ALL SPORTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 139, 2 September 1927, Page 10

ALL SPORTS

A Weekly Budget

Cock-a-doodle-doo! The Roope ao.ster will be let loose at Carlaw Park

Astonishing! Defeated, without losing a wicket! Such was the astonishing fate of Lensbury in London club cricket on a recent Saturday, and it must surely be a record. Lensbury’s captain declared when his opening pair. Hollis and Armstrong, had put on 137 without being separated. Then Mill Hill Park went out for the runs, and, scoring 140 for five wickets, gained a five-wicket victory over a side that had not lost a wicket. H. and S. The next English XI. looks like relying on the letter H more than ever, and filling up with S. (says a London writer). Hammond is one of the hopes of the future; Hearne is back at his stodgy best; Holmes has helped Sutcliffe to shatter an old Hayward-and-Hobbs record; and Hallows’s claims are strong. Hammond, Hearne, Holmes and Hallows have been more prominent this season than even Hobbs and Hendren. Then there is the aforesaid Sutcliffe, with Sandham, Shepherd and the inexhaustible Strudwick, all of Surrey. And among the amateurs the most likely in sight (after Chapman) are Haig and Stevens. “Push-Ball” When the German entries for the English Amateur Athletic Association championships materialised the British authorities were completely at a loss concerning three, entered for “pushball. ' Nobody could make head or tail of the thing until, when the entry lists were circulated for publication a Press representative drew attention to the absence of the trio of hefty German weight-putters who appeared on an unofficial, but remarkably accurate, list of German entries. When you come to think of it, “pushing the ball” is really a far more enlightening nomenclature for the event than putting the weight. Cricket Coaches While Australia is exporting cricketers to England and importing English players to fill their places, Maoriland is not lagging behind (says a writer in the “Sydney Bulletin”). The Canterbury Association is bringing out Newman, the Hampshire bowler, and the M.L. body is securing A. A. Wilson, of Yorkshire. The greatest care should be taken not to confuse the

The New Zealand cricketers missed the Scottish summer—it came and went the Saturday before they arrived in Edinburgh.

No Siller, Ye Ken A burglar recently broke into the pavilion of a cricket club at Aberdeen. Fortunately, the penny that the club uses for tossing had been taken to the bank after the last match.

Swapping Colours An old Rugby superstition was borne out on Saturday, when Hawke's Bay’s familiar “magpie” colours were changed to amber and black to avoid a clash with the colours of the home province. Hawke’s Bay certainly found that there was a fly in the amber.

Tin-Hare Racing Boom The tin-hare sport has caught England like a ’flu epidemic. Since January, 32 dog-racing companies have been registered, and the latest has paid £150,000 for the stadium at Wembley.

The National Game of Erin Hurling, Ireland’s national game, which is somewhat akin to hockey, enjoys a big following in Sydney. Ten thousand fans turned out last Saturday week to see New South Wales beat Victoria in the first test by 16 to 3.

White Soccer Ball! There were many experiments with a white Soccer ball in England recently, but nowhere was it a complete success. Soon the ball became of the customary drab hue and wet. At the HomertOTi and Newport grounds it was difficult to follow because of the misty atmosphere. At Huddersfield, Reading and Blackpool the players disliked it. Arsenal at first used a white enamel, and later a duller hue, without conclusive results.

Coached by Mother Many first-class cricketers have owed a great deal to the tuition and practical help to their womenkind. It was said of Mrs. Martha Grace, mother of the three great brothers, E. M., W. G. and G. F., that she was a better player than her husband, Dr. Henry Grace. She understood the game thoroughly, and helped to teach it to her sons. C. J. T. Poole, the Northants batsman, and D. C. Collins, the Cambridge Blue and New Zealand cricketer, have both been proud to acknowledge that they were coached first by their mothers, while the late Harry Bagshaw, of Derbyshire, than whom no more enthusiastic cricketer ever lived, was bowled to by his grandmother when he was a small boy. * * *

Dog-Racing Boom The popularity of the new sport of greyhound racing in England can be gauged by the registration of five new racing companies, including a newspaper firm. Though coursing authorities deplore the increasing popularity of track-racing as inimical to true sport, dog breeders are finding an exceptionally lucrative market. A year ago, when track-racing started, a man bred 70 saplings. These were drastically weeded out until perhaps seven remained for coursing purposes. The remainder were sacrificed at auction to make room for the next batch of saplings. The selected dogs fetched £ 100, and the cast-offs averaged possibly £2O. But it has been found that the cast-offs might have beaten the selected dogs on the track, where different qualities predominate. For example, one of the most frequent winners on English tracks is Charlie Cranston, who fetched £lO as a puppy. Similar cast-offs are now worth from £IOO to £l5O.

latter with the highly-superiah Roclcley (pronounced “Rock-leah”) Wilson, also of Yorkshire, who, with Percy Fender, so endeared himself to our lowah ordahs during his visit to Australia in 1920-21. Rockleah, when last heard of, was sports mastali at Winchestah; but it.must not be thought for a moment' that he would accept an engagement as a common coach, especially in “the colonies.” Japs at Rugby A humorous feature of the Japanese Rugby team’s game I saw in Melbourne was the strenuous endeavours of the visitors to overcome their natural handicap of lack of inches by resorting to mass attacks, like the Lilliputians who subjugated Gulliver (says an Australian writer). The home team possessed in Abbott one of the tallest forwards in the game, and he spent most of the afternoon carrying about a garland of struggling Nipponese At times half the team seemed to be hanging round his neck. The tactics of the Japanese generally suffered from the same mistake. They attempted aerial attacks at their opponents’ heads when they should have concentrated on their feet. The Japanese will have to eat a lot more meat and wheat before Nippon can take its place amongst the Rugby nations of the world. Those Western necessities are alleged to have added a fraction of an inch to the national stature already.