ALL SPORTS A Weekly Budget

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

ALL SPORTS A Weekly Budget

The “Problems” were Cooked! One out of the bag—Canterbury’s Alley. * *l* * Dempsey says “Tunney” ought to be “Tinney.” Si! * Whether “tin hare” racing has come to stay is a matter for speculation. “Possums v. Problems” The rules of logic were confounded at Wellington on Wednesday. Possibilities were better than Probabilities. The Matrimonial Sea An American couple, both well known swimmers, were married in the sea. They have only themselves to blame, if they find themselves in deep water. The Australian Rugby Waratahs flattered their warmest admirers by beating Newport, a very formidable Welsh club, by 20 points to 3—six tries and a goal to an unconverted try. The game was played in wet and muddy conditions, to which the defeated side is well accustomed, so there can be no excuse on that score. The 1905 All Blacks beat Newport by 6 to 3: the first Springboks succeeded, B—o, but the second lot were beaten, 9—3; the Wallabies won 5—3; the undefeated All Blacks of 1924 just scraped home, 13 to 10. • * • Motoring In Excelsis Hauled by a rope up the grand staircase of the Savoy Hotel, London, S. Davis and Dr. J. Benjafield, who had won the international 24-hours Grand Prix race in a British three-litre Brentley car, steered the victorious racer, still dusty, greasy, and dented, into the banqueting hall, where they were the guests of the motoring press. Weight and Form It will be remembered that when C. G. Porter went to England a few years ago as captain of the All Blacks, he put on weight so rapidly that he was unable to reproduce his true form on tour. Possibly, the same thing happened to Charlie Oliver, the Canterbury cricketer, who was one of the disappointments of the New Zealand i cricket tour. In a letter to a friend in j Christchurch, Oliver mentions that he : now weighs 13 stone.

Broken Time The row over paying Olympic athletes for “broken time” is full of reminiscence to anyone who knew the North of England in the early 1890’s (says a Bulletin writer). *The mill hands and other operatives in the great manufacturing towns were then, as now, keen on Soccer and Rugby Union. But most employers “docked” players the time they took off. It did not matter in the Soccer code, where -*n zlt 7T. 7X r-i: }\x 7r,

Tre ui hli rK rJr %-{ payment was legal, but the Rugby Union was another pair of sleeves. I knew a big firm which dockecl Valentine, a Lancashire threequarter of those days, of a Saturday morning’s wages, which he “forfeited” bj' travelling to Birkenhead to play for England against Ireland. The Rugby Union was asked to consent to payment for broken time. With characteristic pigheadedness it refused. The result; was the formation of the Northern Union, which has become a highly organised professional business in Lancashire and Yorkshire, although in other parts of England it has made no headway. In Australia, where it is known as the Rugby League, it has wiped out amateur football in one old-time stronghold, Queensland, and has serious!:-* threatened the existence of the same game in New South Wales.