SPORT and SPORTSMEN

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 660, 13 January 1933, Page 11

SPORT and SPORTSMEN

'T'HE LION in the second Test had his back to the Wall and his face to O'Reilly. » A former Test captain comments on a present Test captain. Jack R>'der, in the Melbourne “ Globe,” says “ Woodfull, in the second Test, was playing as well as ever, and looked like a big score. I cannot see a better opening batsman in Australia than Woodfull. The criticism to which he has been subjected has not been merited.” « » A. C. Maclaren, the former English Test captain, declared after the second Test, that the leg theory, as practised by Voce and Larwood, was very unfortunate. “It pounds the side on which Grimmett works with his natural leg-break, and unquestionably makes him a better bowler.” •’* Si Si To-morrow's Cricket. There should be some interesting play in senior cricket to-morrow afternoon, for almost all the play last Saturday was interesting and left the finish uncertain. Riccarton will have the hardest row to hoc. Their first innings contribution was only 123, to which Sydenham replied, on their home pitch, with 84 for four wickets. The Riccarton bowlers will have to put up a great performance if they wish to stave off a defeat. Lancaster Park have made 28 for no wickets in their effort to catch the 269 of Old Collegians in the match at Rugby Park. The Lancaster Park side includes some attractive batsmen, and the afternoon’s cricket should be full of interest. Old Boys have little hope of beating St Albans, for the score of 414 against them, for nine wickets, means that the best they can hope for against good bowling is to play the afternoon out for a draw. That match is at Hagley Park. At Lancaster Park East Christchurch have made 269 for seven wickets against West. The West Christchurch batsmen have some enterprise among them, Kerr having returned to form to strengthen the batting, and they will be sure to have a good attempt to catch the East total. By his brilliant play against N. R. C. \\ ilson in the final of the men’s championship singles of the Manawatu Lawn Tennis Association’s tournament says the “ Manawatu Standard,” A. C. Stedman indicated that he will be a formidable contender this year for the New Zealand title, which he formerly held. He gave a great exhibition, his powerful forehand drives to the corners being an outstanding feature. Wilson, though never appearing very likely to take the honours, refused to concede anything, and made a fight of it all the way. XXX A. T. F. Stokes, East Christchurch, has shown a distinct improvement in his water polo play this season. He ishandling the ball more adroitly and has cultivated a fast backhand shot into the goal. Stokes should prove a distinct asset to the Canterbury water polo team at Napier next month. XXX Swimming Relay Race. In a try-out at the Tepid Baths last Wednesday evening for its four-man relay team, the Taylor’s Mistake Club found that its best team was G. Low, A. T. Bolam, D. P. Lindsay and A. I. Cottrell. M. R. Rattray also started, but finished fifth, and L. J. Moorhouse is not available. Only a yard separated the first and last men, Low swimming into the first position. This should prove a good even team. The Tomkinson Cup surf relay race, to be held at the Christchurch and United Clubs’ carnival on Wednesday evening next, is certain to provide a fine race with all the leading swimmers in the province competing. The New Brighton Surf Club’s team will probably be A. T. Stokes, E. M’Conville, N. E. Herrick and H. C. Smith, but the strongest team seems to be that of the North Beach Club, who have A. T. Dalton, J. O. Hattersley, J. MacDonald and D. H. Symes. North Beach should be hard to beat. The Sumner team will probably fill the fourth place. x x Some fast swimming should be seen at the New Zealand intermediate and junior championships at Invercargill at the end of this month, especially in the 100yds and 220yds intermediate boys’ championships. Noel Crump, of Auckland, seems likely to retain his titles, especially after his brilliant swims at Auckland on January 10. In winning the 220yds in 2min 26sec he put up a remarkable time for an intermediate, as the New Zealand record, held by G. Bridson, is onlv 2min 23 3-ssec. His effort in the 100yds, when he covered the distance in 57 3-ssec, was also an outstanding time for an intermediate. However, Crump may find that W. Jarvie, of Otago, will prove hot opponent in the 100yds. Jarvie did 50sec for the 100yds recently, but was not pushed, and he is quite likely to improve on that time. XXX Girls’ Cricket. The girls’ competition matches will be resumed to-morrow, when all senior games will be played at Malvern Park. Sacred Heart meet Spreydon and High School Old Girls play Argyle House. Technical have drawn against Mai Moa. Ballantyne’s have the bye. Main interest is centred in the Technical and Mai Moa game, for neither side has yet been beaten, and the game will almost certainly decide the first round winners in the competition. The teams are well matched, so that it is difficult to forecast the result, but if the Technical bats can play B. Te Rangi’s bowling, their chances are bright. Some of the Mai Moa players are better individually, but the Technical side makes up in consistency what it lacks in individuality, and on that score will be a hard proposition. XXX Next Wednesday evening, at the Christchurch United Swimming Club’s carnival, Christchurch swimming enthusiasts will be given an opportunity t° see how D. P. Lindsay, New Zealand Rational champion, is swimming over 4Wyds. The event is the 440yds men's championship of Canterbury, and other JJely starters are A. T. Stokes and E. .^V^p nv ille. Lindsay should win, but Wd M’Conville should not be *** behind.

