ENGLISH SPORTING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 125, 14 September 1876, Page 2

ENGLISH SPORTING.

The correspondent of the Press sends the following sporting gossip : .At th e annual sale of yearlings last month at the Cobham Stud Farm, a yearling colt fetched the enormous and unprecedented price of 4,100 guineas. This nearly doubles the largest sum ' yet given for a yearling. The purchaser was the Duke of, Westminstei*'s trainer, and I cannot but think, that his judgment-was hardly equal, to his pluck. The reason of the great increase in the price paid for racing yearlings lies in the great rise during the last few years in the value of the prizes offered. ■ In the early days of the turf the committee of management at great race meetings were thought to be doing the thing very liberally if they gave away a prize of L2OO, the rest of the events being mere' sweepstakes ; butjiiow at the great meetings L 500,; and -eveij iiiiOOO.;are often added to^a.single race! At the v Ascot meeting the other day L 25,000 were given away in prizes, and at Goodwood this month there Tyill probably be nearly as much to be competed for. It is not an impossibility now for a successful racer to'win his weight iri gold during his sporting career. Taking this into consideration, the 4,100 guineas paid the other day. by the Duke of West; minster's trainer ts not as preposterous as it would seem at first sight. If the colt turns out well,- as there is great reason to believe he will, he may win his owner his purchase money back over, and over again. A gentleman tolerably well known in sporting circles has just made one of the luckiest hits on record. He received from a bookmaker odds of 800 to 1 in sovereigns against his naming the three winners of the three races—the Two Thousand, the City and Suburban, and the Derby. The gentlemen named Petrarch, Thunderer, and the Mineral Colt, and thus pulled off what is termed m sporting language, the " triple event." The LBOO was paid punctually on settling day. I can vouch for-the ; trutl of this, as the lucky individual in que* tion is. a near relation of the writer'a The bet, with a great many variations and exaggerations, has been going the' round of the papers. There is no lack of sport at this season of the year. The Oxford and Cambridge cricket match, though a three days' one, was a hollow affair. Cambridge won with nine wickets to go down, The Light Blues are thus one to the good in the" whole series, of matches. The , Sculling Championship of England bai been wrested from us by an Australian; Edward Trickett, hailing from the Antipodes, has beaten with ease Joseph Saddler, our crack sculler. Trickett i> considered here as the most powerful sculler ever seen in this country. ; There is great activity in England in -the cricket field: On the 9th June, after three days' play, Gloucestershire beat Surrey by 10 wickets. The three Graces were in the winning team, but more tfiaß half the funs were secured" by Gilbert and Townsend, 86 and 88 respectively in the two innings: Hampshire beat Kent by 236 runs. . In a contest between- Oxfort University- and the Gentlemen of England, the former gained a decisive victory by 10 wickets. In a county match between Middlesex and Surrey, lasting three days, the former was victorious by eight wickets; Mr. Otaway in the Middlesei team obtained 152 runs. Notts, in a single innings, defeated a Marylebone scratch team after two innings, by fifty two runs. Brighton has been made th< scene of a contest between Sussex am Gloucestershire; resulting in a victory foi the latter by 131 runs. Mr. W. G. Graci contributed largely to this result, "with f score of 104 in the second innings Derbyshire, in a single innings, has van quished the M.C.C. after a double innings Cambridge University has won a :thre< days's match with Surreyy by 148 runs Lancashire has obtained an ea3y victoij over Kent, without losing a wicket in-theJ second innings. The Bar has beaten % Army by eight wickets in a two days' cos test. In a match between Edinburgh ani Aberdeen University, the former -won M. 61 runs. Eton beat Manchester by otf innings and9oruns. '-.""' r T ■