ATHLETICS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1651, 18 January 1913, Page 12

ATHLETICS.

IBi "MsnooßT."!

STOP THE ENGLISH JIDEB!

To-day's gathering at the Basin Reserve promises well. Large entries have teen received, the programme is a highly interesting one, the racing in view of the nearness of both the provincial and Dominion championships is 6uro to be as keen as the proverbial mustard, and the talent, though lacking perhaps a Korr or a Woodger to bring it up to the highest local standard, is nevertheless as good as most that we havo seen locally for 6omo years. The Wellington Club lias spared no effort to render the meeting an attraction for the public, the sport-loving section of which will be doing but its bare duty in attending at the Basin Reserve this afternoon, ■ ~■

Auckland Club owns up to Empty Coffers.

During the week "Mercury" eaw a' letter from a well-known Auckland athletic- enthusiast to a Wellington friend, In which, among other matters, the Northern Centre's team for tho championship ,was hinted at. It would appear that after somo years of dipping into its own coffers to finance the centre's representation at championship meetings, the Auckland Club has at last announced its inability to help any further in this direction, In consequence, the centre being thrown upon its own resources, which, in view of its having but three or,four affiliated olubs. it may well be imagined are not exactly of a nature to build extravagant hopes upon, will bo represented by a very small team, consisting probably of two men—Dormer and Mark—who will probably contest the furlong, quarter, half, and mile, that is, if Dormer elects to pull out of the quarter, leaving Mark, to tackle "Jimmy" Wilton, while he himself makes & bid for the milo honours. ' Maybe he will even try to emulate W. H. Pollock's grand performance of nine years ago in winning the half, quarfor, and mile in the one,day. If ( he has the necessary strength to carry him through/ the task should bo well within his compass, for ho is undoubtedly the Dominion's best at the first two distances, and, with the exception of Hill, the best nailer hereabouts at present., Mark, on his form in handicaps, at last year's Australasian championship meeting, is entitled to respect. Ab »• quartermilor, his chances are enhanced by his running this year, which has 6hown improvement in every direction.. ■ Accompanying these two will be perhaps half a dozen handicap men, whoso presence will give something more than the usttal local interest to this class, of event. The Canard about, Neville Hill.y.

"Mercury" .noted from the letter that Hill's reported intention of settling in Australia to; "news" 'to Auokl and, where he i« at present employed in the office of a well-known land agent. It is mentioned that several complimentary references to Australia'by Hill when away on his, Olympic tour may have given rise to the rumour., . ,

English Prejudice Dibs Hard., • Prejudice and settled convictions die hard in all phases of life; and in none more than- in (he world of sport. The perennial English; wail that American athletes,are nothing more'than machinelike though recognised cveryvrnere else in the' world as being too ridiculous' to wartant even passing consideration, is now part of the sporting re-: iigion of ninety per cent, of Britishers, including, ono fears,- Australasians;'.-. ',_-' When as all-round champions the American opndses,'his .Thorpe and his Sheridan to tho Englishman's C. B. Fry and others, he is met, ; with the retort that their superiority is , still' a superiority of specialisation, .inasmuch as the efforts which have earned them, fame;,, : highly, diversified as they arc;'have been in' the ,pne; i rednn' : b'f\athletics 'proper,- while Er»r, Tn,i i ddffion r :to.,]/eing^ , international cricketer, and was in his day a crack footballer, , both 'under Eugby and Association rules. ' ' '■'~'

. ,!To the American rejoinder that in the field rif athletics propor Fry was, alongsi/le Thorpe and Sheridan,! a mere specialist—ho was a fiprihter and a broad jumper onlv—the 1 Englishman can. furnish, no reply, but. a; somewhat disjointed referchoe to cricket and football. !

; Here in' the I .realm of football, ."Mercury," for the 'benefit.of, readers of this column, wishes to say n few words. Every vpnr at the clnsi ■ of i the American' foot; !v\U season,' "Collier's,'' the famous •American wcpkly, newspaper, secures the services'-' of the , greatest authority' on American football,- Walter Camp, to select—and the selection is-accepted universally in the States—an all-ATnerican torn. Among these honoured this year, with a place,-in tho first .eleven; (the American .tpn'-n contains this number, of players) is i"Jim" Thorpe, who plays for Carlisle University, and in his criticism of the individual,players Mr. Camp says of him:—"Thorpe, of Carlisle, showed once more this year the greatest individual pmwess of any back 1 on. tho gridiron. When' I selected him last year. ;I believe' l him capable of all this from his wcr.'k of previous years. Tins season he hi"! demonstrated ip every department."

