GAMES AND PLAYERS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27410, 24 July 1954, Page 4

GAMES AND PLAYERS

ATHLETIC SPORTS

[By

MILES]

Hot Water After a complaint from the Linwood and Marist Clubs about the scarcity of hot water for players after games in mud and slush, the Canterbury Rugby Union has received permission from the Victory Park Board of Control to provide better facilities for players. Possibly players would have been more interested in lessening the volume of water on the oval instead of increasing it in the dressing room. The writer does not remember the oval at Lancaster Park being in worse condition than it has been on the last two playing Saturdays and from the gruelling it has had in two hard games it may take some time to recover. In recent years Lancaster Park oval has earned the right to be classed amongst the best in New Zealand and its sudden lapse into a quagmire takes some explaining. One suggestion is that the drainage system installed some years ago has outlived its usefulness. The bad state of the ground, however, demands more than passing notice from those in control.

“Butterfly” Stroke “Butterfly” breastroke is to be included on the swimming programme for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, states the official news service for the games. No nation will be permitted to enter more than three male or three female competitors for each of their respective breast-stroke events. A nation may have three competitors in the normal breast-stroke and none in the “butterfly” or two in one and one in the other. This provision says the statement, limits the number of competitors to the same as before the “butterfly” was introduced. A Coveted Trophy

The raqe for the Croft Memorial Cup, the trophy most coveted of cash Cyclists will be held over a 30 mile circuit at Halswell today. This is the first major road race of the season and with a big field of riders who have had plenty of work to get them into top form a splendid race should take place. This will be the 20th race for the Croft Cup on which are engraved as winners the names of Canterbury’s best riders. The unlucky rider in the event has been Alby Thomson- who while taking fastest time several times was never lucky enough to win the trophy. Short of Bouts

Billy Leckie, former New Zealand feather-weight champion boxer, suffered an injury to an arm last year which ruined any chances he had of representing New Zealand at the Empire Games. According to the “Southland Times” Leckie has run out of opponents in the South Island. He has had only one fight in 15 months, and until the provincial and national championships he is not going to get many more—unless he fights lightweights or welter-weights. No featherweight is keen to go in against him. The plain fact is that he is too good. Bill Leckie will make another attempt to win a New Zealand amateur title before he turns professional. He won his first title as a bantam-weight at Greymouth in 1950; and the featherweight title at Invercargill in 1952. S. Moffitt, of Oamaru, the reigning feather-weight champion, has been invited to come to Invercargill to meet Leckie, but he has not accepted. Other featherweights have been invited, but no business has resulted. Leckie t is paying the penalty of proficiency and fame. It is a pity, because he has been so long off the scene. Unless there is a “dark horse” in the North Island, he looks a certainty to win the New Zealand feather-weight title again this year. Italian Boxing

The Italian boxers now visiting Australia are not the first of that origin to capture the imagination of their countrymen overseas. Paddy De Marco, present world light-weight champion, and Rocky Marciano, heavyweight, are Italians. Joey Maxim, former light-heavy champion of the world and former feather champion Willie Pep also came from Italy. Answers to Correspondents

Old-Timer:—The Canterbury team that beat the Springboks in 1921 by 6 points (two tries)- to 4 (a potted goal) was as follows:—C. E. Evans, W. A. Ford, J. McCormack, G. R. Wilson, C. Deans, R. Evans, H. F. Mullins, H. G. Munro, E. H. Ellis, K. Henderson, C. R. Murray, L. Peterson, W. and E. Cummings, N. Carnegie.

