THE SPORTSMAN'S LOG

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 861, 3 January 1930, Page 7

THE SPORTSMAN'S LOG

After his experience of Christ church weather lately, H. Opper man should rename himself Otter man.

*•‘>'o Dy G. B. Legge. of the M.C.C. team, bowls leg-breaks. Naturally. An English paper remarks that it is the lot of the Scottish Rugby Union to get more kicks than half-pence, but that this lot is, of course, invited by that union. Still, we imagine that a Scottish organisation would rather trade the kicks for half-pence. * * * Bobby Jones Is Definite Bobby Jones stated recently that he lias no intention of retiring from competitive polf. 11l denying the report that he is to retire Jones said: “I intend to play the ;ame as long as 1 ran walk and earn my living as a lawyer.’* Jones recently announced that he hoped to go to England with the Walker Cup team in 1930, and also to make another attempt to win the British open I and amateur titles. Sporting relations between France and Germany have become so strengthened during recent months that France now plays as many games, if not more, with German clubs as it does with British clubs. World's Best Tennis Players The Parisian paper “Auto” in an endeavour to discover who really are the T.orld’s leading lawn tennis players, ias taken 10 different lists, those of Tilden, W'allis Myers, four French critics, and four French players, including Jean Borotra. and has worked out the average as follows: —1, Cocliet; ?, Lacoste; 3, Tilden: 4, Borotra: 5, Hunter; 6, Lott; 7 I>oeg: 8,13 e Morpurgo; 9, Boussus; 10. Van Byn and Austin bracketed. So far as the first six are concerned, Borotra’s list tallies with the average list. A participant in a controversy, in English papers, about whether or not professional boxing should be permitted on Sundays, says that Sunday boxing was originated by Jews for Jews. Must be some money in it. Rousseau Impresses Now playing for Oxford University, W. P. Rousseau, South African Rugby threequarter, has made a big impression in England. Of his play as a wingthreequarter for Oxford against Blackheath, the London "Observer” said: "He is a typical South African threequarter. and, although he was playing out of his proper position, his running and side-stepping showed him to be in a class by himself; he was easily the best back on either side.” Rousseau drop-kicked a gaol in the match in which W'estern Province beat the All Blacks, last year, by seven points to three. He also played for South Africa asrainst the New Zealanders in the third and fourth tests, and for the Combined Universities of Western Province.

Cricketer-Rhodes Scholar H. < Owen-Smith, the young Western Province player whose fine performances for the South African cricket team m England recently included the scoring of a century in a test match —his first three-figure score in first-class cricket —has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University. Golf is reported to be making headway in the ranks of the London Metropolitan Police. Policemen certainly ought to be able to make headway with clubs. Leather Lungs! A few years ago, when Guy’s Hospital Rugby team was captained by an Irishman with lungs of brass, and also included several South Africans who seemed to shout in half a dozen languages at once, it was famed as one of the noisiest teams in the country. Judging by the efforts in the vocal line of Oxford University and the Old Merchant Taylors as they were heard when they met at Teddington, says a writer in the London ‘Daily Mail/' those two teams are now rivals for the shouting prize. Standing In Lawn Tennis An interesting method of arriving at the relative merits of the great lawn tennis-playing countries during the last 10 years has been adopted by Jean Joubert, a well-known French writer and historian of the game. He has given two points to the winner and one point to the loser of the final of the Wimbledon men’s singles, the Olympic men’s singles, or a match in the challenge round of the Davis Cup competition, and this is the result: —W. Tilden (U.S.A.), 32 points; R. Lacoste (France), 21; H. Cochet (France), 19; W. M. Johnston (U.S.A.), 18; Jean Borotra (France), 11; Gerald L. Patterson (Australia), 7; Vincent Richards (U.S.A.), 5; F. T. Hunter (U.S.A.), 3. The only Englishmen mentioned are Roper Barrett, Colonel Kingscote and Randolph Lycett., who win one point each. From the national standpoint the table gives the following result: United States, 59 points; France, 54; Australia, 9; Great Britain, 3: Belgium, and South Africa, 2 each; Spain and Japan, 1 each. The King’s Influence It is reported in the "Athletic News” that the interest which the King takes in Rugby football is understood to have had an important bearing upon the visit of the British Rugby team to New Zealand and Australia next year. This is explained as follows: —"One of the chief difficulties which lias hitherto stood in the way of a representative side going abroad is the inability of many young men to | get the necessary leave of absence, but the ‘Athletic News’ has grounds for stating that those members of the Navy, the Army, the Royal Air Force, and the Police who may be invited to make the trip will find official quarters indined to recognise the great good these tours can do. In view of this probability, it is hoped that private employers will be equally amenable and that, as a result, the majority of the side that was originally selected as representing the men the selectors would like to see sail from these shores will actually make the trip.”