A Diary of Sport AXEMEN’S PART

Southland Times, Issue 24242, 27 September 1940, Page 8

A Diary of Sport AXEMEN’S PART

Patriotic Sports Pageant G. BLANKS AND J. PONT IN RELAY By ONLOOKER Two well-known Southland athletes who have taken part in championship bushcraft events in several parts of the world and who are members of bushcraft teams to take part in the patriotic sports pageant at Rugby Park tomorrow are Jack Pont and Geoff. Blanks.

Veteran competitors, both Pont and Blanks are far from being back numbers in the sport. They are associated in one of the three teams in tomorrow’s relay, and if experience counts for anything their team should play a prominent part in the decision of the event.

Blanks sponsored the idea of a novelty bushcraft event at the pageant and that is how the championship relay, in which axemen and sawyers will combine in competitive attack on logs of wood, came into being. Blanks has been one of Southland’s foremost athletes over a long period. Just after the Great War he represented New Zealand at the British and American Games at Stamford Bridge, where he won the chopping championship of England and America. He also competed in the tug-of-war, his team gaining second place. He has won many championships in New Zealand.

Days For Cricket Matches Judged on the expression of opinion at the annual meeting of the Southland Cricket Association it is quite likely that one-day games will be adopted this season. The matter will be decided by the management committee at its next meeting. A recommendation moved at the annual meeting of the Otago Cricket Association that one-day games be played this year was rejected; the association will continue to play two-day fixtures in the senior competition. One-day cricket in Invercargill should greatly help the game in the south. Too often games which promised well on the first day have collapsed early on the second day and many of the players have taken no part in the play on the second day. The introduction of one-day fixtures should have the effect of speeding up the play in Invercargill. What does it matter if games are not completed? The pleasure rather than the result of a game of cricket is what counts most.

Alice Marble For New Zealand?

According to comment made in Wellington by members of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association, visits from overseas women tennis stars during the coming season would be welcomed. From America may come not only Miss Alice Marble, reigning

United States champion, but also the members of the British Wightman Cup team which has been stranded in America since the outbreak of war.

The British players include: Misses M. Hardwick, V. Scott, N. Brown, R. Jarvis, and B. Nuthall. The first proposal was that the girls should visit both Australia and New Zealand. When the matter was referred to Mr A. G. Henderson, a member of the management committee of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association, and a former president of that body, he said that as far as New Zealand was concerned, they would be very glad to assist in a tour of that nature. Southland Hockey Teams

The hockey season in Otago ended last Saturday, when Southland senior and junior teams paid a return visit to Dunedin and played Otago teams. The junior match was won by the visitors, who held the advantage throughout; but, as was the case earlier in the season when they met in Invercargill, Otago seniors proved too good for the Southland players, states The Otago Daily Times. It was Otago’s forward line which won the day, and it had no easy task, because the visitors showed up to advantage on defence and held on with a dogged persistence which frustrated a good many strong attacks. Southland managed to put on three goals to Otago’s five, and would, in all probability, have had a better score if there had been a little more finish in its circle play. It was a dry, fast ground, and the Southland players’ hard-hit-ting tactics gave them more hard running than results. Otago’s inside forwards again played a pretty game, displaying clever passing and maintaining a territorial advantage.