ALL SPORTS A Weekly Budget

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 61, 3 June 1927, Page 6

ALL SPORTS A Weekly Budget

The dust-up in China now takes a back seat to Auckland’s football war. THE SUN’s Football Competition coupon appears on this page. £lO for 10 correct results this week. * * * Richard Bartwistle, of Laytham, England, has not missed a Soccer Cup final for 40 years. They say he likes the game! * * * The First Test The Canadian Soccer team meets New Zealand in the First Test at Dunedin three weeks from to-morrow (June 25). The Northern Boxing Association complains that there are no good fighters in sight. ’ What’s wrong with matching “Perseus” and “Fairplay,” with “Porky” Gibbons as referee? Take Up Thy Bowls! Bowlers, arise In your wrath and seek the blood of the man who spoke these words at an athletic smoke concert. “Even though some of us, when we grow old, get as far down the scale as to take to bowls, we always feel proud to think that we once took a part in athletics.” * * * Starting Early Louis Charles, aged five, of Crouy, near Soissons, recently cycled 70 miles to Paris in roughly 13 hours—an average speed of nearly five and a half miles an hour. He rode a speciallybuilt miniature machine and had as pacemaker and guide his father, who had promised to buy him a large chocolate egg if he succeeded in the attempt.

A Useful Hint Sydney Smith, manager of the last Australian cricket team’s tour in England, drops a useful hint for such future occasions: Five players standing down is altogether too many, and is liable to lead, in a normal year, to discontent and lack of interest on the part of those who have to sit in the pavilion and watch the game. I would therefore, strongly recommend that the board adhere to 15 players only in future tours. Healing The Scars of War France and Germany at Rugby, with an English referee! Who would have thought of it a few years ago? It happened at Colombes Stadium (Paris) a month or so ago, and 25,000 excitable Gauls cheered the representatives of the tricolour on to a 30 —5 victory. As yet, the Germans have not fully mastered the technique of the English game, but the Frenchmen have. They beat England for the first time in history last season. * * * Dizzy Whirl! Two chess masters were sitting poring over the board. The game was in an interesting state. At last one of them moved, and brushed away a cobweb with an absent gesture. “Do you mind if we call this a draw?,” he asked. “A draw,” echoed the other, “why?” “Well,” explained the first man, “I’ve suddenly remembered that I have an appointment next Tuesday.” The Scandalised Shah The old Shah of Persia, during his visit to England in 1889, was taken to see the Derby run, but was rather scandalised at a mere subject winning such a big race. “Where is the Sovereign’s horse?” inquired he, with no little concern, when the Duke of Portland’s Donovan carried off the great Epsom race, amid a storm of enthusiasm which was not altogether pleasing to the Persian monarch. “The Sovereign has no horse running,” he was told. The Shah unbent, much relieved.

A peep behind the scenes at the methods pursued by the prominent world heavy-weight boxers of to-day: Tunney, Maloney and Sharkey Have spent most of their time working for speed and effective punches that jar, but rarely stop a rival. They work on the theory of constant Hammering, rather than one big smack. I hey are not willing to take the gamble of the one big shot that may lead to heavy trouble if it misses.

Warned Off The Scotchman, who walked ICO miles to see Thistle play the “Trammies,” and then dropped unconscious in trying to climb the fence, is hereby warned off for life. That one died a natural death on “Football Corner” this week, when George weighed in with the touching story of how he filled in THE SUN’S £3O football coupon correctly, and forgot to post it! Moral—Don’t forget yours.

Tilden Still Supreme Writing from Berlin last month, Stan Donst, the English tennis player, says: “Tilden, who has been playing here, is still supreme. Like Norman Brookes, he is the wizard of the game. Never once was he nonplussed by the Germans. He is making the most earnest endeavours to come back. He has refused all social engagements, given up smoking, and is rigorously dieting himself. Pie talks of nothing else but his forthcoming games against the Frenchmen.”

“Worth A Teamful of Nepias.” It is a long-standing mystery in Sydney how Nepia became such a brilliant sucess in England after his poor display in New South Wales. Some of the Sydney critics are still sceptical, as witness the following comment in the Sydney “Sun”: “If the selectors of the New South Wales team to tour England take two full-backs, there will be a great struggle for the second position—Alex. Ross is, of course, a certainty for his place, and will be the first man picked for England. If England went wild over Nepia, what will it do over Ross, who is better than a teamful of Nepias, judged by the latter’s display in Sydney at all events?” * * * Major H. O. D. Segrave, who recently beat the world’s speed record on Daytona Beach, speaks of the terriffic wind pressure at high speed: “In my practice sprints I soon discovered to my consternation that I could see nothing at all. The wind pressure was so terriffic that not a sound could be heard from the giant car —just the howling of the wind. I had to improvise an extension to the wind jowl before I could take the car out again. During the actual attempt I managed to lean out of the car, and immediately the wind pressure staggered me. My racing helmet was almost torn from me and the holding straps nearly pulled through. During the run I felt the car slipping sideways from me. I tried to correct what was virtually a skid. I moved the steering wheel slightly. No response. I gave it half a turn. Still no response. Everything was going so quickly that I had no time to think of moving my foot from the accelerator. * * A Doubtful Compliment An English critic comments on the storm caused by the ban placed on women members by the Wells Bov/ling Club in Somerset, on the grounds that they are “an absolute nuisance,” and “continually encroach on men’s prerogatives: ” It seems a pity that the men of Wells are so sensitive about their prerogatives, whatever they may be. Women have taken a big part in sport—other than bowls—for a good many years now, and surely there is room for them. Mr. C. Hills, secretary of the English Bowling Association, says there is no reason why women should not play the game, and adds that it would be a great pity if they were to disappear from the club houses altogether, because they are so useful in providing tea and other comforts for the men players. For that reason I think they should be allowed to play at least once a week by way of compensation, but not with men.

A POOR PURSE! Pugilists are not, as a rule, particularly brainy, remarks a writer in a London journal. One evening in an East End bar a discussion arose concerning the matching of a boxer, who was present, with another. “Coo,” said one of the ardent supporters of the bruiser who sat next to him, “you could knock ’is 'ead off for fourpence, couldn’t you, ’Erb?” ’Erb gave the matter his judicial consideration, and then answered with the utmost gravity, “It don’t seem much of a purse to rne, Bill.”