SWIMMING.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 307, 11 December 1936, Page 2

SWIMMING.

In a letter to the Stratford Swimming Club recently' Miss Mona Leydon, the Auckland crack swimmer, offered to come to Stratford “eve|n if she had to swim in the Patea River.” As events are turning out it seems possible that the> Stratford Swimming Club will not for some months have any better venue available. * * * At the instigation of the school committee an inspection of the Stratford school bath (which is at present the only one available to the club) was carried out by Public Works engineers. Reporting on this inspection to a special meeting of the committee last night, the headmaster, Mr L. J. Furrie, said that evidence that the ground under the bath was already saturated with water and was in a condition which might possible be dangerous. A further investigation, which would involve a considerable amount of excavation, would be necessary btii’ore an, estimate of necessary ’epairs could be made. In the meantime he did not think it was worth while taking the risk of allowing the bath to be used.

The committee decided to engage a man to carry out the excavation to enable the inspection to be carried out during the school holidays. As soon as the necessary information is available a special meeting of tjie committee will be held to consider the question. • • w Miss Mastenbroek, the 17-y‘ear-old Dutch girl who w r on two Olympic titles in Berlin and is the holder of several world records, beat the British record for the 150 yards backstroke at Birmingham recently. Her time of Im 51 2-5 s was 23-5 s better than the previous figures established by Miss Phyllis Harding in July, 1933. Miss Mastenbroek broke a second British record when she covered the; 300 yards free-style in, 2m 41 l-ss. The previous best was 3m 59 2-5 s by Miss Joyce Cooper, now Mrs Badcock, in April, 1931. Miss Mastenbroek swam against the British Olympic representative. Miss G. Morcom ,and beat her by 265. SHIELD BOWLS.

Owing to heavy rain on Saturday afternoon all Shield matches were postponed. The contest between the Stratford A and B teams was eagerly looked forward to, both sections fielding eight rinks, who turned up in full force, but after playing four or five h&iids had to “call it off.” The Stratford A team at present leads in the competition—not having suffered a loss, with Avon A and Elthani A tieing in second position with one each. The next two matches may, however, make the position interesting. The following is how the teams stand, with two more, games to be play’ed in the first round:

Avon Stars. During the week-end an Avon rink challenged the holders (Stratford), and after a well fought battle were unsuccessful, the final score being 26—20. The Stratford rink which was skipped by Williams, always held -the upper hand, and as a team they played more consistently than the Avon rink with Cook as skip. Clark was very accurate with his drawing shots, whilst Butcher and Summerfield out-played their opponents. Cook saved the situation on several occasions by his aggressive play' otherwise the scorers might haveV been much higher. Williams settled down to draw consistently and found it unnecessary tb do any “driving!”' lit was a good game productive of some high class bowling.

Christmas Tournament. The Central Taranaki Xmas Tournament is being eagerly looked forward to, and a successful two-day’s bowling is assured. Both the Stratford and Avon greens ar? in splendid order, ami all is required is good weather.

P. W. Ch. D. L. Pls Stratford A .... .... 4 3 1 0 7 Avon A . . .. 4 3 0 1 6 Eltham A . . .. 4 3 0 1 6 Stratford B .... .. .. 4 2 0 2 4 Inglewood .... .... 4 2 0 2 4 Tariki ... . 4 1 1 2 3 Eltham B .... 4 1 0 3 2 Avon B .... 4 0 0 4 0