LEA VES OF A SPORTSMAN’S

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 10

LEA VES OF A SPORTSMAN’S

THE conference of delegates from associations affiliated with the New Zealand Cricket Council was wise in deciding that the six-ball over should be brought in again, in place of the eight-ball over. It would lie w*U for the affiliated associations to follow that lead and revert to the old order as soon as possible. 1 must confess that I have changed my views on this question. When the eight-ball over was introduced I thought that it would save time without being an undue hardship to bowlers. But cricket generally in New Zealand has not been brightened by it. It has, though, thrown overmuch strain on bowlers, especially on the faster trundlers and on young players. The eight-ball over certainly has been too hard on young howlers. WHAT IS WRONC? Here is the opinion of an English writer about what 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 for the line. BOXINGS NEED. What English boxing really needs is not publicity and boost, states an En;zrlish critic, but, as the Americans “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 Bombadier Wells, tw a Carpentier. Personality is just as essential as fighting ability, although the champion with the real !lanock-out punch is worth his weight in gold. OVERRATED.” That the Waratahs have been overrated and unduly flattered by the critics is the considered opinion of “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 side to heal hut they are far from 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 Lavton and Ross, who is an excellent fullback but not on the same rung of ahe ladder as was Nepia, there was no supreme back on view. He concludes his resume by saying that he is viewing the team not from an ordinary dob standpoint, but from the standard nf an international side, that has, through no wish off its own. been compared with some of its famous predecessors. The Waratahs are inclined to play

haphazardly—to throw the ball away on the “ehance-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,” he 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 fine burst, was practically over the line with no one near him, when, for some strange reason, he suddenly flung the ball into the centre, and no score resulted. One c ould never picture an All Black doing this sort of thing.” In his view, the Waratahs are wi«e, but are not wizards. WONDERFUL SNOOKER. I hate to think that angl6i*g 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 storj'. 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 06. When I told this to a friend he called it a case of hardship, because there were not any more balls for Newman to play. DERIVATION OF “AUSTRALIA."* Hwuy-Ung, a Chinese Mandarin of the Fourth Button, desired to study European manners and customs at first-hand. Australia being the nearest avaiable 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 have 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 Hwuy-Ung’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-trail’; ‘h’ banned by the illiterate. So is now ‘Australia’ same sound; end of word ornamental.” MR X.

Foley Impresses It is not often that a colt makes such an auspicious start in big cricket as H. Foley, the Wellington man. did for The Rest v. New Zealand in their first match. Things were not going too well for The Rest when Foley went in fifth wicket down. This colt plays with a bat as straight as a die. and his long reach enables him to smother balls which shorter men would have

NOTE-BOOK

to play back to. He was as solid as a rock, and played Merritt Well. He was unbeaten at the finish with 06 opposite his name. This was a really good knock for a colt in his first appearance in big cricket, and proves that there are some good ones coming along. As he is a first-class slip fieldsman, Foley should be heard of later in representative and national matches. He possesses an ideal temperament for the game.