SPORTING SCRAPS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XX, Issue 3548, 14 January 1897, Page 4

SPORTING SCRAPS.

Lord Hawke is taking a team of English cricketerß to the West Indies. Tom Garratt, captain of the N.S. Wales eleven, has now played in his 3lst Intercolonial match, and holds the record, Blackham haring played in 30. C. Memmott and F. Weiss commenced a billiard match in Sydney on January 11th for the spot-barred championship of Australia. The game will be 8000 up. His recent defeats by Bacon hare apparently disgusted T. P. Conneff, who has declined to take up a challenge from G. B. Linckler on the ground that he has decided not to again figure on the running path. The totalisator tax paid to the Government in connection with the Manawatu Racing Club’s Summer meeting amounted to £196 12s. The total receipts at the meeting were £2308 7s, and there will be a profit of over £6OO on the two day's racing. A London correspondent says:— The cranks and crackpots hare been, and still are, doing all they can to spoil sport in England, but fortunately they hare no chance of succeeding, as they are well watched, and fought tooth and nail whenerer they elect to hare a go. Patrick Carroll, who signs himself the Champion of America, has cabled the following challenge to the London Sporting Life : —“ I hereby challenge any man in the world to run from one to fire miles, for a stake of lOOOdol. (£200) aside, in one month from signing articles —Mullens, Crossland, or Bacon preferred.”

The yearling Castor —Cissy colt, that was knocked down to G. Wright at the Wellington Park sale for 440 guineas, has passed into the hands of Mr G. G. Stead, the Canterbury sportsman haring concluded negotiations for the purchase on Tuesday. The colt was shipped to Christchurch by the Takapuna.

Alf. Stone, now performing at the Saroy Theatre, Dublin, gare out last month that he was prepared to match himself to compete against Sandow in genuine feats of strength; or he would forfeit £IOO to Sandow or any other man breathing, who could accomplish four genuine feats of strength which he would show. T. G. Agnew, in writing from England to a Maitland friend, says he has been training with the examateur, A. R. Downer, at Glasgow, and that there is rery iittle between them. If such is the case Agnew must hare improved a lot since he was running in Australia, as Downer is credited with being able to get inside evens from 120yds up to 200yds.

Kirkham, one of the Australian horses sent over to England by the late Mr James White, is now at the stud in Ireland. The Irish statistics of winning stallions in that country during 1896 (says a London correspondent) show Kirkham as the sire of one winning horse, a son of his named Kirkeen, haring won a race of the value of £3O.

The attack by the Anti-Gambling League on the Alexandra Park, near London, has been defeated. Mr John Hawke, on behalf of the League, opposed the renewal of a horse-racing license for the Park, but the County Council Licensing Committee for Middlesex granted the license—another slap in the face for the spoil-sports.

Some of America’s trotting performers hare achieved wonders in their old age. A New York paper says that Goldsmith Maid took her record of 2min 14b6c when she was 17 years old, and trotted to her record again at Belmont Park when she was 19, and she went remarkable miles after she was 20. The old horse Chicago, foaled in 1859, was winning races in 1883, when he was 24 years old, and the miles were right around 2min 30sec. Silas Rich was campaigning and winning when he was 22 years old. Magna Charta was winning heats when he was 18. Of all the old campaigners, however, the performances of Goldsmith Maid overshadowed those of any horse, living or dead. A bicycle race from Norseman to Esperance, 120 miles, terminated on Christmas Ere, and resulted in a dead heat between W. Thring, who started at 12 33 a.m., and F. A. Kilminister, who left at 1 a.m. Esperance was reached at 6.14 p.m. Considering the extra rough roadß and the great beat, the performance is remarkable, but it us not surprising that both men were thoroughly exhausted. On their arrival they were met by a large crowd and enthusiastically cheered.

The hurdle racer Bischoff was sold recently for 40gs, and his new owner got a race out of him the first time of asking. The prize was the Malmsbury Hurdle Race, but there was no merit in the performance, inasmuch as the rogue’s only opponent obligingly ran off the course, the jockey being severely reprimanded. Later on, when Bischoff, in the Malmsbury Cup, met a horse that was willing to go with him all the way, he waß beaten, the prize falling to Malta, a well-known local performer on the fiat and over jumps. Bischoff, prior to this, had not won a race for about five years ; it will be interesting to see when he next scores. On November 18, at Norton, Mai ton, there died one of the last of the old school of trainers. Reference iB made to J. Perrin, who for many years was head lad and stable manager to John Scott, the “ Wizard of the North.” During the 35 years he was at Whitewall that famous establishment was at the zenith of its glory, no less than five Derbies, sixteen St. Legers, eight Oaks, eight Two Thousand, and four One Thousands falling to its share, truly an extraordinary record. On the death of John Scott, in 1871, Mr John Bowes, who had been one of the chief patrons of Whitewall, made Perrin his private trainer, and he continued to have charge of the horses until that gentleman’s death in October, 1885. In his will Mr Bowes left his old trainer a comfortable annuity, but the estate was thrown into Chancery, and for years he never benefited by it. However, it was eventually resoued

from the clutches of the law, and Perrin was able to epend the last few years of his life in comfort. An enterprising departure in racing under National Hunt Rules is announced by the Warwick (Eng.) management, who, perhaps in emulation of the step taken in another direction to celebrate the completion of the century, put forward the biggest thing yet attempted, so far as monetary value is concerned, in connection with steeplechasing. The new affair is to be called the Britannia Steeplechase, of 5000 sovs, with a trophy value of 100 bovb, for yearlings of 1897 and older horses of all ages, to be decided at the Warwick Spring Meeting in 1900. The distance will be four miles, and there iB a graduated scale of subscription (starting with 1 sov), according to the time horses are left in, after the manner of the Eclipse Stakes and the other “ ten thousand pounders” on the flat. A companion event is also proposed for the second day of the meeting, called the Britannia Hurdle Race, of the same value as the steeplechase, also for yearlings of 1897 and older horses, to be run over two miles. Both stakes are weight-for age, with certain penalties and allowances, and the nominator of the winner is to receive 200 sovs, and the owners and nominators of the second and third horses each 100 sovb out of the plateFor the projected stakes 300 entries are stipulated.

The Derbyshire Football Association, at a recent meeting, had a very curious point submitted to them for decision. The Buxton Football Club complained of several of the members of their team having received injuries in consequence of a member of the Bonsall (Matlock) team having played with a wooden arm. They complained that the practice was a dangerous one, and asked the association to make it a rule that players should in every case take the field without artificial limbs. It transpired during the discussion that several clubs in the county would be affected. One member of the council said these players with “ dummy” arms were regular “ terrors ” Once they got on the ball they swung their artificial arms round, and it was a wonder they had not heard of fractured skulls. After a long debate it was decided that players with artificial limbs should take them off before taking part in any game.