OUT DOOR SPORTS

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2 October 1880, Page 22

OUT DOOR SPORTS

Pat Daley, the famous prize-fighter, died at London, England, on July 29th. The West End Cricket Club has commenced the new season under favourable auspices, the number of working members being 40. There was some talk of the Ponsonby Regatta being held on the Prince of Wales' Birthday this year, but I believe the idea has been abandoned. The Tauranga Athletic Club has decided to hold athletic sports on the 9th of November (Prince of "Wales' Birthday.) A cricket Club has been formed at Onehunga with Mr. Rich as captain. Judging from the names mentioned in connection with it, the new club possesses some good batting and bowling talent. The football match on Saturday last, between teams from the warehouses of Messrs E. Porter and Co., and T. & S. Morrin, was won by the former. A ladies' regatta was recently held at New York. All the competing yatchs were commanded and inarmed by iadies. The Melbourne Cricket Club intends to give more than £200 in prizes at the annual sports in November next. The Auckland bowling green is being levelled, rolled, and returfed in preparation for the opening of the season. A swimming match has been arranged at New York between George Fearn, the English champion, and Ernest Von Schoening. The sculling match on the Thames River between Laycock and Blackman, for £200 a side, takes place on Tuesday next. Seven thousand people assembled to witness the launch of the Hon. W. J. Clarice's new yacht, Janet, at Melbourne recently. The Christchurch cricketers have decided upon October 2nd as the day for the opening of the season. In a recent bicycle match at Edinburgh, Scotland, John Keen, the winner, traversed one hundred miles in six hours five minutes and twenty-eight seconds. This is considered to be very fast time. The match between the Australians and Sussex lost week. The latter in their second innings made the remarkably good score of 156 for the loss of two wickets. It is said that Canterbury has invented a new style of boat, in which the seat is a fixture, but the outriggers and stretcher slide to and fro. Courtney decidedly wants a change. Mr. E T. A. Fuller, who Avill be remembered as one of the Christchurch teani which played so successfully against Auckland some time ago, has been elected Captain of the Midland Canterbury Cricket Club. The Midland Canterbury Cricket Club has adopted the system of posting iip in the pavilion the names of subscribers, with the amount of subscriptions paid by each. The yachts Magic and Waitangi will compete in the first-class international yacht race at the Melbourne Exhibition Regatta. They are both owned in Sydney, but the latter was built in Auckland two years ago. A Longwood (Boston) team of cricketers is playing matches through Canada. In a match at Hamilton on August 10, they won with nine runs to spare. Juniors will, in future, be admitted to the Ponsonby Rowing Club, on payment of the entrance fee of £1, it having been decided that the £1 charged also as subscription be paid only by those over 21 years. An effort is being made to have the date of the Melbourne Intercolonial Regaattr altered from December 21st to January 9th. This would give intending competitors more time to prepare for the interesting contest. The Midland Canterbury Cricket Club, at a meeting last week, decided to strike off the roll all members in arrears with subscriptions. If this rule were more generally adopted, it would exercise a very beneficial effect on players. The Ponsonby Rowing Club has commenced the new season with Mr Gudgeon as captain. Several good members have gone away from Auckland since last year, but there has also been a corresponding increase in the membership. The young men connected with the Wellesleystreet Baptist Church have formed themselves into a club for the study of cricket and general physical improvement. The club, which has been appropriately named the Alpha, possesses 3G members, Mr J ackson, an , old and well-known cricketer being captain. The Ponsonby Rowing Club has ordered a new four-oared gig from Kennedy, a young builder, who has recently commenced business in Freeman's Bay. There is plenty of vitality in the Club yet, and the boats lost some two years ago through the smashing of the shed by a gale, will soon be replaced. J. E. "VVarburton, otherwise " Choppy," a celebrated English pedestrian, has arrived in America to j participate in ten thirty-mile runs. He is credited with j running ten miles in 5929 on shipboard, during his voyage across the Atlantic, and also with a twenty-mile spin in England in 1 hr. 56 mm. and 38 sees. He is matched to run thirty miles in three hours in October. If the Hamiltonians are not muscular enough for football, their tastes are at least aesthetic ; at any rate, I imagine, more grace, if less strength, is required j for lawn tennis than for the game of the Rugby boys. Consequently Hamilton has established a " Lawn Tennis Club." An influential committee has been formed, the working officers being Mr. Laishley (secretary), and Mr. Tonks (treasurer). Hewson and Melville, of Mechanics' Bay, are at present engaged in the construction of a 9-tqn yacht for F. Williams. She will be employed as a fishing boat, but she is being built on the model of the N.Y., which won a reputation for fast sailing in Auckland some years ago. The model is a fine one, and the new boat is expected to be a clipper. Her owner intends to enter her in the first-class yacht race at the next Auckland Regatta. The five-ton yacht Gleam, built by McNaughton at the close of last season, has been " showing her heels." She was employed for fishing purposes during the winter, and, as had been anticipated, proved a very fast sailer. Her owner says ho has challenged all the other boats of her size with the exception of the Jessie Logan and Lala, but none would accept. He is so well-satisfied in regard to her sailing qualities, that he intends to challenge the cracks if he can obtain lead ballast and keel. Should he not succeed in providing these, he will ask the owners to put their boats in the same trim as his, and then race. Thanks to the energy of Mr F. D. Halstead, the committee appointed to secure the representation of Auckland at the approaching inter-coionial champion, f our-oared outrigger race, to be held here in January next, has been stirred up, and applications are now invited for those who desire to row. When the names are all received, the applicants will be formed into fours, and after several trials have been held, the best crew will be supplied with the new outrigger ordered from England. Amongst those who are, I believe, willing to go in training may be mentioned the two Marshalls, J. and T. Hunt, and H, Keane. They are all young boatmen. Action,