j Too Much Stodge. I Jack Ryder, former Australian cap* ~ews on form in the second cricket Test, said : “ I think the English batting is anything but strong. There are too many stodgy batsmen coming in when the edge is off the bowling. A Frank Woolley or a Patsy Henri r e n half - waythrough would give it the colour it lacks. Sutcliffe is still a great opening batsman, but seems - to miss Jack Hobbs. Hammond is ideal at No. 1, but thereafter the list tails off. I see a brighter dawn breaking for Australia. The bowlers in the second Test overshadowed the batsmen all through. It should not have been so, for much weak bowling went unpunished. It was bowling o fthe best type. Count up the number of leg-before-wicket and bowled dismissals, and you w-ill realise what rewards await spin bowlers of good length who attack the stumps.” As with his football so with his cricket, W. C. Dailey, the St Albans left-handed batsman is thoroughly reliable. His recent tour with the Canterbury team on the West Coast has pro-ved benefieial, and last Saturday his off drives and square cuts were carried out with additional precision and fluency. . these days of defensive cricket, it is most unusual to find a field spread °ut or a long field posted, but F. P. O Bnen, the St Albans right-hander, had the satisfaction of seeing both earned into effect as the result of his indis P la y w ith the bat against Old Boys last Saturday, when he reached the coveted century. m % Just Missed the Clock. It is not known whether W. E. Merr'tt, like a famous Australian batsman of other days whose ambition was to break the face of the clock at Lord’s, has a similar desire to smash the clock fronting the Hagley pavilion. If he has, his ambition was very nearly realised last Saturday. When batting at the Riccarton Road end, he hoisted a ball to leg, and it landed inside the boundary and bounced on the railing guarding the seats. Then it ricocheted on to the box containing the clock, only missing the face by inches. a a E. Wyatt, one of the opening batsmen with the English cricket team in Australia, is having rather a bad run with leg before decisions. In twelve innings he has played in Australia so far he has been out leg before seven times. a a a The international Rugbv matches of the present season in Great Britain and Ireland will start on January 21, when England will play Wales at Twickenham. Wales and Scotland will meet a fortnight later at Swansea. England and Ireland will play at Twickenham °" February XI, Ireland arid Scotland at Dublin on February 25, Ireland and Wales at Belfast on March 11, and Scotland and England at Murrayfield on March 18. x x x Swimming Carnival. Outstanding racing should be witnessed at the Christchurch-United Amateur Swimming Club’s carnival in the Tepid Baths next Wednesday evening, starting at 730. The biggest draw will be the mens 440yds Canterbury championship in which Lindsay, Stokes and MConville will appear, with Lindsay the favourite. The New Zealand record °l.i mm 13 2-ssec should not be unassailajc - _ Other provincial championships are the 220yds breaststroke, the 100yds women’s, in which Miss R. Low and Miss A. Morris should have a close tussle, the 100yds junior boys, and the men’s 150yds backstroke. L. J. Moorhouse may be out of town for the last race, in which case G. Low will take the title. The Hollander Cup of fifteen men aside always is a thrilling struggle, and with the stronger clubs battling for supremacy, it is hard to pick the winner. New Brighton, North Beach, Sumner, Taylor’s Mistake and Waimain have entered for the Tomkinson Cup four-man surf relay, and North Beach have a good chance of defeating the holders. Eighteen teams have entered for the mixed relay, the 33 l-3yds women’s handicap has drawn twenty entries, and the men’s 66 2-3yd s thirty-three entries In addition, D. H. Symes will establish a New Zealand record for 50 metres, no time yet being on the books for this distance. 3 3 3 The Bradman Duck. Certain English papers, resentful of past hammerings on the cricket field, lose no opportunity of jibing at E&radman when his wicket goes cheaply. After Australia's first innings in 'the second Test, a “ Daily Mail ” cartoon by Tom,, Webster, headed “Rare Specimen, depicted a colossal pigeon-toed, cross-eyed duck in an Australian cap being dragged across the Melbourne Museum stage by a gloomily-attired undertaker. The exhibit was labelled, “ No. 3 Fair Dinkum.” A horror-stricken Australian mother in the foreground drops a boomerang and clutches the hand of her startled offspring, exclaiming: “ Come along, little one, don’t stav to look at this exhibit. It’s Bradman’s duck!” Presumably Tom Webster suddenly lost all interest in the Test after Bradman’s glorious 103 in the second innings and England’s subsequent debacle. 55 55 55 Jack Hobbs sums up O’Reilly, Australia’s new Test bowler: “ O’Reilly is over six feet and delivers the ball with his arm coming well over. He keeps an excellent length and is difficult to score off. I should describe him as a medium-pace leg-break bowler, with an occasional off-break, a genuine googly, with a fast one now and then.” Otago will be represented at the New Zealand intermediate and junior swimming championships at Invercargill by the biggest team it has yet sent away since the championships \vere divided. The official team comprises ten representatives and the province will be represented in every event.

