ALL SPORTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 281, 17 February 1928, Page 10

ALL SPORTS

A Weekly Budget

Cricketers lament: “Over.” Assassination football? “Fat” Lamb now on the market. Borotra’s popularity increases by leaps and bounds. Current beats Webster. The question is: W r as the Cook Strait? Tom Heeney, New Zealand’s greatest boxer, was “broke” when he went to America from England. Now he is a rich man, Heeney, deeny, dollar, dough! Jack Bempsey is learning Spanish. He wants to find out if siesta really means a 14-second rfest. A Record Thirteen outboard motors have entered for the New Zealand Power-Boat Association’s annual championship to be held next Saturday. This is just about a record for entries in this class of race. A coursing dog was found outside a Sydney railway station suffering from a fall from a train. Evidently he had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Boxers’ “Death Pact” A boxing referee of some prominence was invited to officiate at an exhibition given by a working men’s club in the East End of London. He discovered that the sport was characterised more by gusto than by science, and that clinches developed not infrequently into wrestling bouts. After one of the latter clinching matches had gone on for some time, the referee broke them apart and said breezily: “Now then, boys, what’s this? A death-pact?” Paid It Himself! Referee J. Grant Mackie carried out his duties in a very capable manner at* the track sports of the Christchurch Cycling and Athletic Club on a recent evening, and he had not the easiest of tasks, for the programme became a little mixed up at one stage. In one race he fined a competitor for not making use of his handicap, but the competitor happens to be out of work, and so the referee paid the fine himself. “Handy” Mercer The appointment of “Andy” Mercer to the position of baggage man with the All Black team to tour South Africa will be hailed with delight by Varsity men in Christchurch, who have the highest regard for their late athletic coach. Mercer is a genial sportsman, who makes many friends wherever he goes—a good masseur and a man with a personality, as he proved in Christchurch by the manner in which he brought on the Varsity athletic teams for their annual tournaments. He will renew old friendships in South Africa,

for he was masseur to the Springbok team that toured New Zealand in 1921. Before he resided in Christchurch he was masseur to several Otago Varsity teams. He left Christchurch to go to Wanganui. Olympic Funds The Council of the New Zealand Olympic Games Association met thjs week to deal with the collection "of funds in order to send a team of at least 20 athletes to Amsterdam during the present year. For this purpose it is estimated that at least £IO,OOO will be required, and nowhere near that amount is yet in hand or even in sight. Guarantees have been made of £I,OOO from the athletic, boxing and swimming authorities, but most other sports are likely to find much less, with the consequence that the major amount will take a considerable amount of collecting, even supposing that the Government agrees to add a substantial subsidy to the amount collected. It seems to be impossible for any one sports body to collect sufficient funds to send its own players overseas, with the consequence that, the general public has to be appealed to.