SPORT and SPORTSMEN

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20540, 15 February 1935, Page 12

SPORT and SPORTSMEN

Senior Cricket Off. The senior cricket matches set down for to-morrow have been postponed owing to the New Zealand v. England women’s match to be plaj-ed at Lancaster Park. Another factor, also, is the absence of the Canterbury team on the West Coast. The team left yesterday for the Coast. The captain and manager is R. W. Coupland. * « Kiccarton s position in the first-grade cricket competition is practically impregnable now. Their most formidable rivals. Lancaster Park and S3*denham, have both suffered defeats which pulled them down, and even should Riccarton go down at the hands of Old Collegians, their win over Sydenham, and the good position they are in against West Christchurch, practically assures them success. Riccarton have done so well mainly on their good bowling and the capacity of the batsmen to quickly master indifferent bowling and score at a fast pace. 55 55 35 Unique Golf Feat . Here, surely, is a unique golfing feat. It was accomplished by A. G. Beck, the Sherwood Forest professional, in a Nottinghamshire Alliance tournament at Radcliffe-on-Trent recently. Beck actually halved every one of the eighteen holes with bogey 1 He had only to hole putts to win on several greens, but missed them, and as a result his figures were exactly the same as bogey—72. Many competitors beat bogey at some holes and lose to the mythical “ Colonel “ at others, but for steadiness this golf by Beck is astonishing. $5 55 R Charlton’s Come-Back. Robin Biddulph, Sydney’s fourteen-year-old swimming hope, was in great form in the 440yds handicap at the Drummoyne Baths, Sydney, recently, and in a gruelling finish with Andrew Charlton dead-heated for second. His

time., smin 16sec, was excellent. Charlton. who conceded Biddulph 7sec, swam 4min 8 3-ssec, making 2 3-ssec. improvement on his recent time in a club handicap. Because of the wash in ■which he swam,-*Gharlton’s-time cannot be-re-garded as his best possible form at this stage of his attempted come-back. Commenting on Charlton’s swim, Harry Hay, his coach, said he was satisfied with the form, in view of the fact that Charlton was in the lane alongside the waH, from which he was getting a washback of water. The wash was accentuated by the handicap swimmers, :n other lines, passing him up and down the baths. “ Andrew was fighting to get his head up out of this wash to breathe,” explained his coach. “Me swims low enough ordinarily, and this bath, with its ‘ joggle ' of water caused by the eight starters, made his swim ery difficult. In other baths I think he would have done smin 2sec or 3min 3sec.** 55 55 55 Bowlers’ 15 Wickets. A good bowling performance was put up by G. Hall in a match at Linwood Park yesterday*. Hall secured all nine wickets for 3S runs against New Brighton, who batted ten men. In the second innings Hall secured three wickets in bis first over and collected six in the innings, a total of fifteen wickets for the match. 55 55 55 “ Buddy ” Baer, younger brother of world’s champion. Max. and a 17stoner to boot, won his eighth successive knockout victorv in America last month in his eighth professional contest. He says one dav he will “ slap his elder brother out of the picture.” • 55 55 55 The bowling of F. French, the Rugby footballer and Beckenham’s fast bowler, is consistently good, and his bowling figures of the last five matches, in which he has taken twenty-nine wickets for 244 runs at an average cost of 8.4, make it hard to understand why he was not used before. Unfortunately French is not available for the Sub-Association Shield match next week, for he is certainly worthy of inclusion. 55 K 55 Women Athletes. Canterbury has produced two outstanding women runners in Miss K. Callinan (Technical) and Miss F. Gudsell (Canterbury}, and their meeting at the Canterbury championship for the 100yds title should orovide an interesting race. M’ss Callinan. who has been se<“n a good deal on the traHk this vear. r~ill be out to take the title from Miss Gudsell. it is quite nosaible that a new record will be established as a result of the race. Miss Gudsell outran Miss Calhnan bv- four yards at an interclub meeting, showing a great burst of soeed at the finish. Miss Callinan. however, did not get the best of starts. 55 55 55 Presuming that C. K. Jackman is available, his omission from the Canterbury side to play against Otago this month is rather hard to understand. He has not been given a chance of Canterbury honours for the last five years, during which time he has .been keeping so well that he deserved a trial at least, but he was selected for the South Island v. North Island match, in which he gave an excellent exhibition. Now, after a good showing in such an important match, he is dropped again. There are no material changes in the team, even though, with the Shield won already, there was a golden opportunity to see how some of the younger players, such as Newton, of Sydenham, would fare against representative opposition.

