ATHLETIC SPORTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1227, 8 September 1911, Page 7

ATHLETIC SPORTS.

SCULLING.

THE ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIP. By Telegraph—Proas Association-Copyright London, September (i. Barry and Fogwell are both in excellent condition for. their raco for the English sculling championship. No betting is reported, but Barry's chances are most favoured. (By Tolosraph.—Press Association.) Palmorston N., September 7. A cable message has been Teceived from Mr. Georgo Seifert, Fogwoll's backer, stating that Fogwcll is in splendid condition, and expects to have an easy win iror Barry on Monday. Backing favours the Englishman.

BILLIARDS.

WILLIAMS V. LINDEUM. IJy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Melbourne. September C. •In the Lmdnim-Willianis billiard match Williams has scored 4000, and Lindrura 3821.

WRESTLING.

LONG" BOUT AT SALT LAKE CITST. By Telegraph—Press A9socJation-»Oopyright New York, September 6. Demetra, a Greek wrestler, defeated Hassan Youssef, a Turk, at Salt, Lake City. Utah, in two straight falls, after an' hour and twenty minutes' wrestling.

BOXING.

LANGFORD V. ' JEANNETTE. By Telegraph—Press Aasocaation-Oopyrisht New York,' September fi. Langford, the negro boxer, outfought leannette in ten rounds.

RUGBY FOOTBALL,

. THE CITY RESERVES, last night the City Council decided that all city reserves should bo closed for winter games, after Saturday next. Tho Basin Reserve was closed alter last Saturday, on account of the condition of tho ground.

A LETTER.

HOW HAVE SOUTHERN FARED? ' Tho following copy of a letter forwarded to the Wellington Rugby Union,. and relating to the position of. tho Southern Club men in regard to representative honours, has- also been forwarded to The Dominion for publication. It is as fol- .>.'.. The Chairpian, Wellington Rugby. Union. . Sir,-On behalf of the Southern Football Club, I wish to bring before your committee ndtico of the treatment my club has received at ;the hands of the. selectors. I quite understand that it asking a lot of your committee to ask tlicin to interfere in a matter of this kind, and am only induced to do so by tho fact that your committoo represented to the delegates at. tho annual meeting that, if tho .selectors were' appointed by the Management .Committee, they would be under the control of the committee, and not' under the direct representatives of the delegates. Four matches- have been, played by the A.-Tearii, and a team for the fifth match; has been chosen. -Each team has been' altered, and, of all'the'players.chosen the.:best -'representation 'which my club could get-wasl. a position'for bee of its members as second emergency. This is hardly fair to a team which has been able to fully extend all. teams iu the championship., and we think that tho winners of tho championship will admit that the Southern team gave-them their, hardest -ga-nies-in both matches that.we-. bafe played.them. '.-''"

Of the seventeen Cup matches played, the reports in the daily and weekly papers always recognised that Bradley, Campb ■ ! imd Houlihan' played the best games for Sonthern, and, such being the case, my club maintains that they should have been included in the experiments made by the selectors. It is evident that the Sonthern are.a' less favoured club (if that is possible) this year than ever it lias been;, and, when one fees tho selectors bringing men out of the pack to act as wing-forward, and ignoring .the claims of a young player like Campbell. I think we are within : our- rights in protestiir:. Campbell has been in the B Team for the fast .two years,'and is,, this year, playing'better football than ever. The hookers of the A'Team have been beaten in every match for the ball, and yet a recognised clover hooker like. IToulihan is not considered. • Bradley needs no comment. His brilliant record would be enoneb to get him a place in any team but Wellington. It has always been'our. misfortune to bo turned down by the (selectors, and, in fact," new clubs are always, treated this way, as the following instances will show:— < ' Four years ago Leahy was the best forward in Wanganui, Next year ho came to Wellington, and played for Southern, and was not good enough to get in the Aor B Team. Last year he played for Poncke, and was he overlooked then? Ko-r-'he got in tho A .Team, and in the JJorth Island team. Another instance:— Tan.iahill played for Poncke three years ago, and earned a place in tho A Team, and . was first emergency., for tlio North Island team. Last year he played for tho Hutt team, and was not good enough for ihe Aor B Team. This year ho was chosen as a South Island country representative. From the above instances yon will see that the men's claims as representatives wero not'. considered whilst they played for weak and less influential clubs. What is tho cause of this? Is tho only thing wrong with good players in weak clubs the colour of their jersey, and the name of their club? You will see, from tho foregoing, that wo have a grievance. We do not demand that our men must bo permanent members of the A Team, bnt we certainly do demand- that they bo given a trial in the various experiments which have been tried with this year's representatives.—H. Mortenson, Hon. Secretary, Southern Football Club.

CRICKET.

