ALL SPORTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 79, 24 June 1927, Page 10

ALL SPORTS

A Weekly Budget

The rumour that Sir Harry Lauder has offered £I,OOO for the first man to swim the Atlantic is officially denied. * * * The New Zealand cricketers will meet one of the stiffest tests of their tour next week, when they play Yorkshire at Bradford. Judging by their matches in Australia, the Chinese Soccer players are much better shots than their brethren in the Flowery Land. * * * Don’t forget that Football Coupon, This week marks a return to a full list of club fixtures. All coupons should be in by 10 o’clock to-morrow morning. * * * Prince To Watch Fight The Prince of Wales will be a spectator at the world’s middleweight boxing championship at the London Olympia next Thursday, when Mickey Walker (America) and Tom Milligan (Britain) will fight for the title. Like Father, Like Son In the Cambridge Freshmen’s cricket match at the beginning of last month, G. L. O. Jessop scored 57 and 47 not out. This young man is a son of the famous “Croucher” Jessop, England’s mighty hitter of"~days gone by. Jfessop junior is said to have all his father’s dash and enterprise at the wickets. * * * Auckland Boxers in Australia Strangely enough, there has been a complete reversal of form in the case of the three Auckland boxers at present fighting in Australia. Before their departure, most people would have placed them in this order of merit —Purdy, Trowern, McKnight. But on the other side of the Tasman, they declare for McKnight, Trowern, Purdy, in that order.

A Hard School

America is proving a hard school for overseas boxers. Marcel Thuru, the rugged Frenchman, who fought Eddie Parker in Auckland a few mohths ago, found that out in San Francisco the other day when Jack Willis dropped him twice in the fifth round and got the decision on a technical knock-out. * * * His Last Game L. Mason, the Canterbury League footballer, who has accepted a substantial offer to play for an English club, played his last game in Christchurch on Saturday. He went out in a blaze of glory. Playing five-eighth for the Hornby Club, was one of the outtsanding figures *n the defeat of Sydenham by 33 points to 10. Hornby is at present leading the competition in Christchurch, and Mason’s departure will be a serious loss to the club. * * * Will Auckland Come to This? Says a writer in the English “Field”: “Last Saturday afternoon 1 was in a small room in a remote part of Surrey, listening to the description of the Scotland v. England Rugby match at Edinburgh by an old international. Before me was a plan of the ground divided into sections. With the greatest ease I could follow every incident of the game, which was so vividly brought before me that when the whistle went for ‘no side’ I began seriously to consider the best way of getting out of the ground!’’ Bowls at 103 Mr. Bening Arnold, of Bournemouth, England, though he was 103 on May 25, still enjoys his game of bowls, and is no doubt the oldest bowler in England. He opened the season for the Alupi Chine Bowling Club, of which he is a member. He walked on to the green without assistance, threw the first jack and bowled the first wood. After being congratulated by a large crowd of spectators he took part in a match between the officials of the club. Asked what he thought of ladies playing bowls, Mr. Arnold said he was delighted to see so many taking up the sport—“it helps to make the game much more interesting and attractive,” he added. Mr. Arnold did not take up bowling until he wa; 80 years of age, but ever since he has been a very keen member of the club. * * * Bob Fitzsimmons went to Sydney from Timaru in 1887. But for his ability as a farrier he would have had a bitter time. He arrived without a reputation, and ignorance could not recognise quality in an ungainly poise. For this inability a larrikin of the period paid dearly. Fitzsimmons, very religious in those days, was going to church one Sunday morning, habited in a long frock-coat and nursing a Bible and prayer-book under his astonishing left arm. Arrived in Harris Street, Ultimo, he was stopped by a notorious bully, who insulted him in shocking language and announced his intention of knocking his roof off for a canting cow, or words to that effect. "You want to fight me?” inquired Bob quietly. “Well, step into the lane ’ere and I’ll take you on.” Into the lane they stepped, with a few of the pushite’s friends, and Fitz.. having methodically prepared for battle, proceeded to half kill his man. So terribly did he cut the fellow up that none of the “mob” dared to attack him, even in force—their usual procedure with inoffensive wayfarers. His job well done, Robert resumed his coat and hat, parked his books again under his astounding arm, and walked on bis unruffled way to church-

Another Wilding? The decision of E. D. (“Buster”) Andrews, New Zealand’s tennis champion, to finish off his legal studies at Cambridge University, is reminiscent of the fact that it was at this selfsame seat of learning that the late Anthony Wilding achieved fame as a wielder of the racquet. Andrews, who ranks as the likeliest man of international calibre that the Dominion has produced since Wilding’s day, hopes to figure at Wimbledon next year. * * * Athletics In Auckland In commenting on an article in THE SUN dealing with amateur athletics in Auckland, the New Zealand “Referee” says: A writer in an Auckland paper has some caustic remarks to make concerning the conduct of the amateur sport up north. There is no doubt that things are not all they should be, particularly in the matter of attending to correspondence and the trouble is not of recent growth either. This scribe can quote instances, when acting in an official capacity, of letters and telegrams on an important matter being simply ignored and all efforts to secure a reply thereto proving unavailing. * * * Best Dressed Athlete Lord Burghley, who left London on May 2 for America as captain of the Cambridge University hurdling team, is admired for his sartorial elegance almost as much as his athletics, says a Home paper. At Cambridge he is always known as the best-dressed athlete, and in America there is certain soon to be a demand for clothes like his.

“Skirts for Bathers The New South Wales Surfers’ Association the other day declined with scorn a proposal to adopt a universal “skirted” costume for surfers. This periodical controversy about what is or isn’t decent attire for bathers recalls that there are many civilised peoples, to say nothing of those who think they are, who dispense with all covering when bathing in public (says “Gooseflesh,” in “Sydney Bulletin”). Before the war, at any rate, mixed bathing in the altogether was # common enough at German watering places on the Baltic. Claire Sheridan, the English sculptress who spent some time in Russia doing busts of Lenin, Trotsky and other celebrities, tells in her book of the mixed bathing there in summer. Staying in the country with a party of intelligentsia, she was invited to an afternoon bathing party of this sort of all ages and sexes, and “after the first embarrassment” speedily became accustomed to the practice. In Sweden and Norway mixed bathing in the buff has been practised for ages, not only in the open, but in the bath-houses—-and there are other instances. * * * Weismuller Cracks Records. —Three world’s swimming records were lowered by Johnny Weismuller, American champion swimmer, at the University of Michigan last month. The "human fish” started off by crawling 100 yards in 51 seconds, bettering by a full sec-

ond his previous world’s mark made in 1925 at San Francisco. He then reeled off 200 metres in 2min Bsec, and 220 yards in 2min 9sec, improvements on the old records of 7 3-ssec and 6 l-ssec respectively. Eighteen Michigan Amateur Athletic Union timekeepers were present to keep an eye on the champion, and C. D. Lynch, president of that body, said the performances were all registered under the correct conditions. * * * Casey Becomes Champion. —Last Monday night at the Wellington Town Hall, Harry Casey proved that his previous victory over Lachie MacDonald on the West Coast was no fluke. Giving away no less than 9£lb, the tough little Queenslander relieved MacDonald of the middle-weight title, winning by a clear-cut points margin, which left no doubt as to the. way the decision would go. Casey has evidently improved out of knowledge since he first came to New Zealand, and his future career as the Dominion’s middle-weight champion will be watched with keen interest.