LEA VES OF A SPORTSMAN’S NOTE-BOOK

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

LEA VES OF A SPORTSMAN’S NOTE-BOOK

PERHAPS it was inevitable that with the turning-over of some prominent amateur tennis players to professionalism there should arise a demand for open tennis championships in England. Many of the leading players at Home are said to be in favour of the proposal, but it is difficult to find any sound reason for this. And, curiously enough, the opponents of the proposal seem to have missed a good point. Here is a sample of the argument that has been used: “It is a big thing for any governing body of sport that from its inception has shut out professionalism from its fold to recognise it officially, and an open championship is impossible unless this be done.”

That argument is beside the point. It is not necessary even to thrash out anew the old question of amateurism versus professionalism. At the present stage of professionalism in lawn tennis, it does not parallel the position in golf—a game which is cited by advocates of open tennis championships. Professional golfers gain their livelihood from teaching the game to amateurs, and most of them are bred to the game. Comparatively few of them gain much money from giving exhibitions of their skill, or from money prizes for matches. In tennis the position is very different. Open championships are advocated not for the few tennis professionals who teach the game, but for the players who have deserted the ranks of amateurs, in order to gain money by giving exhibitions. Their interest in the business now is purely pecuniary, and they are not assisting to advance the game for any organisation of amateur sportsmen. Tennis would not gain from the holding of open championships. The profit would accrue to the get-rich-quick promoters who have capitalised interest in what was originally a sport, and it would arise from opportunity to advertise certain professional players as “open champions.” Why, then, should amateur players lend themselves to the aggrandisement of ex-amateurs from whom nothing that will help tennis can be learned? ORIGIN OF STEEPLECHASING. It evidently was the recent racing carnival at Riccarton that stimulated ■x correspondent into asking how steeplechasing originated. Well, the following narrative of the origin of the sport was garnered by “Elian ’owan,” a well-known English sporting writer of about 40 or 50 years ago, but he expressly stated that the story could not be authenticated. On a certain evening in December, -803, in the mess-room of a cavalry regiment that was in winter quarters at Ipswich, a young captain named Hansum challenged anyone else in the regiment to run against a certain! favourite grey horse of his, four miles across country, for a “pony.” As the place was very dull at the time, a horus of voices cried “Done! Done!” “Four miles and a-half under the saddle, from here to Nacton Church, now. It’s a moonlight night, the weather open, the country clear; we shall not find a better opportunity.” Ready for anything, the chorus assented, and rushed off to prepare. “1 think we should all look interesting if we wore clean night-shirts over

our uniforms and cotton night-caps on our heads,” suggested one. The proposal was hailed with acclaim. A complement of eight was soon ready to start, and a body of troopers was in the background to watch the fuu. Whoop! Away they went, in night-shirts and caps, making strong running for the lead, and lying well together. At the first fence one of the racers turned a somersault, and horse and rider were landed in a muddy ditch, while a Major Medly. with his shirt-tail flying in the wind, vainly tugged at his old “trooper” to carry him over the obstacle. The other six all got across safely, and with some ups and downs reached Nacton Heath. But the last fence and field presented a varied picture. One horse jumped smash through the middle of a five-barred gate. Hansum’s grey, which had occasioned the challenge, took a strong hurdle, fence, and bank in beautiful style. Two riders were thrown. “Yah, Yah! Yah!” Screaming and whooping like maniacs, the riders who were left in the race clattered through the quiet village, startling the country folk out of their beds, and making them believe the French had landed and were upon them, but the sight of the white, shrowded figures in the cold moonlight, shrieking and urging on their horses, as if a troop of demons were in pursuit, filled them with terror. For years after the old wives of Nacton believed that they really had seen a troop of demons. PRESIDENT'S BLOOMER.

Calvin Coolidge has announced that he will not seek another term of office as President of the United States. Fly fishermen expected that. They had arisen in horror and solemnly vowed, by the bones of Piscator, that Calvin Coolidge should be banned, by hook, line, and rod, from the ranks of sportsmen and the position of First Citizen of the Land of Wheel and Go Yes. Calvin had committed an un pardonable sin—“bloomer” is only a weakly polite term for it. When he was on vacation recently, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he caught seven rainbow trout. But he used worms as bait! Not even Senator Borah’s plea that any trout that would be at the bottom of a stream and bit at a worm is a degenerate trout could save President Coolidge from the con sequences of that black deed in the Black Hills. He has lost the vote of all fly fishermen in the United States! RIDICULOUS. “Macarthy and Matter son were found guilty and bound over to appear for sentence if called upon at any time within two years.” So the cables summarise for us the end of a case in which two men had been charged with conspiracy to defraud trotting organisations of large sums of money. The public also was defrauded by the “ringing-in” of the trotting mare Promenade as Gathered Gold. Yet this impudent trickery goes unpunished by anything more severe than odium. The good government of trotting has been hurt by this ridiculously lenient treatment of the two men. Mr X.