OUT DOOR SPORTS

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 117, 9 December 1882, Page 206

OUT DOOR SPORTS

NOTICES.

Secretaries of all hinds of Clubs for the promotion of out-door sports will confer a favour by communicating any items of interest connected with their sport, gains, or pastime; more especially with respect to coming events. Short sketc7i.es of sporting or pleasure excursions will be welcome, and questions on all matters connected with sports will be gladly answered. All communications must be addressed to The Editor.

ANSWEES TO CORRESPONDENTS,

Hawk wishes an opinion on the following : — Shooter stands at scratch ; string is pulled ; trap falls ; bird does not rise ; shooter raises gun to shoulder; covers bird on ground, following bird on rise, but does not fire till bird on wing ; then kills. Should not this be reckoned a foul shot, and count as lost bird ? — Yes. —I believe Mr O. B. Waymouth contemplates building a new 20-foot open boat for the Auckland Regatta. ■ — The 4-ton yachts Sybil, Truant, and Comet are to sail a sweepstake race to-morrow. I tip the Sybil, with Truant second, close up. — It was the " Gem " people, and not the owners of the Hattie May, that wrongfully received the second prize in the North Shore Eegatta race for yachts under four tons. — North Shore second eleven had every show of an easy victory over the first eleven of the Alpha Club on Saturday. Alpha all out for 71 ; North Shore, two wickets for 61, " Nipper " Sibbin and J. Johnson being not out with 17 and 15 respectively. — West End second eleven played the Excelsior Club on the Domain Ground on Saturday, and scored an easy win by 96 to 40 j Berry, Sims, Waters, Verney, Hanna, and extras, all getting into double figures for the victors ; Smith being the only " up higher " man who got so far. —A correspondent, " Fairplay," writes complaining of the decision of the umpire in the match, Our Boys v. United CO. I agree with " Pairplay " as to at least one decision being open to doubt ; but as Our Boys took the umpire off when spoken to, it would "do no good to comment too harshly on the affair. — Ponsonby second eleven played Whau Union, or Avondale 0.0., on the Domain Ground on Saturday, and were beaten on the result of the first innings ; though, had the match been played out, there is but little doubt but Ponsonby would have won, as they made a good stand in the second innings. — As it is probable that more matches than Murphy's and the Sydney Champion's will be on at Christmas time, every afternoon sees some players hard at work in G-leeson's splendid Racquet Court, Lower Hobson-street ; and on Saturdays especially there are generally two or three minor contests played out. — The Otahuhu C.C. treated Ponsonby first eleven very badly on Saturday, having arranged for a match on their own ground, and at the last possible hour on Saturday informing the Ponsonby secretary that owing to harvesting they would be unable to play. Ponsonby was thus done out of a game, as, of course, it was too late to make any other arrangement. — The team of cricketers who propose playing the West Coast towns, left by the Hawea on Tuesday. Take out Whiteside and Wynyard, and a very " so-so " Auckland Club eleven remains. " Only that and nothing more." This excursion is intended as a solace to the pained feelings of those who had fully expected the longer trip to Sydney. lam afraid they will get a " doing "at Whanganui. — Sam Dove sailed the winning boat in the 13---foot sweep last Saturday. And, by-the-bye, I am told I was in error in crediting Dove with having sailed the Grertie against the Observer the previous week, as Ike Hunt was her sailingmaster on that occasion. My information in the first case was derived from the crew of the Observer, and I may naturally be excused for having accepted it in bona fides. —In consequence of the remarks in this column last week, a match has now been definitely arranged between M. Monnock and H. Huckstep to run a i mile off the mark a few weeks hence. £25 is the amount each side agreed to put up, but it is likely that Huckstep's backers will want this increasing when the second deposit goes down, and £50 a-side will more probably be the stake. Both men are proved goers, and the winner will need to speel a bit. —At the annual Hospital fete at Gfisborne last week, J. Agger, an Auckland runner who has long tried to pull off an event here without success, won the St. Andrew's Handicap from McNeil (scratch), and O'Hare who was 1, 2 and 4 yards behind himin the three events. McNeil scored 2nd. The match between O'Hare and McNeil is said to be off, O'Hare forfeiting his deposit of £G. 3Tinlay, of Auckland, was beaten at hammer throwing by nine inches. — The Hawk Gfun Club held their opening match at Te Kopuru on Saturday, November 25th, chief honours being taken by Mr Woodlxead, who scored 12 out of a possible 14. The second place resulted in a tie between Messrs ■ Clements, Eowbottom, and Lindley at 10 each. The shooting, on the whole, was remarkably good, the birds being in good order, and not a single Mtch occurring to mar the success of the opening day. The trapping, under the superintendence of Mr McLellan, gave every satisfaction. — The match which began on Saturday week, between the old-established United Cricket Club and the new one, Our Boys, was continued last Saturday, and ended in a very easy victory for the new club. In the first innings Our Boys had a start of 85 runs, owing chiefly to the grand batting of R. Whiteside, who made 76 not out, going in first and carrying his bat. In the second attempt the United did better, tofcting up 104, of which C. McCormiek got 50 by fair cricket and "Jiard hits, though he ran out too much, and eventually paid the penalty, Ripley (who wont on

