VETERAN ATHLETE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19248, 27 February 1925, Page 7

VETERAN ATHLETE

MB. R. COOMBES’ SEVENTEENTH VISIT. ADVICE TO DOMINION OARSMEN. Mr Richard Coombe, of Sydney, arrived in New Zealand on his seventeenth visit to this country by the Maheno on Tuesday. In .1887, Mr ’ Coombes founded the New South i Wales Amateur Athletic Association, ! and has remained its president for 32 j consecutive years, says yesterday ’a i Dominion. He Iras always had the iui tercsts of athletics at heart, and asI sisted to found associations in different ’ parts of Australia. In 1896 he commenced a meeting of all the athletic bodies in existence at that, time with the object of forming an amateur athletic union to govern the sport. A ; controlling body was formed and was, and is known, as the Amateur Athletic Union of Australia and New Zealand. Mr Coombes was the first president, and has retained the office ever since. ' An old athlete himself, Mr Coombes was a member of the London Athletic Club for twelve years, and was noted as a champion walker, being specially renowned for style. In 1899, when the controlling body—the Union’s Board of Control-—met in Brisbane, Mr Coombes was asked to draft a code of rules defining what fair walking was. He did so, and his code was accepted the world over, and still stands as the guide for correct and fair walking. In Sydney z they have had a walking club for thirty years, of which Mr Coombes has been the permanent president from its formation. Another sport Mr Coombes takes the keenest interest in is rifle shooting. He commenced in 1875 in England, and is an active rifleman still. He competed at Trcntham, and also at J’apawai, two years ago, and intended t;> have a shot this year had the N.R.A. meeting not been postponed. He was captain of the Sydney Rifle Club for 17 years and is now patron and life member of the club. He is also a vice-president of the Metropolitan District (Sydney) Rifle Club Union, which has some 80 clubs affiliated to it. He was also one of the founders of the New South Wales’ Coursing Association in 1896, and was president of this body for 22 years. About eight years ago, Mr Coombes was responsible for forming the Australasian Coursing JJnion, which embraces New South Wales, Queensland, and NewZealand. Mr Coombes is also the permanent president of this union. In the rowing world, Mr Coombes has long been acknowledged as an authority. He has acted as stakeholder in many of the principal races which have taken place for the championship of the world in Australia and New Zealand for the past thirty years. Mr Coombes was a capable oarsman and sculler himself as a lad in England, and saw Ned Trickett, the ’Australian, beat J. H. Sadler on t’ <s Thames in 1876. This was the first time an Australian had won the world’s championship. Since that day Mr Coombes has seen most of the battles for the world’s title, including the races in which Laycock, Beach, Hanlan, Searle, Stanbury, George Towns, Charlie Towns, Billy Webb, Dick Arnst, and Jim Paddon figured. Like the good sportsman he is, Mr Coombes on Wednesday gave some sound advice to the secretary of the New Zealand Rowing Association (Mr A. D. Bayfield) and the manager of the New Zealand eight which is to visit Sydney to row for the eight-oar championship of New South Wales on March 14. Mr Coombes advised the New Zealanders, on their arrival in Sydney, to secure the services of George Towns to coach them over the course. Although the New Zealanders will be rowing against club crews in Sydney, Mr Coombes is of opinion that a good club crew is quite as good as, if not better than a composite crew. The New Zealand eight, said Air Coombes, will also compete at the Riverview Regatta on the Lane Cove River. This race will come off a week after the eight-oar championship, and will be over a mile. Another interesting race which has been arranged for the Now Zealanders in Sydney is a four-oar race between the best four in the New Zealand eight, and a four from the Mosman Club, the champion rowing club of Sydney. This, said Air Coombes, will be what the Americans describe as “an honest-to-goodness ’’ race. Reverting to athletics, Afr Coombes said he did not think New Zealanders had seen the best of the four athletes and the cyclist forming the Australian team at present in the Dominion. “I think,” he said, “that you will find they will do much better at Wanganui.” He expressed keen appreciation of the way in which he was being looked after in Wellington on this, his seventeenth visit to the Dominion. He stated that Messrs Arthur Davies (president of the N.Z.A.A.A.), H. Alarshall (chairman of the New Zealand Rifle Association), and Arthur Ballinger (the famous marksman) had done everything humanly possible to make, his stay pleasant. This had been his experience on every visit to this country, and it was not surprising, therefore, that ho always enjoyed his trips to New Zealand. Mr Coombes will attend the New Zealand amateur athletic championships at Wanganui to-day and to-mor-row.