SCRAP BOOK JOTTINGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 254, 27 October 1939, Page 11

SCRAP BOOK JOTTINGS

ITEMS FROM VARIOUS FORMS OF SPORT OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS BY WELL KNOWN SPORTS PARTICIPANTS

Swimmer 'Enlists. i * Noel Crump, New Zealand Empire' Games swimming representative and a] < lad who has more than one New Zea-11 land sprint swimming championship to I; his credit, is among those who enlist-,: ed with the first group. He holds a I lieutenant’s commission, and is now in i camp. No Tennis Tour of "Big Four." , Great disappointment will be felt in ( New Zealand at the reported cancella- . lion of the tour of Australia of the!) four leading professional tennis players, D. Budge, E. Vines, L. Stoefen and W. T. Tilden. Had the tour even- 1 tuated there is little doubt that New Zealand, or at least Auckland, would : have seen these players in action , again. War conditions are stated to 1 have caused the abandonment of the i tour. To Compete. At Wellington. L. Hannan, promising New Ply- , mouth middle-distance runner, will be , competing in Wellington next season. , He has joined the Wellington Club, j Hannan showed particularly line form ( lor a youth at the last national meet- j ing at Napier, when he ran third in Ihe half-mile to V. P. Boot and T. D. < Blewitt. He was only five yards away," and Boot’s time of Imin. 54sec. was < the fastest time ever registered for u the distance at the New Zealand [ ( championships. If Hannan shows a i natural improvement consistent with I age he might easily develop into a ; champion athlete. i 1 Good Rugby Record. ( The Rangitaiki P.ugby Sub-Union’s ( representative team has an outstand- j ing record in Bay of Plenty footban : ; for the past seven seasons. In 19331 ; Rangitaiki won the Bay of Plenty ( championship for the Te Hurinui- , Apanui Memorial Shield, and held the trophy until the end of the 1938 sea- I son, when, in order to improve the standard of lootball in the province, 1 the shield was handed back to the Bay 1 of Plenty Union. Rangitaiki, how- ( ever, again won the shield at the end 1 of the present season. Since 1933 1 Rangitaiki has played 45 shield games, I having been beaten in only one, this I being in 1936, by Tauranga. In a re- 1 turn match during the same season : Rangitaiki regained the shield. T. G. Broadway. 1 Mark off T. G. Broadway, of Can- ; terbury, as another former prominent < athlete who has slipped quietly into j camp. Broadway Is now at. Ngarua- , wahia. He is a lance-sergeant. In , his day the greatest middle-distance . runner in the country, Broadway won j the national half-mile title in 1932-33-34 and the 440 yards championship in , 1934. He was also at one time the holder of the New Zealand 1000 yards record. A sweet mover, Broadway was, until the advent of V. P. 8001, 1 Ihe best amateur half-miler the Do- : minion had produced. He competed at the 1934 Empire Games in London, and found, like other representatives ; before him, that travel and accli- t matisation were insuperable barriers , io the production of lop form. Broadway was a New Zealand representa- < live, too, at the Melbourne Centenary ' Games the following year, and though ' he ran reasonably well, he did not quite fulfil anticipations. He made bis last appearance on the track at the national meeting at Dunedin in 1936, when he failed by the narrowest of margins to take the 440 yards crown. Special Cricket Attraction? Will Plunket Shield : .atches be the peak games in New Zealand cricket this season, or will the New Zealand Council arrange something in the way of a special Centennial attraction to soften the absence of the Australian team? asks the Sports Post (Wellington). No indication that the council Intends exploring the possibilities has been given, but it is possible that some I effort might be mane after the completion ot the Plunket Shield scries to I provide a special ga II might not, be a bad idea, for instance, to revive, lif only lor this year, the North v. South match. Better still, a New Zealand v. The Rest game. The dilhculI lies in the way of staging such a match would bo no greater than in the case of an inter-isiand fixture. .Matmen's Memories. The Blomlield-Pinder wrestling bout which con.iuded the Auckland season was a match calculated to end a successful year’s sport on a fitting note. Both these men arc rated, high in popular favour, Lofty because he is New Zealand's own production, and Pinder because if ever there vfas an overseas wrestler in New Zealand whose methods are the acme of sportsI manship that man is the brownskinned "Prince" from India. While he has been over here he has not had much to say for himself—of course, he can't speak English—but this has enhanced rather than detracted from his engaging personality. The season took to Auckland as varied and interesting an array of overseas matmen as any of its predecessors, but Pinder is perhaps the most colourful of them all, says the N.Z. Observer. Apart from sheer agile ability ’n the ring, his sportsmanship told heavily in his favour. Out of the ring it was refreshing to meet a matsman who did not prefess to be a world-beater "... if lit only;" who did not claim ownership i of a million acre ranch; and who was ; | not a college graduate who "took up , wrestling just for fun." "Prince’' Bhu i Pinder does not shy from publicity but i he gets along quite nicely, thank you., without overdoing the "blah-blah."

