SPORTS TOPICS IN BRITAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 April 1949, Page 6

SPORTS TOPICS IN BRITAIN

N.Z. Rugby League Players LONDON,ApriI 15 (Rec. 6.30 p.m ) The New Zealanders, Kia Rika, and J. A Macdonald will play for the Halifax Rugby League team against Bradford at Wembley Stadium on May 7. in the final of the Rugby League championship. J. Macdonald, another New Zealander, will be a reserve for Halifax. Already 96,000 tickets have been sold for the match, realising £26,000 a record for Rugby League in Britain. H. E. Cook and I. Proctor, who toured Britain with the “Kiwi” team recently transferred from Halifax to Leeds. C. Mountford, who is playing with Wigan is shortly returning to New Zealand. It is not yet decided whether his contract will be extended, ed. Denis Compton (Britain’s greatest all round sportsman, is considering saying farewell to Association Football and he may not sign again for Arsenal when his contract expires in August. Compton, who will be 31 next month has decided that professional football is becoming too strenuous for him and that he will in future devote himself to cricket. This decision means that he may not realise his life-long ambition to represent his country in both cricket and soccer internationals. He was capped for England at soccer during the war, but this is not regarded as a “full-cap.”

It is expected that Compton will receive £20,000 this year from benefit matches arranged for him by the Middlesex Cricket Club. UNUSUAL GOLFERS. A father with one eye and a son with one hand won their first round match in the annual father and son foursome golf tournament held at Westhill, Surrey, this week. They were Field Marshal Earl Wavell, who lost his right eye in the battle of Loos in 1915, and his son, Viscount Keren, who lost his left hand while fighting with the Chindits in Burma in 1944. Viscount Keren, who is 33, has a special ring fitted to the stump of his forearm. When using a golf club he fits this ring over his sound wrist and is thus able to produce a normal swing. He uses this "handcuff grip” for all shots except putts. There is a possibility that because of damage caused by flooding at Deal, this year’s British open golf tournament may be held either at St. Andrew’s or at Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s. The open has not been played at Royal Lytham since 1926, when Bobby Jones won the championship. If the Deal course is not available St. Andrew’s will be the most probable second choice, but it will be difficult for the committee to fit the open into what promises to be a very full season. This year’s Ryder Cup match between Britain and the United States will be played at Ganton, Yorkshire, on September 16 and 17. The British selection committee this year will be three former open champions, Arthur Havers, Alfred Padgham, and Richard Burton, Charles Whitcombe, who has twice captained the British Ryder Cup teams and the new chairman of the British Professional Golfers’ Association, who will not be elected until July. BRITISH MILER. W. Nankeville, who ran sixth in the Olympic 1500 metres last year and who is regarded as one of Britain s most promising middle distance runners, has announced that he will not be available for the Empire Games m New Zealand. Nankeville holds the present British mile title, which he won last year in 4min. 14.2 sec. He has, however, taken nearly a second off this time at subsequent meetings.