ANSWERS'.TO- CORRESPONDENTS,

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 102, 26 August 1882, Page 372

ANSWERS TO- CORRESPONDENTS.

•-. J'..G. (Serf Plymouth).— -You will find your letter referred to at length, in this column. Auckland is not rich enough or big enough to support siieh a venture.

, New Cm/ar.— -The cricket season in Auckland usually cbniinences about tha,last we.efc in September or beginning'of; October, though the match season does not fairly., begin ' till later! Get an introduction to the 1 secretary of one of the clubs.

Mr border lias been reqxaestecl to act as starter in the.Piekering-Monnock match. .G-eorge Sandall says he will take 100 yards' start in a mile walk from. Houston. '■■" Pickering having now- recovered his health, is "open to run Fagan a quarter-mile match for £50 a-side . or more, wlien'he lias? clone with, Monnoek. „' ..Hotc is it. we do not hear from Pagan re his wrestling ' challenge that was said to be taken up by a Coromahdelinim?. ■ ' - Midwinter has decided to leave England for g00d,., and . settle down as a professional cricketer in Melbourne. . Pickering and Monnock have commenced steady ', .training for their contest. Jack Dalton is Monnock's principal backer, and will train him. , . r It is. more than likely that the Australian. Eleven at present in England will have a chance to do 'battle Trith Shaw's Eleven during September. ... Huckster's offer of 100 yards' start in a mile run, to: Daley, is likely to come to something. There are a good many who believe in the little sticker. It is likely • that the Auckland Am ateur Athletic ' Club will shortly awake from its winter sleep, and see what can be done in the way of giving one of its univer- ' sally popular meetings. • .The football season is, with the exception of' the Taviranga match, now virtually over ; and soon as the weather permits, the cricket season will be opened 'by a match, Footballers v. Cricketers. Professor' Miller, the wrestling champion, who lately -snadcthe tour of New Zealand, has returned to Melbourne, and started a first-class gymnasium in Swanston-street. r■ . .' ■ ■ . Huekstep is anxious . to run Ted McGrinley a quarter of a mile. . It is my ox)inion that if Mac. got fit, .Huekstep would not live with him at the distance, ■which is a bit too short for the unehunga man. It- was characteristic of the " McGHnly crowd" that in the recent walking contest they had at least five pounds offering on their man, to one that was forthcoming from Huckster's backers. . A correspondent informs me that ,Tom Whiteside is' prepared to stand by his original challenge, and run -Mick Monuoek early in November for £25 a-side or lip words. '- The first deposit, £5 a-side, of the stake of £25, for a hundred yards' match between J. Pickering and 11. Monnock, . was made last week. The race is to be - run on the 30th September,' Monnock receiving nine y areas' trirt. - ■'It is about one of .the strangest coincidences on record-that in 1878 the Gentlemen of England beat , the Australian Eleven -by one innings" and one run; "and this year the Atistralians turned the tables, and won by I exactly the same odds. . -• .. ■ ' j •'-' Billy, Ring >made desperate attempts to score in j the "Waikato football match ; biit his splendid turn of foot is so well known that our fliers, Davy and Whitesid.e, shepherded him too well, and were in better practice than the champion 'sprinter, too. ■ 'The North Shore Regatta Club are taking time by , the forelock, and offer an excellent programme of events for competition on the 9th November. They have the rigb.t man as 'secretary, in the person of that ex-oarsman arid present yachtsman, Charlie Dacre. ■-It is interesting- to note how iieetness of foot ■ runs in a family in man as well as horse. The White- | ■ side boys are' a good , instance. The eldest brother, Harry, was one of the most promising peds in Auckland when he retired from the path, and both Bob and Tom arc becoming almost as noted on the trade. j The . crack American amateur ped., L. B. Myers, - who carried all before him in England a year ago, and was never beaten in his own country, was ;f airly, ■"• put through" on June 10th by a new man, named H. Brooks, of Yale University, who -won the ,220 yards level race by a yard aiid a-half from Myers, in j the splendid time of 22 "!-sth sees.

