SPORT IN BRITAIN

Chronicle (Levin), 6 November 1948, Page 5

SPORT IN BRITAIN

(N.Z&

-Reuter

Much Ado About Soccer Trapsfer

Copyright)

l Received Friday, 7 p.m„ | • LONDON, Nov. 5. Alastaij- MeCorquodale who probably ■is entitlad to eall himself the fastest ;white man in the world when he ran fourth to the three coloured runners, Harrison Dillardr Barney Ewell and Lloyd la Beaeh, in the Olympic 100 metres at Wembley, has been seleeted ;by the championship committee of the British Amateur Athletic Association as the most ontstanding British athlete of the ye^ir and awarded the C. Xr Jaeksdn trophy for the most successful athlete of the year. Born in tlie United Kingdom, MeCorquodale, wlio is an old Harrovian and an pfficer in the Coldstream . Gu&rds, has already aipiounced that he will retire from first class ,athleties next year in oi'der to play crieket. Spccer Rumpus

The disturbanee in British soccer c-ircles caus.ed by Wilfrid Mannion, the star Middlesborough forward and international, when he refused to allow hijnself to be ' transfeTred at a fee of £30,000, is still proegeding and is likely to have important repereussions upon the whole transfer sj^stem in professionai soccer. The players themselves intenselj^ dislilce the system whieh they describe as the "soccer slave market" and it iS' already evident that. Mannion has strong support both ainong players and public in his stand. Mannion, who jomed Middlesborough as a boy ai a cost to the club 'of £10 registration fee, says bluntly thaLhe has given the club good serviee during 12 years. He has played for it at a wage of £12 weekly and that he "does not see why .they sliould expect to cash in on mt when I want to leave. " As the result of Mannion 's refusal to aeeept a 'transfer or to sign on again witn .Middlesborough, he has been suspended by the club and is losing his £12 weekly. Mannion says he Will not sign any transfer form if MitIITesT>o rough iObtains more than £12,00(r for him. The club eontends that if Mannion 's marke' value is £30,000 it might wffll have to spend that amount'to replace him. Lt intends to appeal to the Football League to arbitrate. In the meantime. however, if Mannion persists in hiattitude, he will continue to be un employed as a footballer. AJ1 he can hope to receive from any transfer paynients made to Middlesborough, is £10.

Rugby at Oxford Oxford University, .whieh played scoreless drawn game against Cardilt tliis week, is agaih playing the New Zealand inside backs Rugby formatiou with two fiVe-eigliths ahd a fixed centrw instead of the English formation of stand-ofL' half and two centres. ' Oxford, this year is partieularly strong in the forwards but the backs do -not appear to have settled 'down. The annuai Oxf ord-'Cairibridge; match, always one of the highlights of/the English Rugb.v, seitsoh, will be' pla'yed at Twickenham in the middle of next month. Bowling Perfection Reports from South Afriea state that. the M.C.C. bowler Douglas Wright, who'. is likelyi to figure lar^'ely in matches against the New Zealanders neXt j'ear,: is still ha'ving serious trouble with his. 'length. In an eft'ort to remedy this,.Wright recentty 5^pent two hours bowling at a pegged-down handkerehiei' with a stable door as the wicket, wliilo Bedser acted as his length spotter. Towards the.end of two hours Wright was hitting the handkerchief with three balls in every four. Wright intends to keep up this practice until he has recovered his length for he recognised that a great deal of the success of the M.C.C. attack in South Africa depends upon his doing so. A

Woodcock's Fight The British heavyweight champion, Bruce Woodcoek, is expeeted to be at his best fighting weight in the region of 13st 71b, when he fights the American, Lee Savold, at Harringay on Deeember 6. When Woodeock fought Lee Oma he was 14st 11b, but he is now down to 13st lOlbs. Boxing writers who have been watching his training consider the reduced w-eight has already Improved Woodcock's speed. During the period of enforced idleness between the Baksi and Oma fights, Woodcoek 's Weight went up to l(3st 4lbs. Gaston Rejff,, the Belgian, who defeated the Czech star Zatopek in the 5000 metres Olympic event recently, ran against Zatopek again at Prague ,and again convincingly defeated the Czech. Returning to Brussels, Reitf broke Gundar Haegg's record for the 2000 metres (omin ll.Osec), setting up a new record of 5min .07sec. Reiff covered the mile in 4min .05sec. ^f.e now intends to make an attempt to :break the ^000 metres record but will not attempt this before he goes to the United States to compete in meetings ;at New York, Chieago and Los Angeles next February.