R. Frankham, Auckland swimming champion over 100yds, and D. H. Symes, the Canterbury “ hope ” in the hundred at the Dominion championship meeting to-morrow, met off the same mark at a carnival in the north a few days ago. Symes, who has been racing brilliantly over 50yds this season, led Frankham home over that distance, but the Aucklander took first place in the 100yds. 55 55 55 The New Zealand Rugby Union has made a good start in its appointment of the manager of the team to go to England. If the selectors show as good judgment in picking the team as the management committee did in the choice of Mr Meredith, no complaints will be made. To score 315 runs for four wickets on the fourth use of the wicket was a good performance for South in the inter-Island match. Up to the stage when South commenced their second innings, 772 runs had been knocked up and eventually the total for the match became 1087. This, says much for the state of the wickets and some praise must be due to the Wellington groundsman. 55 55 55 Maurice Strickland, who is universally regarded as the most promising heavy in the Dominion, evidently realises that the future of boxing in this country does not look bright and has put into action his threat to seek fields afresh, states an exchange. He sailed last week for Australia, and will no doubt take any matches which are offering in that country, but his objective in England, the call in aa Australia being regarded as something in the nature of a stepping stone. He will carry plenty of good wishes for his success. Members of the American professional golf team who visited New Zealand and Australia were not long getting into action after returning to their homeland. In a Los Angeles open tournament Sarazen tied for third place; Revolta and Ghezzi tied for first with 285, Ghezzi winning the play-off and 5000 dollars. Sarazen's score was 288—not bad for a man who must have walked right off the boat. Runyan (290) and Laffoon (291) are other members of the side who did well. 55 55 55 Find of the Season. The find of the tennis season has been young Bromwich, of Sydney, who at 16 has played himself into the championship class (says the Sydney “Bulletin”). At Perth he beat Menzel and Maier. The visit of the overseas players has taught him a lot, though naturally his game still calls for improvement, particularly the service and smash. Unfortunately, the youth has given evidence of pettishness on the courts—they call it “ temperament ” in tennis. A certain amount of swelled head is allowable in the circumstances, but Bromwich will have to cut out this unfortunate tendency if he is to fulfil the promise he has given. It can be done. Compare the restraint of Perry this last .trip with his song-and-dance antics when he was in Australia before From Scotland Too. When Jimmy Thomson walked off with the Victorian Centenary open championship it was generally supposed he was an American who was comparatively an outsider in big golf. He is no Yank, having been born at Berwick, where his father was a professional at North Berwick links and his mother a sister of Jack White, open champion in 1904—a solid golfing pedigree. Thomson, sen., was transferred to the Richmond Club in Virginia by W. J. Magee, an American patron of golf, in 1920, when Jimmy was ten years old! James adopted golf as a profession and tied with Hagen at the end of the second day of the British open in 1929. He is to make another attempt this year. 55 55 Tour of India? Frank A. Tarrant, former Victorian and Middlesex (Eng.) cricketer, will reach Melbourne at the end of this month on a trip from India; and part of his mission, it is believed, is to arrange for a team of Australian cricketers to tour India for three or four months next season, sailing in November (says an Australian writer). As the Board of Control has already refused to send a team to India next season, and is known to have set itself sternly against privately-controlled tours by Australian teams to other countries, the ultimate success of Mr Tarrant’s negotiations is doubtful. Influential private cricket interests | in India have for some months been pressing for a visit by an Australian team—preferably of promising young players, with a stiffening of wellknown players who have recently retired, drawn from men like W. M. Woodfull, W. H. Ponsford, Jack Ryder, Bert Ironmonger and Arthur Mailey; but the board’s firm attitude has, so far, proved an obstacle. 5: 55 Rest for Runners. ' To-morrow will be “ zero hour ” for Canterbury athletes, all fixtures having been suspended in order to provide a rest before the championship meeting on Saturday week. The visiting Australian team will be here on Saturday, February 23, and the New Zealand championships will be held at Wanganui on March 8 and 9. The inter-club series will be resumed on March 16, and the final meeting will be held a week later. k 55 A supporter of Rowlands Gill (County Durham) Football Club saved his team from defeat in a miners* cup tie replay against Crookhall Rovers (states an English exchange). He got his inspiration when, early in the game, a ball was kicked into the River Derwent and was carried away. A new ball was obtained after a search, and Crookhall was leading 3-2 when the spectator picked up the new ball and threw it into the river. No third ball was available, and the match will have to be played again. D. N. Stokes, of the Beckenham senior team, struck his old batting form at Woolston Park last Saturday, knocking up 89 in good style. Stokes had been having a lean time this year, his previous highest score being 31 against Marist in the first round.

