LEAVES OF A SPORTSMAN’S NOTE-BOOK

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 217, 2 December 1927, Page 11

LEAVES OF A SPORTSMAN’S NOTE-BOOK

Faugh-a-Ballagh! This is M. L. Page’s description to old boys of the Christchurch Boys’ High School, of a banquet at Glasgow : “It was at Glasgow that we had the greatest banquet of the tour. 1 must tell you about the haggis, for I didn’t know much about it before I went, and I'm sure you don’t. We sat down and began eating, until we began to get up to this haggis business. Then in came the chief waiter, with a bagpiper in full screech, who marched up the aisle and round the room, finally depositing the precious haggis before the Lord Provost. The Lord Provost gave him a glass of whisky, and after murmuring ‘God Save Scotland, God save the Haggis, God save New Zealand,’ and a few things like that, he drank it off at a gulp and the feast was on.” But I wish I could have seen “Curly” Page and the haggis! Boxing’s Need What English boxing really needs is not publicity and boost, states an English critic, but, as the Americans say, “the goods.” England has not got the “goods,” and boxing in England cannot possibly ride the high wave unless England again turns out a Driscoll, or a Wilde, or a Bombardier Wells, or a Carpentier. Personality is just as essential as fighting ability, although the champion with the real knock-out punch is worth his weight in gold. What is Wrong? Here is the opinion of an English writer about wliat is the matter with English Rugby: English football is too humdrum. The young player of to-day is exactly that. If he is a forward he seems quite content to confine his attention to pushing in the pack and trying to get the ball in the line-out. It is the exception rather than the rule to find him dropping back to help in defence or cutting across to the corner-flag in readiness for the wing man’s dash L'or the line. "Waratahs Overrated” That the Waratahs have been overrated and unduly flattered by the i critics is the considered opinion of i “Mercian," Rugby specialist of the “Athletic News.” He writes that after | having seen them in all their matches ‘ his view is that they are considerably removed from the standard of the All Blacks in attack. They are a hard i side to beat, but they are far from i being invincible. He adds that their | tactics are to study the play of their ! opponents for the first few minutes and then direct all their attacks at the weak spot. Quite frankly, apart from i Lawton and Ross, who is an excellent j fullback but not on the same rung of i the ladder as was Nepia. there was no j supreme back on view. He concludes ■ his resume by saying that he is view- ! ing the team not from an ordinary • club standpoint, but from the standard ' of an international side, that has, ■ through no wish of its own. been compared with some of its famous predecessors. The Waratahs are inclined to play haphazardly—to throw' the ball away on the “chance it" principle. The All : Blacks never hesitated to throw the

ball about, but their system of following up was more intensive, and the odds against the ball reaching an opponent’s hands were correspondingly reduced. “In one game,” lie says, “I saw an extraordinary illustration of that lack of coolness and calculation which divides a great from a very good team. One of the Waratah forwards, after a first burst, was practically over the line with no one near him, when, l’or some strange reason, he suddenly flung the ball into the centre, and no score resulted. One could never picture an All Black doing this sort of thing.” In his view, the Waratahs are wise, but are not wizards. * % * * Wonderful Snooker I hate to think that anglers and golfers are the only sportsmen who are entitled to pitch wonderful tales, some true, some not true, but all allegedly true. However, here is an amazing snooker story, and, strange to say, claimed to be absolutely true. Tom Newman, the world's snooker champion, was playing a fellow professional, Joe Davis, a game of snooker, in which Davis received two pinks on. Davis started by taking five reds and accompanying colours. Then Newman visited the table and cleared it with a marvellous unfinished break of 96. When 1 told this to a friend he called it a case of hardship, because there were not any more balls for Newman to play. # * # Thu King’s Tip “1 always remember the match where we met the King,” said M. L. Page the other evening, “for it reminds me what a great fellow Lowry was. Of course we were all mighty nervous, and once we had been introduced we just stood around trying to think of something to say. Tom saved the situation by going casually up to the King, and inquiring, ‘Excuse me. sir, but can you give us a tip for the Derby?* The King enjoyed the joke as much as we did. 'I think so,’ he said. ‘So-and-so probably will win, but I wouldn't take any notice of my tips.’ ’’

In view of Randolph Rose’s admission to his creditors that £156 was paid into his account from the special fund raised before his departure for England, to enable him to square up certain accounts, it will be difficult to justify his appearances on the track as an amateur that is, as far as the strict, definition of the rules is concerned. Actually. Rose's connection with amateur athletics seems to have been a pretty costly one for him.

Derivation of “Australia.*’' Hwuy-Ung, a. Chinese Mandarin of Uie Fourth Hutton, desired to study European manners and customs at lirst-hand. Australia being the nearest available country for his purpose, he travelled there. His impressions were set down in a series of letters written to his eldest brother, also a scholar, who has helped a broadminded missionary to translate them into English. That is what we are told about Hwuy-Ung, whose impressions ha\ 1 just been given to the world by an English publishing house. They are so delightful that it would be a pity to suggest that they are loganberries. Here, for example, is llwuy-TJng's quaint idea of the way in which Australia got its name: “Chek he tell me origin of name of this great country O-sei-lia is from two words ‘horse* and ‘trail/ In no other land is horse so famous. . . . ‘Trail* is in word-collection book ‘track’ or ‘path.* shown by smell or passage of small animal being followed. Nine parts of the people at here on ‘trail* of the horse: this topside consideration. From ‘horse-trail’ expression became *’orse-traii’; -h’ banned by the illiterate. So is now ‘Australia’ same sound; end of word ornamental/’ —MR. X. A Weighty Problem “Ellerslie” asks: “Who was the heaviest footbnller that ever played in New Zealand?’* It would require a very long and close connection with football in New Zealand to answer this question with any degree of certainty, especially as in the old days weights were not always given with teams. In the international arena it is doubtful if we have sene a heavier footballer in New Zealand that J. M. (“Baby”) Michau. the Springbok forward. His weight at the start of the 1921 tour was given as 17st 101 b. but toward the end of the tour Michau’s weight had gone up to l£»a*t. The two heaviest men in the All Black team which will visit South Africa next year are Stewart and Alley, who weigh Just under 16st. —Sports Editor.