CRICKETER'S DEATH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 51, 16 March 1937, Page 5

CRICKETER'S DEATH

-Press Association.)

Dramatic Story of Struggle in Water RESCUER'S EFFORTS

• (By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, Last Night, How he supported, E. J, Dunning, who' was drowned. when a dinghy was iswamped off Murray's Bay last night, for. nearly half an hour in a heavy swell only to become so. exhausted him-' self that he had to relinquish his grip of Dunning when a few yards from the launch, was told this morning by David Hobbs, a single man of Grey Lynn, Hobbs had accompanied the.cricketera' party looking after. the launch Hermoine and rowing the dinghy jto and from the shore. Hobbs said h» was making his third •trip from the beach to the launch. There was a fairly heavy Bwell but he j had accomplished two previous trips | without diffieulty. When about 20 yards from the launch a large wave •broke over the dinghy and swamped the craft, There was no. warning of disaster and all wero thrown into .tho sea. "Upon coming to. the surfaco I had a feeling that one of .the party was in difficuities and nearby I saw Dunning whom I seized by the arm," said Hobbs." I asked him if he could jswim. He said "yes, a little," but, jadded that he could not make the jlaunoh. Those were the last words Dunning spoke. "Supporting Dunning I swam to. the, idinghy and turned it. upsid© down, t |then dragged Dunning and myself on to. 'tho top. Each heavy wave, however, swept ua off again. I then endeavoured to climb into the waterlogged dinghy .while it was upright, but this only caUsed it to aubmerge further, "Dunning did1 not struggle at all but he was a heavily-built man weighing between 12 and 13 stone and the strain of supporting him began toi teli on me. Each time we wero swept off the dinghy we went under water and although I inaintained my grip on Dunning he was awallowing a considerable lamount of water and my task became iincreasingly difficult. I could hear j'them calliag from the launch but could inot distiuguish the words. tl Those on the* launch eventually ananaged to get the engine started and ©amo a little nearer. Ratcliffe then dived to assist me. For about 20 minutes I had been keeping Dusaing afloat and I think another 10 minutes elapsed after Ratcliffe came, *'We both supported Dunning and endeavoured to swim soqio 10 yards fo the launch, Dunning was now strugigling violently. I became exhausted, •lost my grip and was semi-conscious when I felt a rope hit my head. I .seized the rope and was hauled on board jin the nick of time. I was "out" for ia little time but soon recovared. j "In the meantime Ratcliffe, who had ipreviously swum to the rescue of the [others, was near the stage of collapse. (He and Dunning became separafed and iWe did not see Dunning again. Ratcliffe iwas taken on board in a very weak con[dition and it was some time before he jwas brought round. • "We cruised about for a while but icould see no sign of Dunning and feialised that nothing could be done. We lshout.ed to those still on shore. to return to the city by bus or the best means available and I then took the launch to Auckland. The journey was a fairly rough one.'-' ,