SPORT AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 20, 18 October 1918, Page 7

SPORT AND WAR

WELLINGTON SOLDIER'S NEWSY LETTER AMERICANS POURING IN Local "sports" will bo interested in the following newsy extract from n letter written from Hornchurch by Private Thomas O'Shea to his brother, Air. John O'Shea, City Solicitor:— "Billie Burns, of tho corporation staff, is on a job here. . Fred Martin, was married tlic other day. I don't think ho will ever play cricket again. However, ho. will bo amongst tho 'Quidnuncs' in the .stand. Young AVarnc, who was a prominent junior in 'Wellington, has batted very nicely for our hospital team of late. "Ho gut a nice 40 v. Public Schools at tho Oval. They made 216 for eight and declared, while we .saved.tho game easily with 120 for six f Major Wnllis (Christchurch) got 40 odd, too. The 'Sporting Life' stated that our fellows fielded ndmirably. Our team has been pretty successful. It has lost only tlireo matches so far—Essex County, Tropic CO., and Oatlands Park (by 20 runs). However, it cleaned up Oatlands Park in the return match at Bomford by .120 runs, passing tho Oatlands total with two wickets down. I am quite satisfied that if Now Zealand cricket were managed properly our men would make a much/better showing. "Wo played a team from tho Artists' Hides (0.T.C.) at Jtomford early, m the season, and beat them by 70 runs. "We made 175 for eight, and put them through for 106. There was only a oompany team, but Staff-Sergeant Kirk (who played for England v. Dominions lately), umpiring, • told us that wo have performed very creditably. And that game was cricket in tho real sens© of the word. Many of our chaps have improved' on their New Zealand form. The reasons for the improvements are, I think, the fact that the games are played in a very keen spirit and also the fact that only, one gamo is. ''played on the ouo ground at tho time. The English summer is only a short one, but even now there are certain cluba which play six games a week. They make- a welter of it, as the boys say._ I have had very bad luck here— I missed a lot of games because of my job and also because of this knee of mine. However, I hope to havo a tiamo or two in Wellington.one of these hne days. • ,

"Things are goiug well for us in Franco just now. I don't think that Jerry knows- whether he is on his heiul or his heels just now. Foch has the Germans thinking. Ho has..kept a level head all through the piece, ana has used just onough men both in defence and ■in attaok. : For instance, when wo stopped the Germans in Amiens, 1-e might have stopped them earlier, but ho preferred to let them overleap themselves, and only struck when their lines of communication were strung out too far. Tho French had a reserve army near Amiens a day or two after wo got there, but it' was not used. Then in the north just enough men were thrown in to save Hazebrouck. And then before 'Honeydew' got his breath he took delivery of about six king liits—not returnable either. And now tho Yanks are landing at the rate of _ 10,000 a day. I should not bo surprised if we continue to advance right through the winter. In Flanders Merry' is finding that the Lys basin—country like the Hutt Valley only very much ■wider—ie a very uncomfortable place. It iff liable to floods in the winter, and a flooded river is a bad thing to have in the rear of a defeated force. My own idea is that his next line of defence will bo Ypres, Lille, Lens, Cambria, nnd Verdun. And after all Verdun is -only thirty miles from the German frontier."