LONDON SPORTING LETTER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 752, 4 May 1933, Page 17

LONDON SPORTING LETTER.

Amazing Cup Tie—Derby County’s Triumph —A Rugby Tangle—Golfing Comment —Length in the Drive.

(Special to the " Star.*’) LONDON. March 22 One of the most amazing Cup ties ever played was the second meeting of Sunderland and Derby County in the sixth round. The ship-buikling and coal-mining on the North-east coast have suffered grievously during the depression, but the match created enormous interest, and the Sunderland ground presented a wonderful spectacle. Every opportunity was offered to the unemployed to see the game. Large employers sent money to the Labour Exchanges to be distributed in shillings to the men. and hundreds, who went to the ground with no hope of getting inside, were generously provided with the means. Parties of enthusiasts left home early in t>ie morning and walked as far as twenty miles, and, within an hour of the gates being opened, they had to be closed. Previously the biggest gate at Sunderland had been 63,000. On this occasion 75.000 spectators were admitted. To accommodate so many places were found for about 10,000 inside the railings. Here, in fact, the crush was as severe as on the banks, and half a dozen times during the match play had to be stopped, owing to the people encroaching on to the lines. Over a hundred police formed a barrier between the crowd and the playing area, but in a moment of excitement they were pushed on one side, and the game was held up for a minute or so. But the public behaved superbly, and there was not the slightest disorder. So electrical was the atmosphere that methodical football was out of the question. I have, in fact, never known an occasion when the nervous tension of the players was so high. To make the position worse, the end came, and neither side had scored. So extra time —a quarter of an hour each way—had to be played. The first of these periods went, and still there was no goal. Five minutes from the finish, however, a centre w r as headed through by Ramage, the Derby County inside left, and the team passed into the semi-final, in which they are due to meet Manchester City on the Huddersfield ground. The other semi-final tie between Everton and West Ham is to take place at Wolverhampton. International Rugby Tangle. International Rugby football is in an extraordinary tangle, and views formed before the start of the matches have proved totally false. It was thought that Wales had an excellent chance of winning the championship, and this opinion was strengthened by their victory over England at Twickenham. In the meantime, however, thev have been defeated both by Scotland and Ireland, and are now in danger of holding the wooden spoon.

All four countries have two points to their credit, but Scotland have played only one match, namely, that with W ales. On the other hand. England have beaten Ireland, and the latter have triumphed over Wales. It might have been expected that the Irish fifteen would be substantially changed after their display at Twickenham, but the players were given another chance, and the confidence shown in them was fully justified. They beat Wales decisively by ten points to five. The chief weakness of the Welshmen was behind the scrummage, where Bowcott, the stand-off half, was outplayed by Davy. Bowcott’s passes were slow and poor, and. when he tried to break through, he was smothered. Near the end, however, he made a glorious run, beating half a dozen men, and going over underneath the posts for Jenkins to land a goal. Inspired by the big crowd, the Irish forwards took command of the game from the start, and they held the upper hand throughout. The Welsh forwards, however, played with fine pluck and persistence, and they were badly let down by their backs. Hope of a Duncan “ Come Back.” Although George Duncan has been very disappointing during the past three years, the golfing public have never lost faith in him. He is over fifty years of age, but he still swings the club splendidly, and physically there is no reason why he should not play as well as ever. Indeed, his decline has been a mystery even to his fellow professionals, who would be delighted if he could stage a “ come back. Well, there is a good deal of hope that this may come about. One of the first of the season’s events was a match between mixed teams of amateurs and professionals representing North and South. It took place on the Lytham and St Annes links, and, playing top for the North, Duncan met Archibald Compston. The golf of both men was excellent, and it was very encouraging for Duncan to win by one hole. Nearly the whole of Dunscan’s troubles can be traced to the complete loss of his putting. Never did a first-class golfer make such a dreadful mess of the holing out. Vardon also lost his putting touch, but his plight was never as hopeless as Duncan’s. His difficulty, on his return to competitive golf after the war, was to hole the short putts, the putts that other players would have considered dead. Duncan, however, has found putts of all distances equally troublesome. There have, in fact, been times when it has seemed impossible for him to get anywhere near the hole The truth is that, even w’hen he was getting the ball down successfully, his method of striking was unsound. His American friends persisted in trying to persuade

him to change his style. I have seen Bobby Jones and Hagen go on to ei green and show him, as they said, how to putt. But either Duncan could not, or would not. alter his style. More Length at Golf. The aim of the golfer is always to obtain more and more length. W onder fully responsive as the modern ball is, it does not travel far enough to satisfy him. He will go to any trouble to get a few extra yards with his drive, as though the big shot from the tee were the greatest thrill the game offers Recently a broken steel shaft was taken into a shop, and the professional was asked if he could mend it Broken shafts are usually thought to be beyond repair, but the professional made an experiment by filing down one end and inserted it in the other. Under these conditions the thin end came just below the grip on the club, and it was found to give it an unusual whip and also to produce a longer flight. So clubs with a thick piece of metal in the middle, and tapering down to the grip, are now being made, and they are championed by Percy Arliss “You must swing slower with the club,” he says. “ The ball does not tend to soar so much as with an ordinary club, and I find that I can get about fifteen yards further with my drive. With the lower trajectory I think this will be increased to twentyfive yards in summer, when the ball runs more freely than at the present time.” If this estimate is correct, the new club is sure to become exceedingly popular. The idea of having the “ whip ” underneath the grip, however, is not new The craftsman, in making the wooden shafts, always tried to obtain this, but in recent years only about one piece of hickory out of a hundred made this possible, and it was one of the reasons why the steel shaft was legalised England’s Cricket Triumph.

