ATHLETICS AND CYCLING

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12615, 27 November 1926, Page 8

ATHLETICS AND CYCLING

TO-DAY'S BIG PROGRAMME Tlio big cycle road race will start from the Basin Reserve at 2 p.m. tod«3 r . 'ih© scratch brigade includes Grose, Oakley, Jfie.tt, Carswell, ami the field ot titty is strung out to a limit ot 18 minutes. it is expected that the first man home from Akatarawa (.the turning point) will arrive at the Basin Reserve about 4 p.m. The race is arousing even keener interest than the big Palmerston North-Wellington roau. race from the fact that in addition to the Wellington and Wairarapa cracks, the field will include the Canterbury champions, Day and Grose, who are regarded as being two of N-eiv Zealand’s strongest opponents for R. W. Lamb when he conies over from Australia. It will be their first appearance in Wellington. At the last New Zealand championships Day was first and Grose second in the one mile cycle championship. In the three miles Grose was first and Day third, the pair being split by T. Oakley, who will also bo a competitor to-day. Grose is also the Dominion amateur road race champion. In the running events interprovinr.ial interest will centre in the sprints where O. X’altridge, the Poverty Bay champion, will meet CL H. Jenkins and other local cracks, and in the ladies' events. The competition between the Wellington and Gisborne girls is arousing the keenest of interest locally, and the results are being keenly awaited in Gisborne. The ladies' relay will bo one of tlie star items of the programme. Wellington crowds are well awnro of the skill of our girls in changing the baton at top speed, but Gisbnrneitcs are confident that the best men’s team in Now Zealand can learn something in this direction from their girls, who have been coached in the system adopted bv the New York Athletic Club, as explained to them by Jackson Seholz last season.

K>. G. Sutherland's appearances in the field events will giro the Wellington public an opportunity of seeing how our all-round champion has improved as a result of his four years’

sojourn in South Africa and the United Kingdom. At the English championships in July last Sutherland proved by gaining stamlavds in six events out of seven that he is still in the form that gained him high honours in the decathlon at tho last Olympic Games. To complete the fittraetivo programme, there will be tho intcr-col-lege races for the Blundell cups. Wellington College, opposed by the St. Patrick’s College crack sprinter and middle distance runner ((fuodson and Leech), and by tho Scots College relay team, will be hard put to it to retain the secondary schools cup. Particular interest attaches to the meeting of Ramson (Wellington) nml Leech (St. Patrick’s) in the quarter. It promises to bo one of the most thrilling quarters seen in Wellington for manv a long day. The first crack event is timed for 2.30 p.m.. ami the last for 4.35 p.m. The ladies’ relay is timed for 3.5 P.m. j Finally. there will Iks an item of real I interest to the lovers of walking—an | old-timers’ race. Among the competi- j tors will be ‘‘Dorric’’ licslie W. Tnl- I hot. H. S. Alpe. P. Fitzgerald, J. W. j Davies, Kent, Rose and Costall. “Dorrie” Leslie’s walking in the professional ranks in the Into 'nineties is a matter of athletic history, and though, of course*, the old pace has gone for good. “Dome” has always kept tit and his stylo will he a vivid reminder of the times when his appearance on an athletic ground drew n bumper crowd. H. S. Alpe’s road-walking over long distances in aid of various patriotic and charitable objects is of recent date. For his age. he is still one of the world's best. The other competitors are all men who were noted walkers in their time.