ATHLETICS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1008, 24 December 1910, Page 16

ATHLETICS.

' ffli.Merccri.) .

December. 26.—Mauriceyille. A.C. Meeting. December 26.'—Wanganui A.A!C. Meeting. December 2b —Wairarapa A.A.C. Meeting; , January-2.—Port Nicholson C.C.Meeting; (Basin, Reserve). January 14.. — -.Wellington Provincial ;. Championships. ' January 23.-r-Wanganiii - Caledonian Meet- - - ing.- ;.' The Carnival and a Royal Day, > vpell-!i for the.W.A.'A.C. t mcefing';.' v tho -afternoon wa'sy ideal for/a..sports.Vgathering. ; In too ' fine. (The.''call of the. ■teach'es '.;cd;il3 ba -heard. too - plainly and and as; a'' residt many journeyed'. thereunto who' would, ■' under. Iras', allurement, have favoured the sports'. ,'.with"their'presence. However, the "gate" was;a good one—some SOO') odd, and had: it. nofebeeh; for ,thei outlay occasioned by. the./' postppiement !! from. !/ -the • previous wetk'the/;c!ub would, have had a margin in.'hand. ■ '."As it was it was an excellent, ■recovery from the . threatened result of the -wet December 10.

Officials of the: club had promised a high-. standard of ..performance at the meeting—and they'were justified by the results of the four local holders of New Zealand: Evensen was not. performing, being on tho sick-list, Wopdger .ran into a,place.in .-his'heit jii iOsec.,.and was bteten by.two yards in :'-tieSfinal. -in :9 9-10 sec.—small wonder.. ■Hubbard won the 220 hurdles—his maiden' effort! at fencing—won his -fceatun the 100 yards" in lOsec. .off: 4J yards, and' carried '39ft.< odd in the hop, step, and jump. M'Kay -did his usual. solid ■ day's work. .He"got' owr 10ft. 3in; ;in' the pole '.vault, "did: 35ft'.- 10iu. : in ; the : shot-putfing, and won , the" hop, . step,yhnd > jump at ; 4ift. lin. —one inch over . New Zealand. standard. . -He' also' won; the high jump with 'an factual leap of sft. 6in. :' ' . < "• The'; sprint, events both fell: to M." P. Pool, 'yihis'.runner.: is.: quits a, youth,' anil.'.if .Jthejclocking was correct possesses a 'rare'i'tiirn of. speed. -In" the 100; yards .event-he -was-on the BydSi-mark,-and.won hte.'heat in lOsec., and the - final in* 9 9-10 sec.-,. .thus rTurning a good two yards better/; than. 11-.seconds; In the 220 yards .he was 'given . Byds. off 1 ' Hubbard, ' and turned ; oft his heat in. 231-sie'c., and his final ■'in ' 23sec. dead." ■ ; >

TheiStamina of Baxter. ■ . Another noteworthy, performance ■• was. tho , ; mile';iun. A '. large -.field ' of ■ fourteen turned out,'-with Baxter on- the mark, and. the . limit stretching out to 135 yards. The '.winner . turned up .in Elliffe, off 65 yards,-. in '4min. - 31 -i-Ssec., Gore, off 80 vards, being-second, and the scratch man thirdj soine twelve yards behind the winner.- Baxter's was a solid performance, and there is no doubt that he is getting very'near championship form as a. miler. He. had no one nearer to him than the 65 yards men at the 6tart, and ivent of! on the heart-breaking work of cutting down this gap "on his own" in good style. In fact,'lie cut the first lap out rather tOo :fast, covering it in 63scc. His half-mile was done in 2min.' 12sec., and the third lap in 3min. 26sec. Ho was now upon the field,,but the long unpaced run had told its tale,-and he. appeared "settled." Half-way round m the last lap, however, he began one of Ins long sprints, and, as mentioned, finished a good-third—his actual 4nnn. 33 3-SECO— a-very sound '.'go.' .. ... . J. P. Wilson, our provincial half-milo champion, was asked to do too much in the half-mile. The distanco was reeled off by Hodson from 75 yards'-in lmin. 59sec.—far too-tough a proposition for tho scratch man so eariy in. the season. Wilson covered the distanco in 2min. 3sec., so really his performance was not a bad one, and it deserved a better ,fatc. No half-miler ■'should:-';have been asked to break two minutes on practically his first run of tho season. However, more on this point anon. .A Reinforcement for Our Walkers. : The/mile walk was instructive, as showing what wo have never yet seen before —namelv, G. Turner's capabilities, when "up agamst it." His win on Saturday was his third consecutive victory this season, and was easily his best performance to date. Starting off 50yds., he won out in Grnin. 29sec., which works out at about ' 6min. '37sec, for the fullmilo-a really goo/1 walk. And, w-hnt is even better, his style throughout was pleasing. His carriage was faultless, his knees well lacked, and.his gait beyond cavil, except, . perhaps, for a few steps .at the .back :.of the track, when, he appeared' to 'get "up 'in the air."- This-mn'yVhaye been, and

