrestlers start to fight.

Frank Chester, a well-known English test match umpire, considers Ponsford to be Bradman]s equal on all wickets. He says Ponsford played a beautiful innings in the fourth test between England and Australia last year. He was the only batsman to play Peebles with any confidence. The Middlesex bowler beat Bradman innumerable, times. This critic has been umpiring for ten seasons, starting as a first-class umpire at the age of twenty-five. In the following year he was chosen as a test match official. It is believed to be a record to umpire in a test match at the age of twenty-six.