ATHLETICS, ETC.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume I, Issue 50, 9 July 1891, Page 6

ATHLETICS, ETC.

Qn account of the small attendance at the Zealandia Athletic Grounds on Saturday last, Mr. H. Deerfoot, the champion long-distance runner of Australia, did not start to run 10 miles against time as announced, his previous -record for that distance is 5 Imin 20sec. W. G. George, England, ran the same distance in the same time, whilst W. Cummings, professional-, England, did the ,10 miles in Simin-6 3-sth secs. Mr. Geo. Rodwell’s second round in his championship (tournament Should prove a great success. He has received :a large number of entries. Great preparations are being made by Messrs Geo. Rodwell, and D. C. Mahoney, the manager and secretary of the committee appointed to Carry out the complimentary benefit to Mr. Tom ” Collins successfully on the aoth inst. A monster programme will be presented, and already , a large number of tickets have been sdld„ 1 - . [ .Duncan Ross, the champion all round athlete, who recently visited this colony, is hack again in Sydney, and he gave an exhibition at the jopening ,of the newly-formed Olympic Club there on June 9. He will shortly wrestle Franz Zigel, who, is only sft. 2in. in height,• jumped sft. Sin. at the annual spring games. New York, recently, which :is an excellent performance considering his height. We are sorry to announce .that 'Mr. E. o’Hare, the well-known handicapper, was takem seriously ill on Thursday evening last, and, has been spitting large quantities of blood since. On enquiry at his residence to-day rwe were (informed that “.Ted” was rapidly recovering, but.is: still confined to. his bed, and is not permitted to ialk to'.Bmy visitors. . x > .

Of the 33 competitors who nominated for Mr. H. N. Simpson’s £7 Sheffield Handicap, 26 cried “ content” with their handicap, and faced the starter (Mr. Alfred Bailey) on Monday evening, before a moderate attendance, which included the Native Rose Football team, who were present by the kind invitation of the proprietor There were some very close finishes, and also some very questionable running, which resulted in Murphy, who was on the 3£ yards mark, being disqualified by the committee. Murphy explains himself by asserting that he hurt his side in a football match on Saturday. Be this true or not, the management deserve every praise for their prompt and decisive action in endeavouring to put a stop to anything approaching crooked running, and it is by acting as they are doing that the Zealandia Sheffields will gain in popularity. In the first round the following were the winners, which entitled them to run in the second:—Cummins, McGuinnes, Linden, Goldsborough, G. Murphy, Purdy, Wille, J. Roberts firsts. J. Webber, Miles, Hughes. Laxon, Briely, College, McLean, McDermott, seconds. In the second round Roberts, Linden, McDermott, and Webber were left in, and the final resulted: Linden, 1; Roberts, 2; McDermott, 3. Three most interesting Billiard matches have recently taken place, between Messrs Pell and Robinson, each for £5 aside 500 up, The first was played at Quinlan’s Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Both competitors started level, and Pell won by about 150 points. The second match was played at Hawkins’ Queens Hotel, Pell conceding Robinson 50 points, the latter winning rather easily; for the third and deciding match, both men again met on level terms at Russell’s Occidental Hotel on Thursday evening last, the game was very even up to 250 the competitors each making breaks of about 40, at this point Pell gradually drew away and won the match with no to spare.