The success of Jardine and his men in the fifth and final Test match in Sydney left no doubt as to the superiority of England’s cricket at the present time. Under happier conditions I think it might even have been more strongly marked. But fortunately all unpleasantness has been dispelled, and the game between the two countries has been brought back into its proper setting. Now is the time to consider Australia's contention that leg theory, or what they have been pleased to describe as “ body line bowling,” should not be permitted. The proposal will be strongly backed up in this country. But it is a matter which may well be left to the good sense of captains and players without any alteration of rules. As I have previously stated, I do not think there is any doubt that the method of attack was adopted to defeat the conditions in Australia, to make the batsman play the ball, and. if oniy the Commonwealth authorities will abandon the timeless test and fix a definite duration for all matches, there will be an end to it. It is unlikely, for instance, that the leg theory w’lll be exploited to any greater extent than hitherto during the coming season at home.

A pleasing feature of the tour has been that when one man failed another rose to the occasion. If the start of an innings was poor, the finish was firstclass. England had no tail, and this gave them a big advantage. Several of the players greatly enhanced their reputations. Hedley V erity proved himself a worthy successor of Rhodes as a bowler, and he has shown such marked capabilities as a batsman that he is now likely to be given a higher place in the Yorkshire innings. Paynter, Leyland and R. E. S. Wyatt all established themselves as Test match players on whom England will be pleased to rely for some time to come. Unfortunately I understand that there js not much likelihood of Allen playing much cricket for Middlesex during the coming season. He says that after six months’ holiday he will have to go back to work and stick to it. It was good to see Hammond finish so finely. He is the bei. all-round cricketer in the world. Curiously enough, he scored exactly the same number of runs as Sutcliffe in the five Tests, and had the same average. Golfers for the Ryder Cup. The first move in the preparations for the Ryder Cup match with the American professional golfers, which is to be played at Southport in the last week of June, is the nomination of twenty-two players for the team. Only ten and two reserves will finally be chosen, and it is possible that others will be brought in according to the form show : n in the tournaments. An innovation is the decision to appoint a non-playing captain. Both George Duncan, who was the captain when the match was last played in England, and Ted Ray have been suggested for the position. Duncan is one of the nominated players, and there will be a strong desire to pick him. if bis form warrants it. in order that he may be set to play Walter Hagen. While the American captain has ridden almost roughshod over the players of this country, he has never been able to dominate Duncan. In fact, Duncan has usually defeated him most decisively. Ray led the English team in 1927 in America, and he would make a good captain. Another suggestion is to call on one of the veterans, and, if this is done, I believe the choice will be I H. Taylor.

How British golf is changing is indicated by the nominations. Of the elderly players, only Duncan. Mitchell. Robson and Compston have been included in the list. They are over forty years of age, and they have intimated that they are willing to stand down in favour of younger men. But I think that both Mitchell and Compston are sure to be called upon. C. S. Denny, who is twenty-four, is the youngest of the nominees, but A. H. Padgham. Bert Hodgson. A. J. Lacey, S. Easterbrook and E. W. H. Kenyon are under thirty. Among the others provisionally picked are Percy Alliss, who since leaving Berlin for a post in London is once more eligible to take part in the match; Arthur Havers, who hunted Gene Sarazen home in last season’s open championship; Herbert Jolly; and the brothers Charles and Reginald Whitcombe Billiards Championship. The boards championship is now

not only definitely to be held, but it promises to be the best for many years. As might be expected, the arrangements were made with the utmost difficulty, but at the finish only one player, Willie Smith, stood out. Thus we are to have the two British players, Joe Davis, the reigning champion, and Tom Newman, in opposition to Walter Lindrum, the Australian crack, and Clark M’Conachy, the much-improved New Zealand cueman. First of all, there was trouble over the date of entry. Smith asked for a postponement of the date fixed. This was agreed to. but he immediately demanded that other conditions should be changed. He wanted the baulkline rule to be dropped, and the entrance fee lowered. Lindrum and M’Conachy, on the other hand. declared that they were willing to play as had been arranged, and they protested that no player should endeavour to introduce changes until he had actually entered. In view of this new position, the authorities decided that the entries should be made by the date originally fixed, and. with the exception of Smith, the other players sent in their names. Smith, however, only entered for the snooker championship. Although Lindrum has been playing first-class billiards for twenty years, he has never before entered for a championship, either in Australia or England. He is, however, expected to win this event, with everyone starting off the same mark. At the same time, his form this season has not been so good as last. Possibly this has to some extent been due to the baulk-line rule, which he does not like. Both M’Conachy and Newman have beaten him in the Gold Cup tournament, but in each case he gave 6000 start. By the way, the Gold Cup now rests between Newman and M’Conachy They meet in the concluding match of the series, and the winner will take the handsome! prize. m *