Personalities in Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 169, 7 October 1927, Page 10

Personalities in Sport

James Parkes: League Star

There is no more popular or competent all-round player of League Rugby in New Zealand than James Parkes. Parkes has played for Canterbury, Wellington, Auckland and New Zealand. He went to England with the League touring side, and on that illstarred tour ho proved himself loyal to the game, and to the true principles of sportsmanship. Included in the side as a back, he was called on to show his undoubted versatility by playing in the forwards as hooker. Whether as fullback, wing- threequarter, or centre - threequarter, Parkes is in his element. A superb tackier, he offers a rugged defence to the opposition, he has the ability to make openings, and get into them, and his reputation as a scoring man is known :in England as well as in New Zealand. When Parkes is bound for the line, ball under arm, his sturdy, quick-moving figure takes a power of stopping. Parkes is an unselfish player, and it is characteristic of him that when he went to Auckland from the Hornby Club a couple of seasons ago he should join up with Richmond, which was then a none too strong club. He is in the game to help it by precept and example. STARTED IN AUCKLAND Parkes learned his early football at the Mount Albert School, Auckland, where he played in the Rugby Union code. Even then he was a great allrounder, playing in almost all the back positions. In 1920 he shifted to Wellington, and signed up with Central League Club there. He played both in the forwards and in the backs for that club during his stay with it. In 1922 he gained his first representative honours, playing for the- Wellington provincial team in that season. Then, at the beginning of the 1923 season, he went to Canterbury and became a member of the Hornby Club, which first-grade side he captained for the seasons 1923, 1924 and 1925. His Canterbury “cap” honours came to him in 1924, when he represented this province against the English touring side, as full-back. Again in the following season he set off his season of big football by playing wing-threequarter for Canterbury, following that up by playing wing-threequarter for the South Island team, and finally securing a place In the New Zealand side which toured in Australia. For that team he played both as a five-eighth and as a wingthreequarter. He also played for New* Zealand against Queensland at Auckland in 19213. TRIP TO ENGLAND Coming to Auckland at the beginning of 1926, his services were secured by the Richmond Club, which he captained in 1926 and 1927. He played for Auckland in the A and B trial matches of 1926, and after also playing in the Possibles v. Probables game, he was chosen for the trip to England. Strange to say, though taken as a threequarter, he turned out to be the best hooker of the side, playing 14 games in that position. He a.so took the field as a live-eighth and a threequarter. As a matter of fact, Parkes has played more games, both as a forward and as a back, than any other player in New Zealand in the code. Unluckily, just as the benefit of his experience was about to be reaped in Canterbury League, he seriously injured a knee in the Hornby v. Sydenham match on July 23 of this year. This has kept him out of the game ever since, but he expects to be able to play again next season. He has permanently taken up his residence in Christchurch. GAME IN CANTERBURY Parkes considers that the trouble with the League code in Canterbury is that there is too much adoption of

the Rugby tactics of kicking and running crosswise. However, he considers that with the right type of coaching the game there will soon be on equal terms with that in Auckland. There is plenty of the right material there, he asserts. Parkes says that there is not the amount of professionalism in the League gamo as most of the public imagine. Players never receive any pay for purely playing club football. However, he considers that the policy of giving touring players out-of-pocket expenses is a good one, as it gives players a chance to tour whose circumstances would not permit them to tour otherwise. Undoubtedly the League code is better both from a spectator’s and a player’s point of view, concluded Parkes. The playing of 13 men a-side makes it much more open.

In England, a suggestion that Soccer teams should wear numbers is arousing a lot of controversy, and club officials condemn the innovation. They evidently think that their number is up. Famous Wicketkeeper Hanson Carter. the famous Australian XI. wicketkeeper, has decided to retire from the game. He was behind the, sticks in four out of five tests when Armstrong’s 1921 team toured England. He first played for Australia in 1902, and was playing for the Waverley Club in® Sydney up till the end of last season. After Many Years After having been lost for 15 years, an old New Zealand amateur athletic championship medal was restored to its owner this week through the good offices of the “New Zealand Sportsman.” Mention was made in & previous issue of the well-known Wellington journal of the finding by a Mr. Nelson of an old medal, much worn, on which the name of Mr. H. A. Prebble was decipherable. Inquries instituted by the “Sportsman” established the. fact that the medal belonged to Mr. H. A. Prebble, of Glen Orua, Palmerston North, who defeated Mat Roseingrave in the pole vault and tied with him in the high jump at the New Zealand Championships in Wellington in 1900.