IDEA TO BRING TASMANIAN TEAM HERE. : (By ToloEraph— Press Association.) Chrisichurch, September 7. At a meeting of the committee of the Canterbury Cricket Association. this evening, tlio New Zealand Cricket Council stating that it, was in communication with the Tasmanian Cricket Association with a view to arranging, if possible, /or a team from Tasmania to visit New Zealand during tho coming season.' In the discussion which ensued, it was pointed out that it would cost as much to get a, Tasmanian team to visit tho Dominion as a New South Wuies or Victorian team, whilst it was possible, that' the gates at tho matches against the Tasmanian team would not bo so good as those at rnatofaes against an Australian team. The chairman said that they did not know what had influenced tho council in i opening up negotiations for a visit from a Tasmanian team, but it was probable / that the conncil had considered that a fust-class Tasmanian team would be better than a second-class team from cither New South Wales or Victoria. Ho Uhought that it was about twenty years Ago since a Tasmanian team had visited I'cw Zealand. I It was decided that the secretary of Hie association should interview the secretary of the council to ascertain furJjiluer particulars regarding the matter. ' I WELLINGTON EAST CLUB. \ The annual meeting of the Wellington E.jist Cricket Club was held at Victoria HmII last evening, Mr. J. P. Firth presiding. Tme report congratulated tho club oh \wmmng ono of the championship v.con'tests, viz., the senior grade, and also on the position attained hy Hie senior B team (runner-up, alone with Central A). The junior team played into thiwl placo in their grade, ,and several members of this team showed groat promise, amd would help to strengthen tho senior ranis in tho near future. Tho first

eleven (A) played eight matches, winning, six, and losing two, and were the winners of tho senior championship. The senior B team did remarkably well, winning five matches and losing three, and wero tie with Central A team as runner-up. Tho junior team played ten matches, winning six and losing four. The third eleven played nineteen matches, winning twelve, drawing one, and losing five, one being unfinished. Tho club was represented in representative matches by tho following :— Messrs. Crombie, G'ihbes, Grirmnett, Ilaics, Hiekey, M.ihonev, Midlane, and Wills. Tho finaneesof tho club (added the report) must be considered satisfactory, the margin of assets over liabilities being £X\ 6s. 7d. Tho committee havf to expros deep sympathy with Messrs. T. Johnston, D. Little, F. Harris, and K. Tucker in their late sad bereavements. The committee wish to convey their hearty thanks to the president, vice-presidents, and honorary members for the financialsupport tendered during the past reason; to Mr. IT. D. Clcinentson as scorer to the club, and to Mr. A. Edwards for kind assistance. The report and balance-sheet wore adopted. The election of officers resulted as follows:—President, Mr. J. T. Firth; vicepresidents, Hons. .T. E. Jenkinson and .T. Rigg, Messrs. D. M'Laren, M.P., W. N. Tucker, J. G. W. Aitken, C. .T. Crawford, G. Winder, ,7. ,T. Firth, A. Edwards.' W. H. Ataok, P. Coffey, P. W. Corby, J. A. B. Howe, F. Kitto. H. N. Liardet, F. Townsend, G. Tullock, A. Sellar, S. Whitta-Thornton, Eev, Dr. Kennedy, and Lieut. S, Herd; club captain, Mr. E. C. Niven; secretary, Mr, ,T. B. Watson; auditors, Messrs. F. Kelling and W, Hales; Management Committee, Messrs. W. Gibbss. — Johnson, F. Midlane. C. E. Hiekey, H. Collett. K. Tucker, E. 0. Hales; Senior Selection Committee, Messrs.. K. Tucker, C. E. Hiekey, and W. Gibbes; delegates to Wellington Cricket Association, Messrs. W.' Gibbes, C. E. Hiekey (special delegate), and F. Midlane. " , ■ The president (Mr. J. P. Firth), in the course of a short speech, referred to tho high position obtained by the Wellington East Club in the championship last year. In referring to tho financial portion of tho olnb, he stated that be hoped to'see an effort made during the coming season to clear off the liabilities, and added that ho had decided to donate ,£lO towards that object. This was supplemented by other amounts from members in tno Mr! D, 'Goldfinch moved' that the Wellington Cricket Association b? asked ■ to consider the advisability of reducing the number of entries for the senior competition to six teams, as' it was desirable to enlist the support of the public by making the competition more interesting — Carried. A motion was also passed recommending the Wellington Cricket Association to play only one senior match on the Basin Reserve, but to prepare one of the junior pitches so that, a senior match might bo played on it 'when the Basin, was not available.