probably was, accounted far by thp rough going'. It; occurred in about tho same place each time, and -,was, : only a .momentary, lapse, if. lapse, it was. Jlt. Fleming •Boss lias been out on Kelburne-Park with Turner since, and his. advice should further improve a; decided.reinforcement.ito our list, of walkers. ' .• Tfie New Hammer Man. The other: events call for no special mention, except, perhaps, the hammerthrowing, 'which was won by Bissett with an effort of 107 ft. The 'wnner is a new arrival here from Scotland, and- has all tho attributes' of a good "weight" man. This was tho first time lie lias used a flexible handle to; the 'hammer, so .his throw was- a meritorious one. At the same time, it is noted that he threw from a nine-foot circle—the official in charge having , been misled 'by: .anr out-of-date rule book. The correct size is' now 7ft'. "Mercury" is informed that since ■ the meeting Bissett has thrown 120 feet. • Ah!' Those Handicaps!' And now we get to the all-important thing—the handicapping. ~ On Saturday, from'one view, point, tho handicapping was excellent,, especially in the sprints. The/judges had a very difficult task to sort-.out tho placed men', who, in the 75 yards'/and 100 yards,' were separated by inches only, 'and, : in the 220 yds;, by .feet only. In this respect the finishes were exciting, and therefore the handicap served, its ■ purpose. But—and this- is a' big. "but"—what about tho scratch men' in all this?. Just consider the * class of scratch man that would have been accessary •to • have won/ on ,'Saturday. Wo would have wanted-sprinters better than even time in "the- hundred, even to win a heat,'and. better than 9 9-10 sec. for the final. ..The scratch . men iwere asked ,to . Mat 23sec. in the'22oyds.', lmin. 59sec. in the half-mile, .imin. 31sec. in the mile," and Giiiin. 29sec in the. mile walk. This was unreasonable. Any shade of doubt there is'in framing a handicap should obviously he in favour- of the scratch man. He has the bulk-of the work to do; in the majority of cases he is the best-trained man in the field; and, in any case,'he at least deserves as fair a chance'as. anyone'else. Moreover (though, of course, this should not weigh with the; handicapper) he is, as a class, the man whom the clubs depend upon to draw public support, and nothing pleases a crowd more than to-'see a scratch man win. This matter is earnestly commended to the consideration*of our haridicappers.

Festival of Empire. While in Sydney recently, Mr. William' Henry, of the English Lifo Saving Society. waited upon the officials of .' the A .A. and N.S.W.A.A.A. with reference to' the. Festival. of ■ Empire, the..objects of which,have already been' outlined in this, column. The N.Z.A.A.A. have the matter before them ;' for consideration, and the following report of the proceedings in Sydney will be of interest.- Mr. B. Coombes presided at the meeting. After dealing with the objects of the festival, and other preliminary matter, the report runs: The matter was discussed at length by the delegates- present,-all .'of whom supported the . scheme, but • mentioned the difficulty of raising the .funds. . It was stated that, as the-event was'of such importance, the Government' should be approached the funds, or some portion ■ at. any rate. Eventually it was decided that, provided the necessary funds be forthcoming, and that the bodies .represented agree, the. meeting approve the' scheme. It was also decided to ask the Australasian' bodies to; mako suggestions regarding • the raising - of thel'necessary funds. . , . Ihe chairman stated that. if a representative team could bo sent, the chances' of Australasia .winning -the Festival of Empire trophy were bright, i as, a glance, at the. following list he had roughly prepared would show-:—.

lOOydsr and/ 220 yds.: W.' A. Woodger, (New Zealand),, or Nigel .Barker. (N.S:W.). : :880yds. and mile: G. A. Wheatley- (Vic- ; toria). ■■ ' " "" ;' Hurdles: J. L. Davis ..(Victoria). ; Tennis: N. E. Brookes. (Victoria) or A.'F. Wilding '(New, Zealand):, '' : Swimming: ;F. E. -Beaurepairo-(Victoria): and (or) Cecil, Healy (N.S.W,).'" V. With- rcpra a to a WresfHSg a'ifd' boxing/' numerous names could be suggested from l amongst' the first-flight-into in Austra-' lia and New. Zealand. . ' !• • ■He also mentioned' the->many other good ' men available, such as Dargin (N.5.W.,! wrestler) Harold Hardwick (N.S.W.,f boxer and swimmer), W. G. Harding! (N.Z. middle-distance runner), Guy Has-; kins .(N.Z.,. middle-distance runner). In' addition to the names given, the chair-!' man mentioned the fact 'that the Rhodes; Scholars at' Oxford could'be drawn upon—. A. Clemes '(Tas.) and K. J. Waddy (N.5.W.),! for example, in the distance running department—whilst that fine runner S. .-V. Marderi;ilate of the Sydney tjniversity _ A'.C., .wa!s, also now in England on ,a. visit. . ... Mr. Marks went into the question of expense with, a .rough draft of the. probable cbst of the tour—about,,£7so. ~-. Commentirig ori-, the-above Mr. Coombes. writes in thel'"Eeferee":lt was - made quite clear-',to Mr. Henry at last Thursday's, meeting that one of the difficulties in the way of . our representation at the Festival of Empire games jould be in' the fact that we were, already engaged in the', preliminary work of' Australian and New Zealand representation at the Olympian Gaines at Stockholm in <1912, and that'one, scheme might cut into or overlap th'e other, in various,ways. However, the feeling , was strongly in ..favour of a team being sent' to London, at .Coronation time—"it would he a magnificent advertisement for the' Commonwealth and the Dominion," is how one'speaker'voiced his views.•••, The.chief.question is: "Will- the Commonwealth: and Dominion : Governments assist'financially?" •»