W HE . N D 9 N BRADMAN was batting brilliantly in the second Test at Melbourne, a spectator shouted: ‘ Good boy, Don. Everyone in Australia is behind you except me—and I'm a Pommy.” Jack Millard, the Avondale crack golfer, has had his handicap reduced on the New Zealand list, and now is the only amateur in Christchurch on the plus one mark. Millard has played consistently good golf for many seasons now, and during last w-inter had some splendid performances to his credit. The attention of the New 7 Zealand handicapping authorities was drawn by the magnificent round of 68 that enabled him to win the Christchurch amateur championship at Christmas time, at Shirley. Millard has been many times champion at Avondale, and has a win in the Canterbury championship to his credit. For sheer pluck and determination to see it through, R. C. Burns’s perfornj.* Behind the sticks for his club side Uld Boys, last Saturday will take some beating. He had received a severe gruelling in the recent Plunket Shield encounters, but, in spite of his bruises, i iT lled an tinforseen vacancy in his clubs side, carrying on behind the stumps in a stoical manner throughout the afternoon. Bill’s Back-hander. E. Merritt is always liable to accomplish the unexpected when bowling, but last Saturday with the bat he showed us a shot that does not appear in the text books on batting. Reaching to connect with a delivery swinging away well outside his legs, he hit the ball one-handed with the back of the bat and scored three runs in the direction of fine leg, much to the amazement of the onlookers. It is a long time since the cricket clubs of Christchurch had a more efficient set of wicketkeepers in their senior sides. Indeed, there are three or four who could step into a representative side and put up creditable performances. Jackman, of Old Collegians, impresses as the best of the lot, and he has the advantage of being a good performer with the bat as well. Bums, the representative stumper, has done yeoman service for Old Boys for several seasons. Of the younger players, Eee, of Lancaster Park, Pearce, of St Albans, and Dunnett, of Riccarton, are first-class performers, and the others are well worthy their position. F ingle tons Sarcasm. On the first day of the second Test at Melbourne Larwood slammed them down with terrific pace at the leg stump, and Woodfull and Fingleton gave us a rare exhibition of ducking, writes Arthur Mailey. Three balls in succession went over Fingleton’s bent head. Fingleton walked down within four yards of the .opposite batting crease and patted the wicket with his bat. I don’t think this little touch of cynicism was appreciated by Larwood who looked over his shoulder at Fingleton and seemed to say, “what are you doing down this end of the wicket?” Larwood rushed up to bowl like a mad bull, and pitched the next ball shorter still. It was so short that Fingleton had plenty of time to see it go past. A smirk w r ent across Fingleton’s face, after this little bit of by-plaj’-, and he felt that he had put a joke over the fast bowler. 53 S 3 The fact that Bradman was bowled for a “ duck ” in the first innings of the second Test match in Melbourne w T as possibly the indirect means of saving the lives of three children at Mowbray, 1 Tasmania. Several persons were listening to the description of the match by wireless, and when Bradman was dismissed by the first ball one of the listeners, Mr P. Hancock, became so disgusted that he went for a walk beside the river. He saw three children run toward the, river, overbalance, and fall into the water, which was about seven feet in depth. Fully clothed, he jumped in and rescued the children, whose ages ranged from 2i to 7 years. :: « Always Enterprising. Possibly one of the best opening right-handed batsmen and certainly one of the most enterprising playing in senior grade cricket this season is G. M. Condliffe, of the St Albans team. He has scant regard for the safety-first style of cricket so much in evidence to-day, and proceeds to score attractively from the commencement of his hand by using his feet to make a length ball into a loose ball. As a fieldsman, too, he shines and his catching and ground work reach a uniformly high standard. Fortunes Fluctuate. On eleven occasions the loser of the first cricket Test has won the second. The list of these fluctuations is:— In Australia. First Test. Second Test. 1877 .... A., 45 runs E., 4 wkts 1882-3 .... A., 9 wkts. E., innings 1897-8 .... E., 2 wkts. A., innings 1901-2 —. E., innings A., 229 runs 1907-8 .... A., 2 wkts. E., 1 wkt. 1911-12.... A., 146 runs E., 8 wkts 1930-31 E„ 10 wkts. A., 11l runs In England. First Test. Second Test. 1888 A., 61 runs E., innings 1896 E., 6 wkts. A., 3 wkts. 1909 E., 10 wkts. A., 9 wkts. 1930 E., 93 runs A., 7 wkts. Club races conducted by the Elmwood Swimming Club this week resulted as follows: —75yds club championship: D. H. Symes 1, G. S. Cooper 2. Time—42 3-ssec. Holland Cup dive: C. R. Rlordan 1, Miss H. Jackson 2, Miss A. Perkins 3. 25yds handicap: S. Nicholls (3sec) 1, C. Burmister (4sec) 2, R. Neale <3sec) 3. Time—l 3 3-ssec. 25yds club championship: D. H. Symes 1, G. S. Cooper j 2, N. J. M’Phail 3. Time—J 12sec. 25yds Phillips Cup: S. Nicholls; I, R. Blake 2. Time—3l 4-ssec. 100yds 1 handicap: V. G. Spiller (6sec) 1, R. P. j Hall (7sec) 2, M. L. Candy (llsec) 3. Time—7o 2-ssec.