ALL SPORTS A Weekly Budget

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 37, 6 May 1927, Page 6

ALL SPORTS A Weekly Budget

The New Zealand cricket team opens its tour on Monday with a match against Martineau’s eleven at Holyport. * * * The Dutch are making great preparations for the Olympic Games next year. Putting some schnapp into things. * * * Rules and Rules “A good referee doesn’t want to know too much about the rules, otherwise he will confuse the teams.”—Mr. A. E. McPhail, at a meeting of Christchurch referees.

Watch Your Drive! Golfers will be interested in a decision of an English county court, which has held that a golfer, playing across a public highway, is liable for damages to a motor-car hit by his golf ball. * * * Kapai te Kai From the official communique of the Dutch Olympic Games authorities: “Food in Holland, as everybody knows, is very nourishing, and it will be easy to meet the needs of participating nations.” The next time the Maori footballers go abroad they might include a few matches in Holland in their itinerary. * * * Good Handicapping A champion South African woman runner, Miss Bennett, ran against a whippet over 100 yards, and, on the assumption that Miss Bennett’s time would be a fraction over 12 seconds to the whippet’s 6£ seconds, she was allowed 48 yards start. Miss Bennett won the race by inches in 6 3-ssec. * * * I nconsistent English football critics like E. H. D. Sewell are never tired of contending that big gates are a menace to amateur sports. But they forget that England took all the huge profits of the All Black tour, and that New South Wales will not get a bean out of the profits of this year’s tour. * * * Shot! A proud Auckland father, with the dual idea of suitably recognising his young hopeful’s birthday, and at the same time indulging himself in a little shooting amongst hordes of sparrows that were robbing his fowls of their meals, decided to invest in an air-gun. An unctuous shop assistant duly sold the gun, and also a pound of shot. “Now*, shall I tie the shot up for you, sir?” asked the assistant, with superfluous politeness. “Sure,” said the customer affably, “do you think I want to roll it home?” * * * Describing a six-day bicycle race in New York, an American newspaper has an interesting reference to two Australians, one of whom, Plarris Horder, rode at Blandford Park last year. “It

was a neat bit of strategy,” the writer says, “w hich brought t|ie Australian combination up to share the lead with McNamara and Georgetti. Always they would find the leading teams fighting desperately to open a gap of more than half a lap before they started to

wither under the blistering fire of McNamara and Georgetti, who protected the lead more vigilantly than the Belgian team. It seems that all the jamming would produce nothing more than a bit of excitement for the afternoon crowd, and when Horder and Mcßeath saw the others resting on their oars, they sneaked out suddenly, and had the lap sewed up before the others save Grimm and Horan could get started.”

Expensive Golf South African golfers evidently believe in doing themselves well. The big championship course at Vereeniging. where peace was signed in the second Boer war, has taken five years to complete at a cost of £60,000. * * * Cricket Record - Breakers There were some remarkable records in Victorian cricket in the season just ended. Ponsford completed 2,000 runs for the season, and Blackie took more wickets (64) than ever before. This same Blackie is something of a Nurmi of cricket—he bowled 92 overs in one Sheffield Shield game, and in another match, he stayed at the wickets an hour and a-half, triumphantly retiring with the not out to his credit! * * # New South Wales Rugby Tour The Sydney Rugby Union season, which made its official beginning last Saturday, is one of the most momentous since 1908, when the Wallabies packed up to tour Britain—the first Australian team to do so. In those days the side had some claim to represent Australia, since it included a good few Queenslanders. This year New South Wales alone will supply the men for the long tour of Britain and France. The Waratahs are due to leave Sydney on June 22. They will play a match against the Victorian Rugby Union in Melbourne on the next day. * * * Cricketers for Singapore A powerful cricketing combination principally Australian Eleven men, left Sydney last Tuesday for Singapore under the wing of W. A. Oldfield for a series of matches. The Board of Control has sanctioned this tour, the players to be: W. A. Oldfield, IT. L.

Collins, S. Everett, C. G. Macartney, A. A. Mailey, E. R. Mayne. W. M. Woodfull, T. J. Andrews, A. Jackson, J. P. Sulivan and H. S. Gamble, with possibly a South Australian to be picked up on the way across.

Hahn in Form Lloyd Hahn, the American runner, who had some great battles in New Zealand last year with Rose, has been

in wonderful form in America this year. On March 17 last, at an indoor gathering in New York, he defeated Edwin Wide, the Swedish crack, in a mile in 4min 12 1-5; sec—one-fifth of a second outside the l world record heldi by Paavo Nurmi and Joll Ray.

* * * England’s Skipper

On their tour of England the New Zealand cricketers will doubtless find A. P. F. Chapman, the English test captain, a helpful soul. Having close associations with New Zealand —he married a sister of T. C. Lowry—Chapman should be deeply interested in the fortunes of the team. When he came out to New Zealand to be married, Chapman distinguished himself at several Hawkes Bay tennis tournaments. The author of this paragraph umpired a match in which Chapman figured, and found that he hit so hard that his shots were difficult to follow. Formerly a fine Rugby forward, Chapman has an eye like a hawk’s, and would have made a topnotch tennis player if he had not concentrated on cricket. Won Stawell Gift Bundaberg, Queensland, went off its rocker when it heard that T. J. Miles had won the Stawell Easter Gift, says a “Sydney Bulletin” paragraphist. For Miles is a native of Bundaberg, and the other natives had backed him to win a couple of thousand. The Gilt is far and away the biggest professional ped. race in Australia; first home in the 130 yards gets £2SQ, a silver cup and a sash, besides his share of what his party collect in bets. Miles cut out his 120 yards—he was “on” 10 yards—in 12 l-ssec, so he is evidently a mover. At home he is a baker, who varies punching dough with a bit of punching in the local ring and playing Rugby football—which is much the same thing, when you come to think of it. Only 21, he is sft lOin high and 11 stone —the ideal sprinter build. He is perhaps destined to be a rival to Tim Banner, who won the Gift in 1925, and whose backers are prepared to match him against any sprinter in the world. Paddock preferred.

Dempster’s. Dashing Cricket Wanganui cricket enthusiasts expect C. S. Dempster to be one of the successes of the English tour. Going to Wanganui from

Wellington at the start of last season, Dempster found he had to overcome the usual prejudice against a newcomer of recogn ised talent. So successfully did he find his way to popularity that by the time the season was half over he was the most popular cricketer in Wan-

ganui. Some of his performances early in the season were phenomenal. In successive knocks he put up 195, 203 and 151 not out. In the first of these brilliant efforts, which were marked by graceful and attractive batting, Dempster helped a Fijian boy named Thakabau to pile on 350 for the third wicket partnership. Thakabau’s contribution was 153 not out. It was his first game in senior cricket.