Considerable comment has been caused by the action of the North Shore Regatta Club in excising the usaal four-oar races from .this year's programme. Some people are ill-natured enough to insinuate that it ■ is owing to. the fact that the .North Shore Bowing Club can'tbe kept together, and can't win at any time ; but , surely the reason is not this? ', A Bicycle Club was formed some time ago in Auckland, and was expected to give us a taste of its .quality before now j but with the exception of an occasional gbinpse ■of an aspiring wheeler, apparently troubled with the "staggers/ doing a lone hand on some bit of down-hill road, nothing is ever seen or heard of this desirable branch of athletics. .The Albert • Club and North Shore Second Fifteen will play a football match for a new ball, on the ground of_ the latter, on Saturday next. The following players will represent the Albert : — G. Smart (captain) , " J-. Smart, Finlayson, Miller, Stuart, Gilespie, Goodman, Pulman (2), Pritchard, Hardwick, McDermot, Danks, Binney and Skinner.. Emergencies — Done, Bruce and Stewart. ' \ - ',-.. It is to be hoped that the pitiably mean spirit ;on the part of our " merchant princes " that has so often stood in, the way. of our cricketers and other athletes getting a. chance to distinguish themselves, and have a little change and recreation at the same tinie, by attacking their Southern rivals on their own ; ground,- will not be allowed to interfere with the projected tour of an Auckland team of cricketers through the South this season. Edwards, the. champion long distance pedestrian of Australia (and in whom, by-the-way, we Aucklanders ought to take a special pride, as he picked up his first , .wrinkles and won his first laurels in .the old Albert ■Barracks), has beaten everything opposed' to him in Australia, and sighs for fresh worlds to conquer, so he ■has sent a challenge to Harriinan, the American champion "heel-and-toer," to walk him a six days' contest for £200 up to £500. To prove his good faith, Edwards has, deposited, £100 with:?the editor of the .Melbourne •Sportsman. ' " '■•' • , ■■ ■ • ' , '■'. The new ,yacht which is boitig built to the order of ( . that, xmtirhig' aquatic sport, 1 Mr Walter Jones, is j-apidly approaching completion; under the hands of the .weU^nownnrihof Hewson and Melville, at Wynyard- ' pier.'. ■ She is -already, nearly planked, and presents a .perfect picture, on an extended', scale,' of the littlo Matidj even including the," plough stem' " by which the Maud was' so well .known. Critics- who have seen her aver that she. will be a ''real hummer.". She will'meastire about six tons/ and is a wonderfully roomy boat for hei tonnage. ■, ■ „ , . , .

;A' ; roundrbbin, addressed to the hbn. sec. and icommittee of the, North; Shore Kegatia Club, is, circnlating:for signatures of owners of yaouts of three tons, or, thereabouts, asMng that a race for boats.of that'class be placed upon the programme. Last year this event .was won by, the -Sybil, ■ and two fishing smacks- ran secondhand third;-,'- By:.thernlo at pr.esent' decided upon/ the^race' will ' onlyVbe for the better class, arid, yachts, will be excluded. -It . would, I should "thilut •be better to include Both flailing and, private craft injth'e one event, as was done, last yeox'. [■• . •"'■.' „■'."■.•..-; Tli.e football 'team who, went to the Waikato to do battle against '.the local teani lidve returned victdariptis^iiavingTronth^ match, by two tries to nil, -Not

■ by' any means a big 'beating' for. the doughty Waikato champions ; • but 'it . must 'beVborne. in 'mind-, that 'Very ; little picking could be indulged in.in the selection of 6ur team, as only seven teen players sent in their names as : .being able to go. ' Croxton was the last to do so, and hi? proved .undoubtedly a great addition to the forwards, Though a fairly strong team— numbering in its ranks such men as Braivnd, Whiteside^ Croxfcon, O'Connor,; Davy, Sims, and Carter — yet it would be absurd to call H-: o^xrMiiTicr liW *v vAtivAHA-rTi-A+.ivfi fiH.Rdn.' The "Wnikato i \ \ 1 i 1 But (1 ml i)m to I Ijj. «m>. i«wMU-j 1 ] "v i ' ed

and there was only one vacant chair and that set aside for the scribe. . . — A worthy A.C. doctor whilst in Hamilton, last week occupied all his leisnre time in spooning with ,' the fashionable little barmaid Tilly, and so enraptured; was he in her society that he forgot all about the foot-; ball dinner. Woll its awful when one's taken that way. — I would advise a certain West Hamiltonian to be a little more careful in the future and not milk other persons cows, or else she might hear something not to her advantage. A gentleman, who resides not far from the Cambridge-road, wondered at tho falling otf in his cow's milk, but put it down to scarcity of feed thought nothing more of it. However, about the end of last week whilst passing along the road noticed his animal in a bye-way and upon reaching the spot discovered a female being milking his cow. Bather rough this.

— The football match, Auckland v. Waikato came off last Saturday on Sydney Square, and terminated in a victory for the former by four points. The weather was miserably cold, still the attendance was large, the fair sex showing ux) particularly strong. During the match there was some severe work, and several harsh words uttered, which did not resound to the credit of some of the footballers. The Hamilton Band was present and played several new pieces, thereby adding much to the success of the day's amusement;, I have heard a few complaints as to the manner with which they were treated by the managing commit.cc. Sbill I think that it was only an over-right, but it is to be hoped that it will not occur again.