Canterbury Did Well at University Athletics

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28266, 2 May 1957, Page 13

Canterbury Did Well at University Athletics

rpHE outstanding feature of A the recent New Zealand Universities’ Easter tournament was the near-defeat of Otago in the points for the tournament shield. Otago has won the shield for the last six years, and Canterbury’s performance in running it to a margin of one point and a half on Otago’s home ground, must be commended. Of the eight sports in the competition, Canterbury and Otago won four each, and the Canterbury win in the one unofficial event, yachting, f was a further indication of the high standard of the Canterbury entries.

Otago, with its high proportion of full-time students, especially in its medical, dental and physical education faculties, has a great advantage. As medical students do a five-year course, compared with three years in other courses, these competitors are on the average older and more experienced. The physical education school in Dunedin is, of course, a further benefit.

The standard of competition in all sports was extremely high. Canterbury’s uniformly strong athletics team was, as expected, successful in winning both the men’s and women’s sections of this sport. In the men’s section, outstanding competitors were B. C. Robinson, of Auckland, and

R. G. Ball, of Canterbury. Robinson, won the 100 yards, the 220 yards hurdles and the long jump The very slow track prevented the setting of any new records in the track events, but in the long jump Robinson came within half an inch of breaking the record established by J. N. Millard as long ago as 1911. World Class Robinson, who is in world class over the 220 yards hurdles, was pressed in this event by J. G. Hawkes, the national title-holder for the 440 yards hurdles, and both competitors won Blues for this event. Ball w’as the outstanding field-events competitor, winning the shot, javelin and discus, and filling second place in the hammer and third place in the 120 yards hurdles. If Ball had competed in the pole vault, he would have gained a place in this event also. In the discus, Ball was unlucky not to be credited with the record as, after throwing nearly five feet further than the previous best, it was found that the throwing circle was five-eighths of an inch too large. However, Ball broke the javelin record by more than 11 feet. D. Davison, of Canterbury, displayed brilliant form over the shorter distances, with a win in the 220 yards and a second in the 100 yards. Perhaps Davison’s best performance, however, was his run in the mile relay. The only other record-breaker in the men’s section of the athletics was the captain of the Canterbury team, D. D. Leech, who passed the previous best distance for the hammer with a throw of 155 ft 3in. Women Athletes Outstanding athletes in the women’s section were Misses J. Nixon and A. MacDonald, of Canterbury, and Miss N. Westbury of Auckland. Miss Nixon won the 75 yards, the 100 yards and the 220 yards, and filled second place in the long jump. Miss MacDonald won the long jump, and filled second place in the 75 yards, the 100 yards and the hurdles event. In addition, both these girls were members of the Canterbury team which won the relay. Miss Westbury was the outstanding competitor in field events, winning the shot, discus and javelin. In the discus and javelin. Miss Westbury set new records, and was the only woman athlete to be awarded a Blue. Miss Nixon’s failure to win ? Blue can only be attributed to the very slow track, on which she was unable to reproduce her fast times recorded in Christchurch.

In the swimming events, which finally decided the tournament shield, Canterbury had a slight lead in the men’s section, but Otago’s very marked superiority in women’s races gave them the vital points. The national men’s 100 yards freestyle title-holder. O. Snoep, of Canterbury, was hard-pressed by F. Strange, of Otago, while over the longer distances the former national champion J. Jarvis, of Otago, was superior.

The breaststroke events were keenly contested between I. H. McDonald, of Canterbury, and J. Marks of Otago. Record-breakers in the men’s events, apart from Snoep, were J. A. Stewart (Canterbury) in the medley, and G. Leach, of Auckland, in the butterfly. The standard of play in the water polo was extremely high. The winning Canterbury players had all previously played for New Zealand Universities, and, of these, C. F. Sonntag, O. Snoep and A. R. Peters were selected again this year, with F. J. McKenzie and J. Snoep as emergencies. K. Boswell and G. Leach, of Auckland, were outstanding, as was D. Dowse, of Otago. Swimmers The outstanding woman swimmer was the national champion, Miss L. Orbell, of Otago. In winning the medley, Miss B. Ross, also of Otago, broke the previous record. Misses A. Clark, freestyle, B. Hudson, backstroke and 'J. Spooner, diving, completed Otago’s succession in women’s events, giving them a clean sweep. Tennis of a high standard was shown by the Otago men and the Auckland women. J. Montgomerie and D. Lye fought out the final of the men’s singles, in which Montgomerie beat Lye for the first tir. e this season. The final of the women’s singles was between two prominent New Zealand juniors. Miss J. Glenie beat Miss V. Fladgate. Cricket was severely restricted by rain, but the Canterbury team was undoubtedly the outstanding one of the tournament. W. I. Axford (Hawke’s Bay) and R. F. Hunter (Nelson) were the best batsmen of this team, and G. Alabaster was chosen as captain for the New Zealand Universities team which beat the Otago provincial side.

The well-known Canterbury boxers W. Whineray and I. A. McDougall won further titles at the tournament. The feather-weight, P. Hohepa, won the award for the most scientific boxer for Auckland. The standard of the shooting was said by officials to be higher than that of the last national championships at Trentham, with I. Newton, of Victoria, and R. W. Kingsley, of Canterbury, outstanding.