Amateur Athletics.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 192, 5 March 1904, Page 20

Amateur Athletics.

A large number of members are in training for the forthcoming meeting of the Amateur Athletic Club, and a good day's sport may be confidently anticipated. I hear that Alf. Patrick, the erstwhile 100 yds champion, may be a competitor at the gathering. Alf. has many admirers m Wellington, who will be pleased if this rumour prove correct. The inter-college and public schools handicaps promise to be liberally supported. As it is intended to make these events a feature of the annual meetings of the club, it is hoped that the recruiting ground thereby provided will prove of immense benefit to the club as the years go by.

Thus an Australian writer — 'The incident of the New South Wales-Eng-land match, in which Australia and New South Wales can find cause for congratulation, is the discovery of the fast bowler, Cotter. He had • performed well against Victoria, and during the ensuing week, under the tuition of Noble and Trumper, he considerably improved. •'The worst best bowler" is a description of Bosanquet in the Sydney "Newsletter." Sincerest sympathies to Mr. C. A. Richardson, on the death of his infant child. When the news reached the Basin Reserve on Saturday last, many expressions of kindly feeling were made towards that gentleman in his bereavement, and in conveying them to him I hope £hey will soften the loss Mrs. Richardson and himself have sustained. A writer in the Adelaide "Critic" says that Rhodes invariably disputes or comments on any decision which is given against him, a course of conduct which can be called — to put it very mildly — unsportsmanlike. Another paper relates an incident in which an umnire gave a wide against one of Rhodes's deliveries, when the bowler angrily turned to the umpire, and remarked that it was not a wide, as it was covered by the batsman. The umpire in question — Mr. Gilfinan — appealed to Warner agamst the conduct of Rhodes. The paragraph winds up with the pert query . "Did Mr. Warner make Rhodes apologise for his conduct?" Arthur Benjamin, who, if I mistake not played full-b^ck for the South Island team in the North v. South football match in 1897, was struck m the left eye with a flying bail whilst wicketkeepin~ recently. It is feared he will lose the sight of his eye. George Mills, the ex-Aucklander, scored 87 (not out) in a championship match in Dunedm on Saturday week, a fellow scribe remarking that everyone was pleased to see Mills escape from the bad luck that has been haunting him this season, and show his true worth. Gavin, the captain of the Ponsonby team in Auckland, did a good bowling performance on Saturday week, taking six wickets for 16 runs. McNeil, who used to play for the Rivals in Wellington in years gone by, did a good bowling performance for the North Shore team in Auckland cricket the other day. Playing against Eden, he captured all the nine wickets for 75 runs — the eleventh man being absent. "Actseon" remarks that his performance is a very unusual one, and probably unique in Auckland cricket. My memory may be serving me false, but I have a performance of Jack Arneil's many years ago running through my mind in which he secured the whole ten wickets of an opposing team in a senior chimpionship match in Auckland.