as a change, and got two wickets with his first two balls) tempting him out, and G-eorge stumping him. Our Boys thus only required 20 to win, and these they got for the loss of three wickets, Whiteside being again not out with 12 to his name. Mumford distinguished himself in this innings by taking Walker, at point, in a very smart style. Ripley long-stopped excellently, and McChattie made a very sharp point, for Our Boys. : — Jem Mace and Slade (the latter the Champion Wrestler of N.Z.), assisted by a number of Auckland amateurs, gave a couple of athletic combination performances in the Theatre Royal on Saturday and Monday nights to full houses. Mace says that he looks upon Slade as the coming Champion of the World in the Prize Ring. If •appearance has anything to do with this, Mace ought to be pretty near the mark ; for Slade is one of the finest men I ever saw. He weighs between 15 and 16 stone, and stands good six feet or more ; while he looks a perfect mass of solid material, with very little indeed of waste tissue. His face is not exactly prepossessing, the strong determination expressed in the jaw giving almost a scowl to what would be otherwise rather handsome features. Wrestling has hitherto been Slade's forte, but under Mace's able tuition, he is now becoming very proficient with the gloves, and will no doubt be heard of in the States before long. The pair, with their agent, left by the mail steamer on Tuesday for America, where Mace has undertaken to tackle the hitherto unbeaten Sullivan, of Boston. — The Canterbury match has added new laurels to those already earned by young Lankham, he getting 7 wickets in the first innings and 4in the second, besides catching Watson off Gill in the second innings of Christchurch, and making twenty-seven runs in Auckland's first innings. G-ardner has fully sustained the good opinion I expressed of his cricket by scoring consistently all along and playing two useful innings of 14 and 15 at Canterbury. On the ai-ena of his former sterling exploits, the ex-champion bat, Bob Yates, appears to have come off better, in spite of that painful injury, a strained thigh, getting 29 in the first and 7 in the second innings. Testro (27) O'Brien (33) and Gardner (15) deserve the greatest credit for their earnest endeavours to retrieve the apparently lost fortunes of Auckland in the second innings. That lamentable mistake of Lankham's cost his side the match, for after he missed stumping Watson, the latter added 47 to his score, and in fact won the match. The beating, however, is no disgrace ; one or other must win, 27 is a narrow margin in a three days' match, and it only needed a, bit hotter luck for us, and the match would have end • I in quite a different way. Barton's unfortunate accident in the first innings probably made all the difference. Anyhow, we scarcelj expected at the start to beat Christchurch, and I opine this is the only place we will be beaten at, as Wellington and Nelson should fall an easy prey to our champions. —Up to the time of meeting Canterbury, the Eleven of Auckland has scored an unbroken series of victories over the beat cricketing talent in the South Island. Dunedin, Oamaru, Timaru, and 15 of Ashburton all fell before the prowess of our most worthy representatives. The last place, in addition to four extra men in the field, playing Wilding and Reeves — two of the very pick of the Canterbury Eleven, — and the former of these two made more than half of Ashburton's total score ; while the latter got, the only Auckland wicket which was taken, that of Robinson. Nine bowlers were tried against Arneil and Barton, and all failed to stop their rapid scoring. As a test of the speed with which Jack Avneil knocks up his runs, I may call attention to the fact that Barton was in and scoring fast during the time that Robinson got 20 runs (and we may depend the champion was not far behind his captain, if not ■ ahead) when Arneil replaced Robinson, and yet, when time was called, Barton had only seven runs ahead of our brilliant colt — their scores being re> spectively 66 and 59. The whole performance was a grand one and an infinite credit to Auckland. Not only do our batsmen come off well and show better form and more rapid scoi'ing than those among their opponents, but our bowlers not only do well, but perform actual wonders. I believe that Willie Lankham's performance in the first innings of Timaru, in bowling 35 balls for no runs, with 6 maidens and 5 wickets to his credit, is quite unparalleled in colonial cricket, and only gives added proof of what a really splendid bowler the lad is, and what an extremely poor judge of the trundlers' art that chap with the lengthy norn de plume who wrote in the Serald is. No one with one atom of knowledge or common judgment would have dreamt of sending a representative team out of Auckland without Lankham as one of the bowlers. I am one of the very first to pick upon any fault in a man who aspires to fill so important a position of trust as that now held by any and every member of our Eleven, and will expose it without fear or favour. But in common justice, I am also ready to give praise where it is so nobly earned as it has been by young Lankham. I have, before now, found fault with Lankham for a failing which he is apt to give way to in ordinary matches — namely, laziness — and would strongly advise him to throw off this weakness on all occasions. But " Willie " is evidently dead in earnest since he left Auckland, and means to leave no loophole for censure ; though it was evidently a slight, attack of his old complaint which led to his missing the chance to run Watson out at Christchurch. However, we can forgive so small a fault when we look at his analysis all through.

Who was the young man at Onehunga last week who kept the Eev. Bruce a solid threequarters of an hour waiting to " hitch " him ? The patience of the organist got exhausted, and he fled the scene. It was his intention to have struck up " Oheer up Sam, don't let your spirits go down." Th« following little incident occurred at Mr M.'s party at the Thames last week : — Old gentleman (facetiously, giving young swell dig in the ribs) : "Sly dog! I saw you flirting with that pretty girl in the corner." Young swell (with dignity) : " You make a Blight mistake, sir ; that pretty girl is my sister, L., and I was coaxing her to stay till the end of the programme."