Promising Full-P?r*-« Canterbury is not lively to be short of good full-backs in the near future if the form of B. M. J. Dineen (Boys High School) and W. J. Aitken (Christs’ College), in the annual game between the two schools on Wednesday can be taken as an indication of things to come. The day was one in which no player would like to be the last line of defence. The ball was always lively enough to play various tricks once it htt the ground, and it was as slippery as an eel. Only once or twice during the game did either player make a mistake in his ground fielding and anything in the air fell into the proverbial bag. A feature was the perfect judgment used in racing into a high punt, a somewhat risky business at any time, but never was this judgment at fault. Besides handling the ball with confidence both kicked with a length and precision that was truly amazing. Dineen and Aitken have plenty of speed and on a dry ground might prove more than purely defensive full-backs. Last year Dineen was a very elusive five-eighths; •Aitken’s regular place is wing-three-quarters. Rules By Referees

Objection to “passing the buck” by the New Zealand Rugby Union on to the referees regarding the new rules was made at a meeting of the Auckland Referees’ Association on Tuesday, by Mr R. L. Burk, president. Mr Burk was referring to a circular issued by the New Zealand Rugby Union to all unions and referees’ associations. One point made in the circular by the New Zealand Rugby Union was: “A more liberal interpretation of the advantage rule with stress on the fact that the advantage law is the prerogative of a side, not an individual. The union felt that too often a referee blows his whistle for an infringement immediately a nonoffending player fails tp gain an advantage instead of waiting slightly longer.” Mr Burk said it had always been * the desire of the Auckland Referees’ Association that referees should be as unobtrusive as possible. Referees were in the position of having new laws introduced into the game with little relaxation of the old laws. Consequently players could now commit more offences and with more offences there must necessarily be more whistle. Under the old rule there were 33 punishable offences surrounding the scrum, said Mr Burk. Under the new law there were now more than 40. In the lineout previously there were only about five possible infringements to look for. Now these had increased to about 14. The New Zealand union should see whether, with the exception of the penalty kick, the new rules were worth while. As regards the effect of the new rules in Auckland, there had not been much difference in play. Medal for Chataway

At the farewell given to the Australian athletes in Sydney before the departure of the team for the Empire Games at Vancouver the athletics section manager, Mr Theo Treacy was handed the silver inscribed championship. medal of the Amateur Athletics Union of Australia. The highly valued medal will be presented to Chris Chataway as a token of the union’s appreciation of the part he played in the race in which John Landy broke the world mile record. Chataway, who had helped Roger Bannister (England) reduce the world record to 3m 59.45ec, journeyed to Turku, Finland, and ran against Landy who cut Bannister’s record down to 3m 58sec. It is the first time the medal has been presented to other than an Australian championship winner.

Soccer Jubilee A further fixture in the Canterbury Football Association golden jubilee celebrations will be played at English Park today when Canterbury will meet a strong challenge from Wellington. Three weeks ago Wellington was beaten by 3 goals to 1 in a challenge for the English Football Association’s Trophy held by Auckland. Bad luck followed the team almost from the time it was picked. R. Nicholson, the brilliant outside right, who will be playing today, was hurt when training and had to be replaced. During the match itself Kraamwinkel and Sergeant were injured shortly after the start of the second spell and from then on Wellington played two short. In spite of these defections the side gave as good as it received and with more accuracy in its shooting could easily have won the game. The last time Canterbury played Wellington was in Dunedin last year during the final English Football Association’s Tournament —-the last to be held before the new challenge system was introduced. Wellington won 5-0 but since then both teams have introduced new blood. Wellington will have eight, players who have either represented their province, the North Island or New Zealand. The side has a particularly experienced defence and a fast, clever forward line superior to that which was unsuccessful in Auckland. After a shaky start, Canterbury gave a splendid exhibition against Otago last Saturday and the same team will be in for this game. It is very unlikely, however, that the Canterbury defence will allow the Wellington forwards the same latitude as was given the Otago van during the first period of play. A decisive win may even induce the Canterbury Football Association to send the side to Auckland in quest of the trophy later in the season.

