FROM THE SCRAP BOOK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 4

FROM THE SCRAP BOOK

JOTTINGS OF INTEREST FROM HERE AND THERE

Cotton’s Cubic. Henry Cotton has received a cable from the American Professional Golfers’ Association offering io arrange a tour. Cotton has replied demanding £2OOO exclusive of expenses for a five weeks’ tour. Hagen’s Coupe. When the American golfers see a smart coupe on the road bearing the number plate “W.H.288,” they know it is Walter Hagen. Presumably 288 is Hagen’s model aggregate 72-hole score for tournament play. Fifty Next Month. Ernest Tyldesley, one of the greatest batsmen ever to play for Lancashire, is to be elected to the committee of the county club. Tyldesley, who is an honorary life member of the club, retired in 1935, and will be 50 in February. Grandstands For Golf. An interesting 108 holes professional medal tournament was held at Fenway Golf Club, White Plains, New I York, recently. Three grandsands were put up beside the first, sixth and seventeenth greens to hold 3000 people, and they were packed all the days of the tournament. It seems as if the idea may get further trial in some of the competitions next summer. Poser For Parson. A clergyman who held a living in Yorkshire one day decided to pay a visit to the local trainer. Upon approaching the yard he was shocked to hear a regular tornado of bad language. In the stable yard he found the head lad and another boy vainly endeavouring to make a racehorse enter a motor horse box. He stood mutely by, watching the frantic efforts of the pair. At length the head lad said heatedly: “Are you a parson?” “Yes,” replied the cleric meekly. “Well, tell us,” said the head lad in desperation, “how the ’ell did old Noah get a couple of ’osses into the bloomin’ Ark?” no moral rights at all to figure in a competition. So another secretary-cum-Associatc scene. One that easily may take an ugly turn, were not secretaries diplomats among diplomats. “Oh! but 1 really haven't the time to be always putting in cards. I’m not like most of the Associate members. I’m a busy woman. I have a family to look after, and a husband. “Then I have my work for the Kindergarten and the Mothcrcrafl Society, and, of course, 1 must have a day or two a week at the Bridge Club. And, besides, this is an event on the men’s programme. The mor always control the mixed foursomes You haven’t got any of these perfectly silly rules about handicaps, know you'll give me a handicap—just for the day. You know I only play al the game nowadays—this is merely : social day for me. My husband—blesi him—just insisted upon my playin; with him. I was on 17, but, of course. I’ve hardly played at all this season You’d be quite safe to give me 36!” One man—above all others—an; club secretary dodges round about lh< mixed foursomes date is the oldcs member. Strong as undeniably is th< case against the mixed outing on ; Saturday afternoon, I consider his at titude towards the secretary hardlj fair. As if it was his doing! It wasn’t quite cricket, either, th( I wav he stormed off home on mixec foursome day 12 months ago growlin; to his spouse that “What with th( • dogs and the women, a man cai • barely get a game at all.’ “At least. | protested the oldest member’s wiL I without heat, if with befitting dignity I “you might have put the womei • first.” “Certainly not,” growled thi oldest member (to quote Mose • again), “you can kick the dogs!” Bu I there is a case against the mixe< • foursome.

Champion High Diver. Secretary “Bill” Fawcett, of the Victorian Amateur Swimming Association. is certain Victoria will have ex-world’s champion high diver, Peter Dcsjardines, there next season. “Our experience is that it is better to have one high-class diver than one champion swimmer from abroad. The public will always give you better support for the spectacular diver than it will for the swimmer, no matter how good he may be,” says the efficient Victorian secretary. Still Going Strong. It is 10 years since Alex Stokes won national titles over 220yds. and 880yds., and yet just recently he proved good enough to win the Canterbury 220yds. championship from L. Newell in the good time of 2min. 32sec., as well as putting up smart time in his swim-over in the 880yds. events. Stokes is the Otago delegate on the New Zealand Council, and was a member of the Dominion surf team in Australia last year. Footballer Recovers Sight. After three weeks of blindness, Billy Simpson, 26-year-old North Shields F.C. player, walked to the window of his ward in the Newcastle upon-Tyne Eye Infirmary last month, pointed ot the street below, and said: •‘I can see that lorry. There are two men in it.” Simpson had feared that he had reched the end of his career as a footballer, but now doctors hope I that he will be playing again early in the New Year. His team-mates were delighted at his recovery. They thought that he I had lost his sight as the result of a 1 kick on the head, but the doctors said I this was improbable. Lay’s Javelin Performances. Stan Lay, former Empire javelin throwing champion, who represented New Zealand at the Empire Games of 1930 and 1938 and at the Olympic I Games in 1928. retains his form to a I remarkable degree and is putting up performances no far short of the best he has done in New Zealand. He is one of the several Empire Games representatives who is playing his part by competing in various parts of the Dominion, often at considerable selfsacrifice, and at Nelson recently he I registered a throw of 200 ft. which wa.s only 6ft. 6in. short of his best per- | formance in New Zealand. | Announcing Up-to-date. ' The loudspeaker system has quickly I become an integral part of the j mechanism controlling sports meetings and practically every club has i some type of broadcast set installed I for their open meeting. The Pacroa 1 club, however, introduced a new note in modern efficiency by installing not i only a loudspeaker system but a set . of telephones from the judge's stand • to the record’s clerk (seated alongside I the announcer) and from the announcer to the secretary’s office. This entirely eliminated the usual i running about, with result cards, and . the idea might well be copied else- : where. Athletic Clergyman. Curate of the Church of England. ; Takapuna, the Rev. B. D. C. Coleman ? is an athlete of note with whom t Auckland half-milers will have to , contend in the future. At an interj club amateur meeting recently he _ registered the excellent performance • of 2m. 7 4-5 s for the senoir half-mile event, taking the lead at the outset > ' and remaining in front all through to I win easily by 10 yards. When he , was a student of Durham Univer- ’ sity, he held the one-mile and threc- } mile cross-country titles for varying • periods. He has recently returned ? i from England after an absence of | eight years, ajid will concentrate on j i the half-mile as a member of the , Technical Club. His style is characS t erised by beautiful action and local I competitors can expect strong opj position from him.