A Golf Tip. " Think of swinging club if you want smoothness and control. I believe most of the trouble in golf comes from the idea of hitting. When } r ou think of the word ‘ hit,’ you almost immediately tighten up. You lose most of your smoothness and rhythm. It means tension —tightening of the muscles. The word ‘ swing ’ means just the opposite. You know when you swing that you cannot tighten up. You have to time a ‘ hit ’ in golf. But the swing will almost time itself. I think that is rather easy to see. Just remember the power you feel in a practice swing, where you start the club head in motion and let it have its way. No one can think of hitting and then keep swinging. It seems to be human nature jto hit rather than swing. Most games are hitting games, yet the golf stroke is such that it demands smoothness, and one can get this smoothness only from swinging the club head in a free and easy way. You’ll get all the distance you need.” —MacDonald Smith. 55 :: 55 The 1940 Olympiad. Signor Mussolini has waived Italy’s claim for the 1940 Olympiad in favour of Japan. Count Soyejima went to Rome specially from Japan to plead with Mussolini and promised to support Italy’s claim for the Olympiad in 1944. He says that Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Austria are now supporting the Japanese at a meeting of the Olympic committee at Oslo on February 25. 55 55 55 That dashing cricketer, Vic. Richardson, who not long since completed his 6000 runs in Sheffield Shield cricket, must have established something near a record for the captaincy of a State team. Richardson began to lead South Australia into the field quite fourteen years ago, if not more, and he looks as

if he might continue doing it for a few years longer. During that time the average period of captaincy for a Victorian or New South Wales player has doubtfully been half a dozen years; old stars have regularly waned and new stars have succeeded them. Out. Mr C. P. M’Gahey, a famous oldtime cricketer, has died at the age of 64, writes the London correspondent of the “ Star.” Death was due to septic poisoning, set up by a bad fall at Christmas. lie joined the Essex eleven in the ’nineties of last century, and was known as one of “ the Essex Twins,” the other being Mr Percy Perrin, one of last season's Test selectors In addition to being a beautiful bat. Mr M’Gahey was a deadly slow legbreak bowler. lie toured Australia with Mr A. C. M’Laren’s team in 1907. and followed Mr F. L. Fane as skipper of Essex, being succeeded in that role in 1911 by Mr J. W. 11. T. Douglas. He was a hard smiter, and figured in some memorable stands for his county. Later he became the county coach and finally a scorer. He headed the Essex batting averages in 1901 with 47. Black’s Form Returns. S. A. Black, formerly one of the Dominion’s outstanding runners, performed finely against the British athletes this week, confirming previous indications of a return to form. The feature of a recent sports meeting at New Plymouth was Black’s impressive running in winning the hundred from scratch in time that was given as lOsec. “ Both timekeepers clocked this time, and the winner did not break at the start, but at the same time it must be remembered that on several occasions during the past few years the New Zealand title has been won in 10 l-ssec only,” stated a northern writer. “ However, this race was certainly a very fast one, and from the start I could see that fast time would be run, as the track also is quite fast at present, from all accounts. Over the last twenty yards Black literally flew in, despite the fact that from where I was standing he seemed to have little chance at 75yds. In the 220yds he ran another good race, and would certainly have won had lanes been used, as he was blocked badlj’- just as he was putting in his final sprint. These short sprints are just the thing to bring the champion back to his best, and I feel confident that at the national championships he will again lead the field home in the quarter.” Miss Round’s Championship. When she won the Australian lawn tennis championship. Miss Dorothy Round joined Miss Betty Nuthall and Miss Peggy Scriven in a notable triumvirate (says the “Star’s” London correspondent). The championship title had never before been won by an Englishwoman. The same remark applied to the occasion when Miss Nuthall won the U.S.A. title in 1930. She was the first Englishwoman to do so. The sdme distinction was won by Miss Scriven when she became champion of France in 1933. Miss Round now holds two major lawn tennis titles—the Australian and the British, which she won at Wimbledon. It is a pity that she could not compete in either the French or the American meetings. She has been playing as she has never played before, and she might easily haye won both or either of these two titles. In 1927r28-29 Mrs Wills-Moody held three titles—-the British. French and American. She is the only player who has ever achieved this distinction.

