SPORTS BREVITIES.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 301, 4 December 1936, Page 3

SPORTS BREVITIES.

Topics Of General Interest.

SILENT BILL. * The Duke of Gloucester, second brother of the King, the best horseman in the Royal Family, is giving up hunting, his favourite pastime. Five of his favourite hunters are to be sold. One of the hardest and fastest riders to the hounds —soldiering and riding were before his marriage his all-absorbing interests —he is now relinquishing the sport entirely. It was/fvhile hunting that the Duke met his wife—then Lady Alice Scott. Totgether they spent most of their honeymoon .hunting with the Northamptonshire and Leicestershire packs. Since 1925 the Duke has maintained (Stables at Melton. Mowbray. The Royal brothers were frequent visitors to thjs Leicester village. But during the last hunting season, and again this year he Duke’s visits to Melton Mowbray have been rare. Alone out of his hunting stable the Duke is keeping. Silent Bill, a horse brought from 'New Zealand, of which both he and . u.... ’ ' .. • • ' ■ ■ ■ • • the Duchess are very fond.

LOSS ON M.C.C. TOUR. ' J'he Yfeport of the New Zealand Cricket Council discloses that the M.C.C. tour of New Zealand last season resulted in a loss of £329, the heaviest loss ever experienced by the. Council., Had . the Courncil „not rec<vedguarantees from the associations which had matches with the visitors the loss ,no doubt, would have been. 'tomsidera'biy greater. ‘Siibh' a 'result raises the question whether tours by English teams can ever bft ipade to pay .under ordinary ctrtiafiidns.' ’The M.C.C. side, as the report points out,/was popular, but it could not draw large attendances, probably because few of the players were' well known to the public at large, if Hobbs, for instance, had been in the side, people would have flocked to see him play, but as it was there was no one to provide the magnet. The result of the tour only serves to stress the need for reviving visits from Australian teams. Travelling expenses in that case would not amount nearly to the £2 303 which It cost to bring the M.C.C. team to 'New Zealand and send it back Home.

?T£XAS promoters chasving LOUIS. Th ©Texas Centennail Exposition at Dallas, Texas, wants Louis to give a series of exhibitions there, but it isn*t likely that Promoter Jacobs, who has the final say on what engagments Louis accepts, will bive his apjproval. Neither is it likely that Joe will go to England in the autumn to fight Ben Foord at Wembley Stadium. Foord won the British Empire heavyWeight title by knocking out Jack Wtersen.

DEATH OF MR. W. E. D. BISHOP. President of the New Zealand Swimming Association since 1918, and president Of the Canterbury Centre from 1900 to 1918, Mr. Walter Edward Deacoa Bishop died to-day, at the age of 66, says the Star-Sun. Mr. Bishop had been interested in swimming since the early days of the sport In Christchurch, and was an active worker for its advancement. Mr. Bishop leaves a widow and two children. Mrs Bishop was formerly Miss B. T. Bell, a daughter of Mt. J. *l*. Bell, of Christchurch. The children are Mr. F. Bishop, who is farming in the King Country, and Miss M. E. Bishop. The loss suffered by swimming generally in the Dominion by the death of Mr. Bishop is severe, lie was well known to several of the centre offidials in Invercargill, who ■SJ* ©-'highly of his enthusiasm for swimming ahd the tremendous amount of good he had done for it.

FRINGE AMONG PAUPERS. 'Hammond, in. comparison with his M.C.C), team-mates, is a prince among paupers. At Adelaide, he not only Wayfed Ward and Grimmett with confidence, but assumed the role of a dictator, commanding them to bowl almost Jia he desired (writes Arthur Bailey). Fishlock, Barnett, Worthingtoh, Hardstaff and Fagg are considered the cream of England’s batting, but I would hate to think what might have happened to England had Hammond fallen early in both innings against South Australia. By comparison, he is more to England than the amazing Bradman was to Australia, when he was scoring double centuries In Test matches. Bradman had the support of Woodfull, McCabe, Ponsford, and Kippax, all of whom were potential century-makers, while Hammond at the moment at any rate, is playing almost a lone hand. Hammond and Bradman promise to be the dominating figures in their respective teams, and if either fails the team concerned will probably lose the services of a two or three man-power batsman. RUGBY UNION FOR THE TOKiO OLYMPIAD. , Australia would like to see Rugby Union football included in the programme for the 1940 Olympiad at Tokio. In support of their proposal, the Australians contend that the game is played ■. in most European countries,

and extensively played in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, South Africa and Japan. They point out that is Soccer is Included in the programme there can be no valid reason for the exclusion of Rugger. The Australian suggestion is brought forward as a result of the expressed desire of Japan to send a universities Rugby Union team to tour pie; Commonwealth in 1938. IS BAER JEALOU SOF MAX SCHMELiNG’S VICTORY? Max Baer breaks into voluble chatter every time he is asked his opinion of the Max Schmeling-Joe Louis fight. Baer does not begrudge the German’s victory over the Detroit Negro. But he does protest the negotiations looking to a championship match between Schmeling and Jimmy Braddock next year.

“The record speaks for itself,” the Liverpool Larruper argues. “I knocked out Schmeling convincingly. I lost to Braddock in a dull fight. My hands were bad in that one, and were no better for the Louis match. With few exceptions the history of the ring shows that a defeated champion was given an opportunity to meet his conqueror in a return bout. “If the Louis match had not been so important and I was so confident I could beat him, I would have passed Louis up and awaited a return fight with Braddock this year. “If interest in the fight game is to be kept at a high pitch, I think the best plan would be to have me fight Schmeling, with the winner to fight Braddock. Then if Louis comes round after that drubbing he took at the Yankee Stadium, there would be three big matches instead of one as now planned.

IT’S ALL HOOEY. Baer pointed out that all talk about him taking singing lessons and polishing up his acting was just so much “hooey.” While reports were going out from his manager’s ranch, Baer was working hard with his brother, Buddy, and getting in shape fr the tour he is now making in the West. Quite a schedule is being mapped out for the former champion, and if hurried jumps from one city to another do not take more out of .him that gym. work, the Liverpool butcher should be in fine shape when called up to fight any one of the trio mentioned above.