GREAT SPORTS OCCASION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 115, 18 May 1939, Page 6

GREAT SPORTS OCCASION

KING'S DAY IN WANGANUI MORNING RUGBY, RACING IN AFTERNOON. WRESTLING BOUT AT NIGHT. Profiting by experience gained during the past three years, the Wanganui Rugby Union and the Wanganui Jockey Club are co-operating to promote a special day in Wanganui on June 5, King’s Day. The birthday of the reigning King falls in December and is so near to Christmas that to make it a holiday in the southern hemisphere would result in great inconvenience. more particularly to retailers. It. has been arranged in New Zealand to observe the first Monday in June each year as King’s Day, instead of observing a holiday on December 14. Rugby in the Morning. Wanganui and Taranaki Rugby teams are to play a representative match at Wanganui on King’s Day and in the afternoon the Wanganui Jockey Club will hold the second day of its winter meeting. The match will be the first representative fixture of the year in the North Island and the second to be played in the Dominion. The New Zealand University match, set down to be played at Christchurch on June 3, is the first important fixture in the Dominion. The Wanganui-Taranaki fixture will come next, and in view of the importance of this season in the search of talent to travel to South Africa next year, one or more of the North Island selectors is likely to be in Wanganui. North Island Selectors. The North Island selectors this year are Messrs. F. Lucas (Auckland), N. McKenzie (Hawke’s bay), and T. French (Poverty Bay). Mr. McKenzie is a brother of the New Zealand sole selector (Mr. E. McKenzie. Wairarapa). but is better known to followers of Rugby as the builder of the great Hawke’s Bay teams of the past 15 years. Mr. Lucas is well known as a three-quarter of the 1924 Invincible All Blacks, a member of the New Zealand team which toured South Africa in 1928, and who played against the British team in New Zealand in 1930. Mr. French was a member of the Maori selection committee last year which toured Fiji. Although the unions with which all three North Island selectors are engaged will be playing in matches on King’s Day, efforts are being made to induce at least one of the selectors to be in Wanganui. If those efforts fail it is presumed that, the practice of the past will be followed, and a co-opted advisor to the three selector: will be asked to keep an eye on the Wanganui and Taranaki players with a view’ to further note being taken of their form Selecting the Wanganui Team. Selection of the Wanganui team to play in the match on King’s Day will be made on May 27, next Saturday week, when the Wanganui selection committee will meet in the city. The club match this week, between Kaierau and Wanganui and Old Boys, one of the most important, of the season, will be a close guide to the committee and it is hoped that all three selectors will be in Wanganui to see it. The Wanganui committee this year is Messrs. A. Henwood, H. Whiting and W. Pine. Mr. Henwood, who is on the Management. Committee of the Rangitikei Union, has been chairman of the selection committee for the past four seasons. Mr. Whiting, a member of the Wanganui Union’s management committee, has been sole selector for the now defunct Metropolitan Union for some time and he has replaced Mr. S. Ambrose, Who was on the selection committee last year. Mr. Pine is Taihape’s representative on the selection committee, but is probably better known to Wanganui players and public as a good forward in the Taihape and Wanganui representative teams of 1931. Good Racing Programme King’s Day racing in Wanganui is expected to provide an excellent winter racing attraction. Eight races are included on the programme, the major ones being the Wanganui Steeplechase, a “cross-country” race over a distance of about three miles for a stake of £550; the June Hurdles, run over a mile and three-quarters for a stake of £300; the Empire Handicap, a 10-fur-long event on the "flat,” for a stake of £350, and the Belmont Handicap, for sprinters. In addition there is a hack and hunters’ steeplechase over a distance of about two miles. This will be the first the King’s Day programme, star; at 11.30 a.m. The first day's racing, on Saturday, June 3, will include the Grandstand Steeplechase, the Century Hurdles, and the Connolly Handicap. Wrestling at Night A wrestling bout is being arranged by the Wanganui Wrestling Association to provide the public with a fitting finale to King’s Day. I; is not known yet what wrestlers will be here, but the association states that the New Zealand champion, “Lofty” Blomfield, will possibly be one. The bout will not only serve as a part of the dry’s programme, but will open the v—°stling season in the city.