“Rugby Shot Putter.” D. Hermai", Canterbury forward who appeared in the recent All Black trials, is the national shot putt champion. Herman showed very considerable improvement last season (he was throwing beyond the 43ft. mark with consistency), and it is quite likely that during the next two or three seasons he will have exceeded P. Munro's best New Zealand performance of 46f1. Olin. Herman, who stands 6ft. 2in. and weighs 15st.. has all the physical requisites of a first-class performer. He is 22 years of age. Rugby And Cricket Both. C. Williams, 1938 All Black, who shaped rather well again in the recent New Zealand trials, does not confine his sporting activities to Rugby. He is about the best bowler of real pace in Canterbury cricket and should go cl</’ to representative honours in the near future. He plays with Kerr and Donnelly for the West Christchurch Club. Unlike the majority of pace bowlers, Williams settles down quickly, and. he has the capacity to send down fuil-pace deliveries for a fairly lengthy spell, A Good Season. By winning the Timaru Golf Clubs chain. % nship for the second time (his firm v.in in 1935), G. A. Ussher topped off an excellent club season. Ussher, who did so well in the last New Zealand amateur and South Islard championships, has been literally burning up the Highlield links this year. He has been more often under 70 than over. His best effort was an unofficial 65, this being followed by a 66, equalling J. L. Mackay's carded three 66's, and 67's, 68's, and 69's v ere frequent. Ussher will almost certainly be a competitor at the national championships next month and should do well, Kerr To Play In Wellington. F. B. Kerr, former Otago Plunket Shield cricketer, who returned to New Zealand a few weeks ago after a couple of seasons in Adelaide, is transferring to Wellington shortly. It is not known for which club he will play, but possibly he might like to associate himself again with his Waitaki Boys’ High School partner, J. R. Capstick, a member of the Hutt Club, and one of Wellington's promising player-. They were Waitaki's opening batsmen for two seasons—l 933-34 and 1934-35. Kerr may, of course, prefer to turn out for a town eleven, but, whatever he does, he should be an extremely useful man to Wellington cricket. As a result of his Adelaide experience he should be an even more competent, player than he was in his Otago days. Junior Tennis. The poor support given junior competitions was a reflection on the facilities provided by clubs for young pl. \ - ers, according to a statement made by a member of the competitions committee of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association. He said that most clubs prohibited junior players on Saturday afternoons, there was no play on Sundays, and many juniors were unable to play in the evenings except, in midsummer. Schools and other sports clubs catered well for young players, and, unless some effort was made to foster interest the association would lose many promising players, the member said. It was agreed to extend, the closing of entries lor junior competitions and to make a special appeal to clubs for support in this section. National Sports. There are indications that baseball is gaining a slightly bigger hold in New Zealand, especially around Auckland, and possibly the regular services maintained nowadays between New Zealand and America by the Matson boats may tend in time to promote interest by each o these two countries in the national sports of the other. America, however, displays little interest yet in Rugby, cricket or soccer. The Scottish Football Association's I soccer team drew an average attendance of only 2000 to 3000 during its recent American tour, although it easily won all the 14 matches played. Even in the teaming millions of New York the gate was only 15,000, a sharp contrast to the 150,000 an International match will draw at Hampden Park. Experts believe that baseball's monopolistic hold has killed any chance of soccer establishing itself in America. Kiwis Well Treated, The Kiwi League tourists have been extremely well treated by the English League, according to recent advice received by Mr. G. Grey Campbell, of Auckland. "The boys had bad luck considering the good start they made,” he said, "but they were well taken care of. They were turned out of their hotel when the British Government commandeered it for military purposes, but the English League paid their fares to London, gave each man a tenner, and acquired two houses to accommodate them.’’ What will happen to Kiwi Tours Ltd., the company formed to finance the trip, is a matter for the New Zealand Council to decide, and in Mr. Grey Campbell's opinion the report of the two touring managers must be taken into consideration before any decision is reached. He himself is completing his sixth term as chairman of the Auckland Rugby League, and was originally chosen as one ot the co-managers of the Kiwi i team, but ill-health necessitated his withdrawal at the last moment in favour of Robert Doble. The other manager is J. A. Redwood, also an Aucklander. (The Kiwis have since returned to New Zealand).