THE SPORTSMAN'S LOG

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1069, 5 September 1930, Page 7

THE SPORTSMAN'S LOG

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As A. P. F. Chapman weighs about 17st, the dropping of him was certain to make a noise. The people who will be most enthusiastic in farewelling Don Bradman from England are the scorers. “The player concerned smiles and says nothing. He holds himself, ns usual rather aloof from the other members of the team and from Mr. Kell3\ with whom, it is understood, his relations are not too cordial." says a London message referring to Bradman and the authorities. It may be that the aloofness of Bradman of Bowral is the aloofness of eccentricity, or the peculiarity of genius. Yet again, it may not. When Australia Can Act Of course, Bradman has the public of Kngland and Australia behind him at the moment. But the cricketing public, as any other public, is a fickle public and the public idol fails, he will fall in -public esteem. Then will the Australian authorities be able to exact their dues.

Great Tribute A\ . A. Oldfield’s magnificent wicketkeeping in the fifth cricket Test was an important factor ;n the Australians’ victory. Oldfield's work is scrupulously fair, as well as highly efficient. *‘lt is a pleasure to play against Oldfield.” wrote A. P. F. Chapman, the other day. “He is so neat, so exceptionally efficient and so scrupulously fair that if he appeals one need not look at the umpire, but can go straight home.” ‘‘Pride Goeth Before a Fall” If all the rumours about the boy genius are true.it is aparent that he has not been slow to take advantage of his position of eminence as the world’s greatest cricketer at the moment. But he might might do well to remember that meteoric as has been his rise, a fall, no less meteoric mav be coming. “Pride goeth —.** “Weakest Body in the World” One member of the Australian team is reported to have said that the Australian Board of Qricket Control will prove itself the weakest body in the world if it refuses to take action against Bradman. Naturally it will be divided in itself between the just penalty due for the breaking of. a contract,, and the thoughts that such a penalty might rob Australian cricket of a man it cannot afford to lose at the present lime. Scotland’s C. B. Fry Scotland has produced many notable all-round athletes, but their feats are eclipsed by the achievements of Sir Augustus Cordon Grant Asher, whose death at the age of 69 removes a great sporting figure. In his younger days Sir Augustus Asher was such a brilliant all-round athlete that his performances were comparable with those of C. B. Fry, but it was on the Rugby field that he gained his greatest fame. He was contemporary with the late A. 11. Hon Wauchope, and the pair • were partners at halfback in more i than one Scottish Rugby International. ' while they made a famous pair in tlv* i Wanderers team. Curiously enough, i they were in opposition in the inter- ; varsity Rugby match of 1881. International Sport International sport has assumed pro- j portions much too large in an unleis- j ured world, and it takes up too much j of the time of the men who are engaged j in it. Where it does not come peril- ! ously near professionalism it puts the leisured amateur of world's championship standard at a very great advan- j tage in comparison with the athlete who has to earn his daily bread. Satisfaction! Ono Auckland schoolboy got his meed of satisfaction from a round of golf at Rotorua the other day. He happened to meet a master of his college in the first round of the tourney, and it was the master who lost the game. C. P. Howden of King's College was the boy. and Mr. H. B. Busk (the well-known golfer) the master. An Australian Swimmer “It is very rare even at a place like Cambridge University, where the allrounder is encouraged to the full, that one finds a man competing in two pastimes belonging to the same season. H. C. Collins, the New Zealander, played cricket and rowed for First Trinity, and T. Hrysdale gained rowing and Rugby blues in the same season. Tin's term in B. Buxton, the Bight Blues have an Australian Freshman who is carrying all before him in quarter-mile swimming races for the University, and is already assured of a blue. After lie finishes his swimming he proceeds to the river, where he is assisting the Pembroke College first May boat, and thus he looks like also gaining his first boat colours.”— “Manchester Guardian.”

Bam Hollander, who refereed th® British Rugby team’s first three Test’s with New Zealand, has had to lie up again with the toe injury which he suffered in the third Test. * * * A Plucky Girl Great pluck was shown by Fraulein Ausseni. young German tennis player, at the Wimbledon tennis tournament. In the final stages of a terrific threeset struggle with Elizabeth Ryan she fell in running for a ball on the backhand. One leg was badly twisted under her. To the general surprise, she got up. walked to the place where she was to serve from, and there stood very still. Twice the umpire called to ask her if she was well enough to go on. but she did not answer. Then she swayed backward and fell in a dead faint. Doctors and nurses were summoned, and she was carried off. unconscious, a stretcher. Miss Fishwick’s Early Days i Miss Diana Fishwick, the heroine of British golf, learned a good deal about j the game by watching players of re- ' pute, and then trying to imitate their i methods and actions. She used to sit | on the garden fence of her father’s j house overlooking the North Foreland ■ course at Broadstairs, watching the I players go by, among them Mitchell, j who was then professional at the club. In the evening, and early the following morning. Miss Fishwick would go out on the course in the attempt to reproduce the styles that had made the greatest impression. She never forgot the good players, and never made the mistake of copying the bad ones. In contradistinction to women golfers, generally. Miss Fishwick has no Qualms when competing in championships and the like, stage fright “In Moments Like These ” One of Rugby's awkward moments occurs when a player engaged in some hard play lias his nether garments torn away. Modesty then dictates that he should sit down, but duty often says that he should carry on until the whistle blows. There was such, nn incident during the Wanganui Cdflegiate School v. Christ’s College game at Christchurch, in the inter-collegiate tournament, and the home fullback. J. M. Ollivier. chose the path of duty. While women screamed and mal* 5 escorts looked uncomfortable. Ollivier carried on. trying to gather a rollingball and kick it out before the fastfollowing Wanganui forwards could get it. Mercifully the referee. Mr. R. J. G. Collins, blew his whistle and stopped the game on the spot, and the players formed a ring till a new pair of “strides” arrived. The Lawn Tennis Face Some lawn tennis players pull • strange faces when serving, others not . only then, comments a writer in an ‘ English paper. Miss Xuthall puts the I tip of her tongue out. Allison has his tongue in his cheek and Gobert used to have his tongue half across his face. Other players show their teeth, such as Morpurgo. who pulls such a face as Mussolini might wear when indulging in a little sabre-rattling. E. R. Avory has a weird grimace to accompany his service, liable to be interpreted as a menace or an indication of internal suffering. Miss Ryan shows her teeth in the fierce intensity of her service delivery: Doeg serves with his mouth open and his blue eyes fixed on the ball, looking rather like a study for one of Reubens’s angel heads. Cochet does not open his mouth for service delivery. neither does Lord Cholmondeley. This nobleman on the court appears incapable of being otherwise than dignified: he won’t bend sufficiently for a low ball, nor run unduly for a well-placed one. The tongue-in-the-cheek gesture is not there for nothing, one feels. Were it worn as often as the occasion warranted. how long would it be absent from the cheeks of Tilden and Cochet?