THE HARRIERS’ PLIGHT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 351, 11 May 1928, Page 10

THE HARRIERS’ PLIGHT

TUE 1.028 harrier season in Auckland is now well under way, 1 and so far the weekly “steeplechases” staged by the Auckland Amateur Athletic and Cycle Club give little promise of anything better than last winter’s programme, when only one real* crosscountry event was held during the whole season. Will our harriers again have to be content with trotting round the Domain in preparation tor the cross-country championship of New Zealand. to be held this year at Wanganui, probably in August? Cast winter, the Aucklanders as a team failed miserablv on the Cashmere Hills, where only the sterling performance of J. . Savidan in clinching the individual title saved our men trom complete annihilation. No great improvement can be expected in any Auckland team this whiter until it gets past the stage of running round an almost flat track, taking two or three hurdles, and then priding itself that it is a harrier team. Nor hai e Southerners yet forgotten the 1926 fiasco when the Auckland Centre staged the cross-country championship of New Zealand on the track at Alexandra Park! Tt was to their credit as sportsmen and men that our visitors took the inevitable defeat which came their way without creating a breach there and then. The time has long since passed for a change in Auckland. Each of the other centres in New Zealand has half a dozen or more flourishing harrier clubs. Auckland has one. It would not have that were it not for the enthusiasm and energv ol the only two officials who take a regular interest in winter athletics here—Messrs. W. Morton and G. R. Metcalfe. The Auckland Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association. however, has only itself to blame for the scarcity of officials. Its own autocratic policy for the past two years or so has made it impossible for the many valued servants of the sport in Auckland to continue as officials. Men and money are needed to run harrier clubs. Auckland lacks both, whereas she lias the harriers in plenty. Surely, however, there are among Auckland’s old athletes some who, in spite of the centre’s policy, are still willing to help to remedy the plight of local harriers? As for the monev where is the Auckland Centre’s plan, talked much of last year, but details of which were never made public—a scheme which was to put all the athletic clubs in and around Auckland on a sound financial footing?