Peter Thompson What a year this has been for Australian golf! Bachli wins the Amateur, Berwick wins the St. George’s Vase, and the Australian team win the-Com-monwealth tournament. In the Open Von Nida leads the qualifying, Peter Toogood is leading amateur, and Peter Thompson wins the title. Almost a clean sweep, write Henry Longhurst in a London newspaper. The new champion has everything in his favour —a really beautiful golf swing, the strength and figure of an athlete, a friendly • and modest disposition and, above all, according to modern standards, 20 years of golf left in him. Run-ner-up in each of the last two years, he must have sensed himself by his ovation on the last green a popular winner. He can now return with increased stature to take further tilts at the Americans on their own ground. What a dramatic affair this humble pedestrian game can sometimes be! By lunch-time on the final day only four of them were left in it, and it fell to Syd Scott of Carlisle, whose merit has long been recognised in the North but who was not among the trialists for the Ryder Cup, to set the pace with 284. The Whitewash Brush

“The New South Wales Rugby League’s full inquiry into the England v. N.SW. riot at the Sydney Cricket Ground proved absurdly ineffective,” writes Tom Goodman in the “Sydney Mprning Herald.” “The outcome: One player sent off the field was suspended; three other players cited by the referee Oxford after the abandoned match were rapped on the knuckles by the League’s general committee; both teams were told* that it must not happen again. Apparently, that is to be the official ending of it all. But the football public remains sternly unsatisfied. Had some delegates had their way, there would have been no cautioning, no motion deploring Saturday’s ugly incidents, no warning to the Test teams. The chapter would have been abruptly closed.” However, Rugby League is not the only sports body-that has whitewashed prominent players who have been found guilty of offences by a referee and ordered from the field. In New Zealand, interIsland and provincial games, Cyril and Maurice Brownlie, Quentien Donald, Johnny Simpson and Leo Connolly have earned the frowns of referees without further action being taken.

Jack Dempsey Now 59 years old Jack Dempsey won the World’s championship 35 years ago and after a most colourful ring career he has no marks of his numerous battles. In a recent interview he said:—“We used to fight in close. Today, nobody knows anything. They throw* a lot of punches for the television. In the old days we’d lay for one punch. It might have been the second, the tenth or the twentieth round, but they’d take you out. It takes about three years to know yourself and be seasoned. They don’t know how to get into shape naw. Real training, you think is going to kill you, you’re going to die. In the old days you didn’t tell your sparring partners, ‘Don't hit me here, don’t hit me there.’ If he could, he’d try to take you out. In the old days, if you broke your hand you kept going. If it got swelled up over your eye, you cut it open with a razor blade and your trainer sucked the blood out. If you were knocked down, you pulled yourself up and went. It was a great art to step around a guy and belt him out. As long as it was fair and even for both men.” To Brighter Rugby

With a view to brightening Rugby in Australia the New South Wales Union is making a move to amend rule 27 to debar kicking into touch from any part of the field except from a penalty kick. Members of the Rugby Union consider that the present rule is retarding the growth of public interest in the game. In the 1920’s a dispensation was granted to New Zealand unions to play an amended rule debarring kicking into touch between the twenty-fives, but it cannot he said that it resulted in any brighter play. It encouraged a lot of aimless kicking between the backs with the forwards as spectators. It also took away from Rugby much of the accurate long line-finding of accomplished players. Regrading of Teams

With the idea of encouraging teams in lower grades to graduate to senior status the Canterbury Rugby Union introduced a special match in which the leading club ip senior reserve could challenge the lowest team in the senior championship with the privilege of playing in the higher grade in the following season if successful, a stipulation being that a club with a team in the senior grade could not have a second team. Last year, Teachers’ College won the senior reserve and after beating the “wooden-spooners,” Sunnyside-Spreydon, declined to be regraded, Sunnyside-Spreydon retaining its place in the first grade. This year it seems the leading clubs in senior reserve will include Old Boys, Linwood, both ineligible for promotion, and Teachers’ College, which does not desire it. Next on the list is Merivale, which lost senior status when it was beaten by Belfast three years ago. It may be that Merivale will be the only club in a position t© challenge, possibly Air Force, which is at the bottom of the senior grade. However, if Merivale, the fourth best team, in senior reserve can qualify it will say very little for the standard of at least one club. Mud

Forwards playing in the MaristOld Boys game on the aval at Lancaster Park last Saturday soon became unrecognisable because of the mud and slush. When an Old Boys forward had to leave the field in the first spell a Marist emergency was ready to go on the field but found his services were not required. Spectators did not know which side had lost a man and the Old Boys players did not know they were one short until a scrum went down and they found a vacancy in the front row. G. Roberts was the casualty.