To! succeed at; the American game a man must, despite our hnzo of prejudice, l-fl something more than a mere mass of brawn. He must havo cournpo beyond anything necssary in even the most 'strenuous of Riiirby gflmAc;, h« must, rcve brains ond quickness of thought to understand tho complicated svstem? upor which the college teams work, and ,under tho new rules of tho irame designed to promote openness and rapidity of plnco he must, especially if ho is a half-back—the attacking equivalent of our tWee-quarter —have skill and dash of.a high degree.

"Stop Those English Jibes for Ever!"

Pre-eminently a (tamo of tho nniversiHes, their best athletic talent—and only tho l>est—plays football, and for a man to bo the best back in America as "well as tbo' Olympic nil-round chamr>ion, is evidence of all-round athletic ability sufficient to stop Enelish jibos for ever—if the Englishman could only see it. which to bo plain he wouldn't if ho could. V A further word. Tho American sprint champion ip generally he whom the English critic holdis up to contempt 'o« the. specialist of all specialists. Well in "Collier's" selection of a representative football team from the Western universities appears the name of Craig, of Michigan—present Olympic 100 and 200 metres champion! Amonfr other, American crack athletes who have, earned distinction On the footkill field, one might mention Alvin Krazlein—the greatest hurdler that ever strode over the fence'—and hammer-thrower .Tohn De Witt, of Princeton, who still (for about the eighth successive seasonl nlays for his nniversilv. Is this enough, gentle reader, to clear from your mind the impression that the American . prnck athlete > is a stall-fed, pampered animal, a highly-strung; bundle of nerves,' that. cannot bear exposure to tho mildest breaths of summer without snapping? ; " ' '.'» I Hlelan'. Chlels at Sydnoy. , i Tho Highland gathering at Sydney on New Tear's Day as usual attracted an enormous attendance, fullv 25,000 peonlo thronging tho Agricultural Ground. The amateur events attracted large fields, and provided some exceedingly keen comnetition. albeit there were but two or throe performances of more than average morit. Tho rough sandy nature of the track and tlia wind may have accounted for this. If so, it also enhances tho merit' of the few good performances. J. \V. Frasor, from 23yds.' behind scratoh, was beaten a yard in tho '120 yds. hurdles in 18 4-ssec, which makes him mit to bo doing something in the neighborhood of Ifisee.—a capital performance. Friond O'Reilly, who if ho does not grow better with age (he was an Australasian champion so far back as mOl) certainly does not deteriorate, won tho shot from scratch with n putt of 39ft, Tin/, . , A. H. Scott cleared sft. Win. in the high iump, but had to.bo content with a deadheat for fourth place, K. H.. Laycock, with tho aid of a Win. handicap, winning tho event. There-was also,a dead-heat for second place, so that for once in a wlnlo the handicapner scored a triumph. . Tho half-mile scratch race resulted in a dead-heat, behveon F. Flowers and A. ,T. Tliorpe, in 2min. 3*ec.-good time under the circumstances. Thorpe is an ex-half-milo champion of the great publio schools, ami shows decided promise. The disnopoiiitnipnl. of the meeting was ex-Australian bich and 'broad-jumping champion "Jock" Smith, who could get no higher than sft. 2ln.' In the jump/ and I with the polo could only clear Bft. Bin.

Hot are tho mighty fallen-or, to be charitable, clean out of form.

Who Orlnlnafed the Crouch Start?

The argument re the originator of the 'crouch" start still proceeds apace in the columns of the Sydney "Referee," . oldtimera coming forward in every fssuo with views tending to make good Australia's claim to be considered tho homo of the method, yet with regard to the individual originator tending but to make confusion more confounded. For instance, Lewis Hopo bears out the. statement that the aboriginal "Bobby" Mac Donald was the first to go down on the mark, but claims that ho himself was the originator of the modern method, which he developed from that of Mac Donald, who really "squatted" down almost on his haunohes, with both hands on the ground. To substantiate his claim ho referred all and sundry to tho famous' old-timer T. M. Malone, who, however, states that Mac Donald "crouched," as distinct from "squatting," and with only one hand on the ground, On top of the rival claims of nope and MacDonald comes that of one for an' oldtimer by name Cumminga, who is stated to have adopted the etylo as far back as 1877—some six years before Mao Donald became known to fame.