MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XIX, 8 May 1897, Page 575

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

The Messrs Logan have just commenced, to the order of Mr P. Dufaur, a 2 '4-rater. The craft will be built up to the new rules, and is to be ready for next season. Latest advices state that Stoddart’s team for Australia next season will include Ranjitsinbji, F. S. Jackson, Captain Wynyard, M’Lareu, Mason, Lilley, Hayward, Hayman, Richardson, Peel, Bray (as a second wicketkeeper), and possibly Lohmann. At the Melbourne Druids’Gala, on April 23rd, the fivemile international scratch race resulted —Body I, Walne 2, Middleton 3, Martin 4. A few inches separated the placed men. Time—izmin qsec. On April 24th the Druids’ Wheel Race was decided as follows :—Body, 20yds, 1 ; Middleton, 50yds, 2 ; K. Lewis, 40yds, 3. Won comfortably. Time — 4min 59sec. Ten-mile Scratch Race —Walne I,Porta 2, Martin 3. Time—24min 20 15th sec. Lesna, the French champion bicyclist, will arrive in New Zealand this week, but nothing has been done to induce him to visit Auckland. During the spell in the Parnell-Thames match on Saturday, one of the players who had made a desperately wild rush with the ball, explained the case thus:—‘l raced up the ground with the goal at my mercy, but I lost mv head and kicked it across the field ’’ Some first rate form was shown in the practice football match between Ponsonby and Grafton senior fifteens on Saturday, and it was by a mere fluke that Kelly scored a try for Ponsonby near the end of the game. Grafton had a very mixed team, and I cannot think that playing outsiders will tend to increase the efficiency of the team. City’s Best and a team from the rest of the Club was a very one sided game, and it is about time these kind of matches were abandoned ; they do no earthly good, and only tend to frighten timid but promising juniors. Grafton and Ponsonby seconds had a lively game, but the latter had too much go, and managed to win by S points to 3. A. H. Holder competed at the meeting of the Wanganui Amateur Athletic and Cycling Club held on Easter Monday, but was out of form having done no training since the championship meeting. In the Hundred Yards Handicap he ran second in his heat, won in 10 I.sth sec. and third in the final. The winner wa A. H. Williamson (syds) who finished half a yard in front of Moncur, Holder being a few inches behind the latter. The time was returned as tosec. In the 250yds Handicap the champion was beaten on the tape by C E. Bridge whose handicap is not given, neither is the time. The cricket season in Wellington was closed on Saturday afternoon, when, after an exciting finish, the Pbivnix Club defeated the Midlands by 5 runs The Wellington Club thus wins the Senior Championship. Had the Midlands been victorious in Saturday’s contest they would have tied Wellington, and the two clubs would

have been bracketed on the cup as there would have been no further time to play off the tie. From the following, taken from the Melbourne Sportsman, there seems to be a decidedly antagonistic spirit among some of the racing men in Victoria : —• Walne’s final run in the Five-mile fairly smothered Joe Megson, and was all the more meritorious when it is remembered that the Queenslander laboured under the disadvantage of two badly-painted optics. The unskilled artist was A. C. Middleton, and the temporary studio was the St. Kilda dressing room on Friday night. From all accounts the ‘ go ’ seems to have been a fair and square one, and though Walne was out-mastered from the jump he came up pluckily each time Middleton sent him down.’