Sport Gossip From England

Chronicle (Levin), 14 February 1948, Page 7

Sport Gossip From England

Reeeived Friday, 7" p.m. . LONDON, Feb. 13. English erieket writers'- ha'd pfac tically picked the Australian 's teaiu fo. them before it was published so tlien. was little surprise vvhen the iiames oi .the linai seventeen were amiounced Any surprise there was, was occasiouetl by the omission of Dooland. There is widespread satisfaction at t'he hews that Bradnian is coming, for, although it is recognised this dimiidshes Eng land '3 chances, it is' felt the tour wpuLo have lost a great deal of, its interesi without him. The consensus of expert. opinion— al ready in fuil* spate — appears to be that alth'ough England will be able to mustev a strong batting ifide, the tests will again develop into .a questioii of the relative bowling strengths. 'It is admitted that unless some last-minute diseoveries emerge, England will again be weal^ in attack but some comfort is apparently derived from the belief that Bradman's side will show ' the same weakness. English critics are plainfs pinning cousiderable faith upon the restraining effect of , Euglisli wickets. They are also speeulating upon the effect of English umpiring upon the operations of Lindwali, Toshack and Miller to mentiou only three of the Australian bowlers. Recent slow ihotion cinema sliots of these three bowlers in action, have been shown in London amidst polite but aiiguished cries at obvious instances of footdragging over the no-ball liue. Some English writers indeed already claim that unless Lindwali chauges his style, he will be noballed out of the tests. All this, uu fortunately, sets the sceue in advauce for yet another unedifying cricket controversy. . " Table Tennis Champion . Rieliard Bergiuann, the 27-vear-old former R.A.F. iitter who won the world table tennis siriglos title 011 Wednesday night, is British only by naturalisation. He is the son of Polisli and Italian parents and was born in Vienna. He won the title in 1937 a,nd again in 1939, playing for Austria. After six years : service with the R.A.E. during the war, he ' became a naturalised British subject only last year. Bergmann makes no seeret of the fact that hp believes he should receive .more from table tennis than appiaufce. After his great victory over the CzecL champion, B. Vanh, on Wednesday night, he amiounced he would not play amateur table tennis again bui would coucentrate upon coacliiug and exhibitions. These activities, he anticipates, will bring him in as much as £5000 yoarly. The world • table tennis. tour nament which attracted ,a most eosmopolitan entrv, did not pass without the inevitabie international \Vrangle. This timo it was- an inter-Balkan dispute so uc question of East versus West arose ano no one could be rude to J\lr. Bevin. Tli" argiunent was betw'een Miss Giselle Farkas, of Hungary, and Mrs. Angela . Lloseiiau, of liunnuna, over the question of the seuii-linal r'eplay. Before it was ooncluded both flte Hungarian and . liujnanian, Embas'sies ih London 'were hauled into the frav and angrv tele ; grams pasSed' backwards and for ward. : between Buuapest and Bucharest Finally Nf iss Farkas won and then wen • on to win the wonion's championship b\ • defeating the British titleliolder, Mrs : V. Thomas. Dispute ,in Rugby Circles : Echoes of yet aiiothe'r dispute are now dyitig away across. YorkshireV fauious Jlkley Moor where the Ilklei ' and Otley Rugby Unioii clubs liav> aslced the Yorkshire Rugby Union to rule that they can oil'er the hospitality of thoir grounds to \ isiting Dominipn and fo'reign League sides without iu curring tlie displeasure of the EngJisi. Rugby Union. The dispute arose wlien the Ilkley Club was refused pernussion last Sep tember to allow tiie New Zealand League tourists to use tlieir gr'ound fo/ practico. The New Zealanders taetfully withdrew and did tlieir training elso wliere but tlie ensuiug argument ha .-aused raised temperatures and eye brows in Yorkshire. This year-'s Jirnilists 111 the English Uouhties Rugby Union chanipionship are Lancashire and Easteru Oounties. Ihe latter teain upset a.ll calculation last (Saturdav by defeating .Gloucestershire who had been generally picketo be the other tinalist. The tinal vi I . be played on the Cambridge Universitv ground.