People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20328, 11 June 1934, Page 6

People and Their Doings.

William Clarke, the Slow Bowler, Laid Out the Ground Where the First Test is Being Played : When an Australian Flying Officer Drove the Gothas from Dover.

HpRENT BRIDGE GROUND, at Nottingham, where the first Test is now being played, has been for close on 100 years tie headquarters of the county’s cricket. It will ever be associated with the fame of that great character and judge of the game, William Clarke, the slow bowler, who laid out and opened it The son of a bricklayer, Clarke at first worked at his father's trade, but he left it to become landlord of the Bell Inn. in the market place of Nottingham. It was the resort of the Nottingham cricketers. At 40, Clarke, having married as his second wife the landlady of the Trent Bridge Inn, played for r*igh stakes. The populace had never been charged for admission to matches, which were played on what was known as the Forest ground. Clarke, having made his new Trent Bridge ground the county club’s headquarters, fixed a scale of admission charges. This made him very unpopular for a time, though he was the club captain and. eveh as an old man, a bowling genius. Fifty years ago the club leased the ground for 99 years, the old inn was demolished, and the present hotel erected. 22? J>ERIIAPS the first recorded encounter between a bull and a “ baby ” car occurred in the Mount Somers district recently. A Christchurch motorist who was calling at a farmhouse had left his car on the roadside. On his return he found his cherished vehicle scarred, dented and almost “ as knocked about as if it had run into a traction engine.” The road whs deserted and no explanation was in sight until a party of local residents appeared. With a good deal of hilarity they related how from a distance the> r had , seen a stray bull approach the car, inspect it closely, and without more ado attempt to toss it. The result might be called a draw. Tt was an unfair attack from the rear and, oil things considered, the car was fortunate to escape as lightly as it did.

THE DEEDS of an Australian flying officer who drove Gothas from Dover during the war are recalled by & Melbourne writer. The officer was an old Scotch College boy, Flight-Commander Robert Alexander Little, R.A.N.S., D.S.O. with bar, D.S.C. with bar, Croix de Guerre with star. He was well-known both in England and France for his bravery and daring, and had many a scrap with Baron von Richthofen. In the early summer of 1917, while stationed at Euston aerodrome, Dover, England, a party of thirteen Gothas came over Dover at 9 a.m. Commander Little went up in a single-seater plane. and went right through the lot of them. His gun had jammed, and, realising the position, he performed all kinds of stunts. Several times it appeared as if he had been shot down, but he came up and through the Germans again, and they were so startled at this daring that they finally gave up the fight and went out to sea and back across to France. sg?

TN FRANCE LATER. Commander Little was acting C.O. while his C.O. went to England on leave. On the night of May 27, 1918, a number of Gothas came over the lines to bomb a hospital. Flight-Com-mander Little went up in a single-seater plane. There was a running fight for 25 miles, when the last Gotha turned and shot him down. He was found next morning with his smashed machine. Now there

stands a very simple but fine memorial erected by Countess Beauchamp, on the ground near Dover where the Walmer aerodrome stood during the war to the memory of fifteen flying officers, including FlightCommander Little As the anniversary of each comes round, a candle is lit in memory of the flyer. There is also a memorial in St Margaret’s Church, near Dover, and Flight-Commander Little's name also appears on that.

AN EXTRAORDINARY coincidence of geological research has been revealed at. the Natural History Museum. South Kensington, London. Professor Hans Reck, the famous German geologist, was collecting fossils in Olduval, East Africa, in 1913. He found in the strata of a high, broken c liff a piece of skeleton, turned to stone by time. It was a portion of a limb bone of a zebra which died in those parts in the Middle Pleistocene Age, many thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago. Dr A. 1 . II op wood, of the Natural History Museum, visited the district in 1931. In the same broken cliff he found a piece of fossilised skeleton which he identified as a portion of a limb of a prehistoric zebra. It was placed in the museum, an incomplete relic from the dawn of history. But a few months ago Professor Hans Reck sent his collection to the museum for research purposes, and Dr Ilopwcod studied it. One fossil, found in East Africa, seemed remarkablv familiar to him. He obtained the fossil he ’ had found there and compared it with the other. The two fossils fitted each other exactly They were part of one and the same bone off the long dead zebra. YEARS AGO (from the ‘‘Star” ° of June 11. 1874) Acclimatisation. —The Wellington “ Independent ” of May 29 says;—The acclimatisation of the Australian black swan seems to have been accomplished successfully, especially in the district of Waiapu. None of the birds were originally taken there, but they have found their way to the lagoon in numbers. The same authority states that there are now thousands pf these birds on some of the larger lakes in the northern part of the North Island, and that they breed very freely. It is to be hoped that the ” murdering gun ” of the pot-hunter will not thin them too rapidly. Advertisement.—Gorse seed! Gorse seed! Just arrived. Per City of Agra. And on sale by the undersigned—2ocwt of gorse or furze seed. For present sowing. Quality guaranteed. W. Wilson, Seed merchant.