Slender success for Canterbury surf team

Press, 24 January 1986, Page 20

Slender success for Canterbury surf team

Although the members of the team did not know it, the- Canterbury surf life-saving team had won the Trans-Tasman Trophy against Victoria last Sunday before the last event, the Taplin relay, started. The manager, Mr Ray Claxton, had kept what he believed was an accurate check on the points through the day and he calculated, that as long as the Taplin relay team completed the course, and

was not disqualified, the trophy would be Canterbury’s for the first time since the biennial competitions with Victoria started 10 years ago.

When final calculations were completed, Canterbury had 142 points and Victoria 140.

Disqualifications played a significant part in the result. Canterbury’s best all round competitor, Lars Humer, caused an upset when he beat the two

Victorians by 200 m in the open iron man, the fourth event on the programme. Humer was disqualified for cutting through swimming buoys after becoming confused by two sets of buoys. Towards the end of the day both the Victorian men’s and women’s beach relay teams were disqualified, giving Canterbury the edge in points that it needed to hold off the Victorian challenge. Mr Claxton said there was considerable compromise over the events which would count for points. The Canterbury team had not been prepared for a march past, a late addition to the programme, but the team performed well and beat the Victorians who regard the march past as one of their strong points. Canterbury was clearly superior in the beach events. Anthony Doreen won the men’s final and Helen Mahon lost the women’s race by centimetres to Susie Doojtes. It was Mahon’s only loss in a beach sprint on the twoweek tour. Mahon also won the beach flags for Canterbury.

That was a new event on the programme and was added only after the Victorian women had seen their Canterbury counterparts participating in the event.

Mr Claxton said many Victorian officials were still biased against women competing in certain events. The list of events is more extensive for New Zealand women and the visit of the Canterbury team had shown the Victorian women that they can compete in more events.

The North Beach boat crew adjusted quickly to the Australian boats and came within a couple of feet of winning their three-race surf boat series.

They were competing against the Point Lonsdale crew, the Victorian champion, and for years one of

the strongest boat crews in Australia. Canterbury won the first race, lost the second, and was rapidly catching the Victorians at the finish of the third race. The Victorians won by a metre. Paul Bethell, a junior competitor, was the success of the tour. Originally he was chosen for the junior swimming events, but he quickly displayed remarkable versatility and he was used for a wide variety of events in the international against Victoria. ,

Bethell won the junior surf race and the junior belt race, and enabled Canterbury to finish first and second in the junior beach sprint He won and Luca Soulos was runnerup. In addition Bethell finished second in the junior iron man and the junior beach flags. Canterbury was again one-two in the latter event. Soulos was the winner.

Canterbury’s women swimmers also competed with distinction. In the individual women’s surf race, Lisa Chamberlain was first and Lynette Griffiths second. Jane Bishbp was third but only the first two counted for points.

Bishop and Mahon had not been on a mallbu board before the tour, but it was one of the events that the Victorians had on the programme. Mahon and Bishop trained frantically to master the board in the few days before the event and finished second and third after the leading Victorian woman lost her board.

The Canterbury team was elated with its success particularly, as it went to Victoria understrength in the men’s swimming events. Paul Tozer, Grant Forbes, Lachie Marshall and Ricky Laing, who have been the ' top surf swimmers for the last couple of years, were not available. KEVIN TUTTY