THE HUTT CLUB. The second annual meeting ofthe Hutt Cricket Club was held last evening. Mr. F. Judd occupied the chair. The report and balance-sheet, which were adopted, read as under-.— "The result of matches played last season was: Senior team, played S, won 3, lost 5; junior team, played 10, won 6, lost 4; third-class team, played 13, won 8, lost 4, won by default 5, lost by default 2. Nmo players in the first eleven got double figures in their batting averages, A. Staples topping the list with 42.1 per innings. S. Brico was rimner-up with an average of 30.8 per innings, Ilia bowling was not up to the standard of the previous year. A. H. Pringle proved the most consistent with the average of ll.lr runs per wicket. Much improvement was shown in tho lower grado teams. J. Crown headed the junior batting averages with 21.4, with the Rev. Bawden Harris second with 20.6. The latter topped the howling average with 10.05 runs per wicket. The third eleven had a very successful year and were nearly runncrsup in the championship. D. Neilson won the batting average with 17.1 runs per innings, and also the bowling average with 35 wickets for. 9.1 runs per wicket. Several friendly matches were ployed, but the tour was Ahe'/dub ~<lcsiro to thank Messrs.;E: P.; tfnnnA'TVM. Wilford, I). Riddiford, R. Abbott, C. Hoilard, T. Kingston, F. Coverdale, and O. Stevens for donations. The club s finances are in a sound' condition, tho'credit balance being £U 38s. Id., this amount having, howevor, to be swallowed up in preparing the ground and wickets for the ensuing season. Tho assets in excess of liabilities is shown at JC-10 2s. 6d. In conclusion the club wish to tender thanks to Mesdames Yeats, Wilson, and Miss Yeats for dispensing afternoon tea." Eight new members were elected. . The following officers were elected:— President, Mr. E. P. Bunny; vice-presi-dents, Messrs. D. Riddiford, J. Bridge, R. Abbott, C. Hollard, T. Coverdale, T. M. WilfoTd, M.P., J- Jones, J. Young, O. Bell, N. Welch, J. Hawthorn, J. H. Car-, ter, G. S. Judd, D. M. Yeats, and A. Avison; club captain, Mr. G. F. Judd; delegates to Cricket Association, Messrs. S. Brice, A. Staples, and Rev. B. Harris; management committee. Messrs. G. Pringle, C. Matthews, H. Borland, A. Staples, — Climie, — Yeats, — Aldersley; senior selection committee, Messrs. Matthews, Judd, and Staples It was decided to begin practice on Saturday, September 16.

PETONE CLUB, The ropsTt to be presented at the animal meeting of the Petonc Cricket. Club to-night congratulates members on the success attained during the past season. The move of withdrawing from the senior competition was a good one, the club hav-, nig annexed junior honours. The junior team played 11 matches, won 10, lost 1, and scored 29 points ont of a possible 33. Tho third eleven played 18 matches, won 11, and lost 7, securing third place. Mr. J. M'Kenzie is to bo congratulated for compiling the handsomo score of 117 in ono match. Several outside games were played and all resulted in victories. Theclub desires to thank Dr. Ross, Workiug Men's Club, and Mr. H. J. Palmer for donations, also the Borough Council for tho use of tho ground. The finances arc more satisfactory than they have been before. At the commencement of the season liabilities, amounting to .£l3 had to bo met, which has been wiped out, fresh material has been bought, and there is still a credit balance: Receipt's are shown at JEI7 Bs. 3d., and expenditure Ml 17s. Id. Assets are valued at £1". • •

LAWN TENNIS,

LETTER FROM AMERICA. Mr. F. M. B. Fisher, M.P., has received a' letter from a man prominent in tho 'tennis world in America on tho subject of the Davis Cup. The letter reads: —"It may interest you to know that whilo wo are still very far from having selected our Cup team, we regard Lamed (four times the United States champion) as a certainty, Benls-Wright as a strong probability, with one or more of the Calilornians. " It is too early to' do more than forecast tho matter, as our autumn tournament may bring now men to tho front. Touchard has beaten M'Loughlin, and Long, who represented America in tho last Davis Cup, whilst somewhat erratic and frail physically, is a most remarkablo player, and may possibly be included in tho team." There will bo a meeting to-night, at Harcourt's Rooms, for tho purpose of forming a new private tennis club at Kelburn". A suitable piece of ground has already been secured, and it is proposed to lay down two or three asphalt courts to begin with. Those interested in tennis are' invited to attend, and providing a suitablo number are willing to join, a successful club can be formed.

SOCIAL AT. TAITA. Mr. Welch's barn, an old and picturesque building, was transformed info a brilliant ballroom on Wednesday night, when fully 120 people were present, the occasion being a "social" and danco given by the ladies of Taita. The barn was decorated with ferns, and presented tho appearance of a. hugs conservatory. Somo pretty dresses were worn, the prevailing colour being white. Mr. Bales was M.C. Mr. M'Mcnamin supplied the music, and "extras" wero played by Mr. Hendry. During the evening Mr. Pearce recited, and Miss O'Sullivan and Mr. Parker sang.