THE SPORTSMAN'S LOG

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 856, 27 December 1929, Page 7

THE SPORTSMAN'S LOG

M. S. Nichols made his mark as a bowler in Wellington—made it on Dempster and McLeod.

Empire Games England’s participation in the Empire Games, to be held at Hamilton, Ontario, next August, probably will be confined almost—if not quite—entirely to the track and field athletics section of the programme. It is certain that England will not be represented in Rugby football, Association football or swimming, and other sports bodies are not at all enthuiastic about the affair.

San Francisco has a light-weight boxer named Cello. But Cello has been out of tune with some decisions against him lately, and has been squealing. Still, he has to bow to them.

No Snobbishness Cricket enthusiasts who came into contact with the M.C.C. team in Wellington were immensely pleased by the friendliness and utter lack of snobbishness among the members of the English team. They found the attitude of the visitors a very pleasant change frorn^ some past experiences. A London Metropolitan Police team which beat Cumberland County at Rugby football recently included six international players and two others who have played in trials for the selection of international teams. An arresting display of talent! * * * Crawford and Hopman J. Crawford and H. Hopman, of New South Wales, have never played and combined so well as they did when they beat J. B. Hawkes and P. O’Hara Wood (Victoria) in the final of the Victorian doubles championship recently. They won in straight sets. O’Hara Wood was the weak link in the Victorian pair.

Only Five Forwards Comment cabled to Australian papers indicates that the Australian Rugby League team largely contributed to its S to 5 defeat by Cumberland County, by playing only five forwards. The Australians were beaten in the scrummages. This fact, combined with the keen tackling by the Cumberland men, the high wind and the wet ball, prevented the exercise of superiority of pace and ability in back play.

Willard Out J. Willard, of New South Wales, considered one of the possibilities for the team to represent Australia in the Davis Cup match next year, had to forfeit his match with H. Hopman (New South Wales) in the singles at the Victorian lawn tennis championships recently. He -was suffering from a badly-bruised muscle in his left leg, caused by a collision in a doubles match.

Willow Ways Willow trees grow quickly, a fact which has just been realised at English Park Stadium. When the stadium was built small willow trees were of no assistance to those people who would climb the fence and avoid paying On a recent Saturday evening, however, some enterprising enthusiasts were able to drop in on the Opperman meeting by clmibing the trees, the branches of which overhang the fence in one part of the ground. Those branches have now been chopped down.

A motto of the M.C.C. team: “The Earle-y bird gets the six.” A declension in Grammar—loss of the J-Teathcote Williams Shield to Christchurch Boys’ High School.

After all the fuss about hie lack of self-control, Primo Camera has had another bout in London, this time with Franz Diener, Germany’s heavy-weight champion. Just to show that he really is worth a Diener? A 17 stone Portuguese boxer, Jose Santa, one of whose claims to fame as a pug is that he wears sidewhiskers, is pushing himself into the limelight in Paris, and trying to put his claws on some good money. The Racing Club de France, which has a big general sports organisation, has received an invitation to send on a tour of Egypt a team that would meet the best Egyptian teams at Rugby football, swimming, athletics, boxing, lawn tennis, fencing and billiards. Presumably the matches that this ver »»*i! e team wou .ld have to play on billiard tables in Egypt would include pyramids.

A Brilliant Youngster Reg. Geddes, 13-year-old Dunedin swimmer, bids fair to put in the shade tho junior performances of “Buster” Olds, who had been looked upon as phenomenal. At the Otago championships last Saturday week, young Geddes won the junior boys’ 50yds and 100yds. freestyle championships, and the 75yds breaststroke championship. In the 100yds he put up the splendid time of Go 4-ssec, which is the fastest ever recorded by a junior swimmer in New Zealand. A similar distinction attaches to his 59 4-ssec in the breaststroke event, which is the best ever done in salt or fresh water by a New Zealand junior. Dunedin critics expect this boy to show the Greymouth people something equally, if not more, sensational at the coming New Zealand carnival in that town.