Why Change It? A craze for changing the rtiles of all games and sundry seems to have fallen upon British sport. Cricket and football, to say nothing of billiards, have recently been instances. Now someone suggests that a move be made to temper the severity of the service in tennis, which often scores b\ r its sheer pace. The idea is to shift the service line within which it would fall nearer to the net. Then no low trajectory service could clear the net and keep in the court unless the server played on top of a pair of steps. The idea is a fool one, and would only benefit the mutts. Most players of any class now take the ball on the half-volley, as Norman Brookes showed the world how to do. - As a rule walking does not appeal, except when the crowd's sense of humour is tickled by the action of some of the competitors. But those who were present at the M.C.G. saw a walker who was as graceful, in his way, as any sprinter on the track (says an Australian writer). He was the New Zealander, Driscoll, who covered the ground with the sprightly step and upright carriage of a born walker. His action provoked nothing but admiration, and his presence vested the walking events with an interest that was extremely rare. ;; 55 :5 The Tennis Mind. Under the heading ** This Lawn Tennis,” the Sydney “ Bulletin ” says; “ Lawn tennis, once regarded as merely a pleasant social game, in the same category as croquet, is having an immense vogue as a spectacle. It is played all over the world and all the year round, leading exponents of both sexes travelling from country to country and from continent to continent. “ Cynics see in the extraordinary popularity of this innocuous pastime a sign of the increasing feminisation of the race. It is probably more intimately related to the decline of musical comedy and the halls. Young people bred to an open-air life go to the tennis much as their parents went to the play. In their new theatre they see an interesting lot of performers—all young, and many with striking personal attractions—doing superlatively well what they themselves would like to do half as well. And, except that they don’t sing or dance, the new performers are very like the old ones. Some have their comic ways; others give exhibitions of vanity and petulance. There is a tendency even to dress like actors. Tights are not yet a tennis fashion, but many of the girls leave off as much as ballerinas.” The play-boy, film-star world’s heavy-weight boxing champion. Max Baer, certainly does not take his challengers seriously. Steve Hamas and Art Lasky have been selected by the various American boxing commissions as logical contenders; and Max promptly asked if he was expected to meet them one at a time, or if he could save a deal of bother by taking the pair of them on in the one ring on the one night. Sarazen’s Blarney. An Australian golf writer says: Whatever may have been his luck in Australia, Sarazen’s New Zealand tour was a success, according to his manager. Gene was very taken with New Zealand and its courses, and reckons that the amateurs there are sounder players than the men on this side, though the result of Windeyer Cup meetings with New South Wales only as opponents does not make the New Zealanders out super golfers. Sarazen also announced that his ambition was to reside permanently in New Zealand when he retired. He said the same thing of this country and expressed a similar longing for the delights of Honolulu. By the time he has done with Japan he will be a prospective citizen of the world. K 55 55 The Sydenham runner, C. W. Bell, in covering the mile in approximately 4min 30sec at the evening meeting at Lancaster Park, showed improved form and he must now be considered as a serious contender for the Canterbury title. Bell has a fine easy action and has proved himself capable of standing the strain of a hard finish, lie also runs with good judgment of pace as was shown by the reserve of energy he had in hand for the finish of the race on Tuesday. Bell in his next start should improve on his time. 55 55 55 Crowd and Player. During a football match between Lanidloes and Aberystwyth in a MidWales League fixture at Aberystwyth last month, the police rescued a player from the crowd, which broke on to the field. When Pritchard (Aberystwyth) robbed the international player. Jack Lloyd, of the ball, Pritchard fell and , some of the crowd declared that he was kicked on the knee. It was then that the crowd rushed on to the field and Lloyd was struck several times before the police escorted him to the dressing room. He returned to the field, but throughout the remainder of the game he was subjected to cat-calling and booing. At the close of the match the crowd again attempted to get at Lloyd when he was leaving the field surrounded by police and when he reached his hotel there was a hostile demonstration. Scrummage Paw The vexed question of the scrummage has again been exercising the minds of the English Rugby Union and in an effort to prevent flayers circumventing Law 15, concerning the scrummage, they have circuited referees. This circular calls upon officials to enforce strictly all laws, and step the methods adopted by players to find loop-holes in them. In an explanation of Law 15, the Rugby Union states that referees must insist that:— (a) The half-back .stands at least 3ft from the scrummage. (b) The ball is to be propelled by both hands below the knee. (c) The ball is not to be put in at excessive speed, but should be fast enough to reach the far feet of the centre players of the front row

The ball has not been fairlv in the scrummage if it comes out between the feet of one of the outside players of the front row. The centre player must not raise or advance his farther foot to obtain possession until the ball has passed one foot of a front-row pla3*er of each team, and has touched the ground between the opposing players.