SPORT IN EGYPT

Southland Times, Issue 24881, 22 October 1942, Page 4

SPORT IN EGYPT

Southlanders Prominent

Southland sportsmen who have gone overseas with the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force have found opportunities for recreation and have done well in the sports fields, according to Lieutenant P. G. McLauchlan, of Invercargill, who has been invalided home with a leg wound after the Battle of Egypt. Lieutenant McLauchlan was in charge of sport at Maadi base camp for several months, and while he was unable to pursue his own career as a track runner he observed with interest the activities of other sportsmen from his own province. Lieutenant McLauchlan, who is one of five brothers who have undertaken service in the present war, had an outstanding athletic record before he went overseas. He established several records while at the Southland Boys’ High School and in 1934 won the centennial mile event at Melbourne for secondary school athletes of Australia and New Zealand.

Perhaps the most successful Southlander overseas in the sporting field has been Dick Baker, of Tuatapere, who won two divisional boxing championships. Among others whom Lieutenant McLauchlan encountered were Dick Tutty (Gore), P. L. Lynch and Arthur Wesney (who was later killed in action), all of whom were doing well in football, E. R. Purdue (who has returned wounded), R. Hallamore, L. M. Uttley (now a prisoner of war), W. A. Spence, who played good cricket, and Winston Strang, who had been prominent in tennis.