OUT DOOR SPORTS

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 229, 31 January 1885, Page 6

OUT DOOR SPORTS

BY REFEREE

NOTICES,

Secretaries of all kinds of Clubs for the promotion of out-door sports will confer a favour by wmmunicatirr.g any items of interest connected with their sport, game, or pastime; more especially icithrespect to coining events. Short sketches of sporting or pleasure excursions will bevielcome, and questions en all matters connected with sports will be gladly answered. All communications must be addressed to " Referee."

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Subscriber (Whangarei). — Have found what you want to know. W. Gr. George has run a half-mile in linin. oTsecs.

Ixquirer. — Of course the runs count, being completed before the wicket is put down.

Bailer. — 1. Dark's or Duke's. 2. Cobbett's or Page's, procurable at Tilly's. Queenstreet.

Reveille (Cambridge). — Thanks. Exceedingly good. Shall be glad to hear from you again when you have something tasty. If only half as good as this it will be acceptable. F. J. T. — 1. There has never been mother sprint for the provincial championship since W. Ring beat J. R. Huttoii in the Domain. 2. The race was for a gold medal only, no money stake, Ring being an amateur. .'3. The medal was given by the Tradesmen's Athletic Club, on purpose to bring Ring and Hutton together. 4. Ring won by a foot in lOsecs 2-sths. 5. J. O'Connor is champion mile-runner of New Zealand, including Auckland. Pie ran and beat J. Brown, of Mercury Bay, for Auckland's championship, and beat Burke, of Dunedin, for that of New Zealand.

Neither Fitton nor Stewart, the Auckland representatives (?), at the Bicycle Carnival at Christchurch, got even a place Fitton fell in the first event, and broke his machine. A lot of the cricketing-football players are beginning to express a wish that winter was around again, so as to allow them to commence their favourite sport. The prince of wicket-keepers, J. M. Blackham, made 108 (not out) playing for Melbourne against East Melbourne. Palmer got i)C), and Blackham had Boyle, Horan, and Scott against him amongst the bowlers too. The following team will proceed to Avondale to do battle for the Albion : — Bath gate, Bushill, Prosser, Watson, Sullivan, Wheeler, Morrow (Captain), Wardell, Holmes, Wardingh'un, Beaney. Emergency, Culverwell. Scott and Hancock, the latter ex-cham-pion of England, walked 24 hours at Dunedin on Saturday. The former won easily, doing the splendid record of 114 miles. Hancock gave up after doing 100 miles.' Scott was never distressed or hurried. The match between Albion and West End Third resulted in an easy win for the former, they winning by 62 runs and 4 wickets to spare. Prosser bowled remarkably well, taking 4 wickets for 5 runs. The following made the highest scores : — Bath gate 22, Beaney 22, not out, Morrow, 19, not out, and Sullivan 10. A walking championship does not seem to be a bed of roses. There are great grumblings at Jas. Hondry for not accepting challenges put forth by McKune and Stevenson since Jim beat the latter for the 12-hour championship. If I was James Hondry, I'd let it slide rather than undergo another 12 hours' sawdust worrying in the effort to retain it, and so Hcndry thinks, he tells me. W. Woon, our old football friend ' : Billy," no doubt, avou the Mile Handicap at the "Wangnnui Caledonian Society's sports the other day ; he had 55 yards start. The great Armed Constabulary jumper Julian tied in the running high jump with Broughton at of fc fifins, won the pole jump at 9ft loins, and got beaten by 2Ains in the broad jump by Broughton. Ponsonby Football Club will have to bewail another serious loss to the strength of their forward division. Mr W. Henderson, the promising young architect, is the latest departure. He goes to Sydney to follow his profession. Whatever Club Mr Henderson casts in his lot with over there •will gain the services of a really good and effective forward player. As a dribbler, few in Auckland could surpass him. J. Connor, the well-kown long-distance runner, is supposed to be going to meet Hancock, Scott and others in a forty-eight hours' go-as-you-please, at Dunediu. Bub this can't be so, as I see Jack has signed articles to run Power ten miles, for £50, on the first Saturday iv February, in Melbourne, where the genial son of the old sod. now is. They have been backing and filling a lot over a proposed sparring match between the two most noted boxers of Australia — Foley and Farnau. Foley's £250 is still in the hands Sydney Town and Conntry newspaper, and the backers of Farnan pretend to want the stakes made good in Melbourne. Now, as the locale of tiie fight is to be Sydney, it seems only proper that the money should be put up there— so that it appears as if Farnan's backers were a bit frightened to plank to pieces. Farnan himself is thirsty to have <i dart Jit Ijflj.*ry Folev. and is Qiil^LJLiiii_LLai_LLtuxL*-

Never was so severe a censure passed upon cricketers surely as that of the Victorian Association on Messrs Boyle, Blackham, Palmer, Scott, Bonnor, and McDonnel, for their refusal to take part in the match Australia v. England. They are disqualified from taking part in any match played under the auspices of the V.C.A. It is hard on the men, but harder on poor Australia. Where will they find another such wicket-keeper as Blackham ? Not in the world ! for he is perfection both before and behind the sticks. Where is such another tricky bowler as Palmer ? It seems a pity, a sad pity ; but it is a just punishment for the men. They allowed a greed of gain to overcome their gentlemanly instincts, and, while posing as amateurs, were anxious to make cricket pay ! The Americans arc funny people, and have a funny way of doing things. It seems to me that whenever their "boss slogger," John L. Sullivan, gets matched with a good man who is likely to trouble him, they have things rigged up so the police will step in and stop the performance. He had a bit of bad luck the other day with Alf. Greenfield, the English crack, and the newest importation to" America. Alf. didn't seem to mind Sullivan's "bull rushes" much, and plugged away men'ily at the Boston boy, and seemingly enjoyed the gruel Sullivan was giving him"; even the biased Yankee newspaper yarn on the fight can't but show that; so in the middle of it, when Greenfield was bleeding from a clip on the eyebrow, and Sullivan from a cut behind the ear, the police dropped in among 'era, and stopped the fight. The referee at once declared that " Sullivan had won !" Of course, the winner was to get 05 per cent., and the loser .'55 per cent, of the net receipts from the gates; hence the declaration, no doubt, for up to the stoppage neither had any advantage. 1 should say that fight was a* draw myself; but then 1 am not a Yankee referee. T. M. Malone. champion sprinter and allround athlete of Australia, has accepted Harmon's challenge for the championship of the world and £100 a-side, and it is notunlikely that Australia will score another victory before the close of the coming year. .Malone has challenged the world without receiving a single response : has defeated Myers, the celebrated American flyer, at Birmingham, England, in IKSI : and in the following year Phillips, the English champion, sustained a defeat at his hands at Stoke-upon-Trent. In ISKfI Aplitt. the champion of Australia, had to retire in his favour, this match being for the championship and £100 a-side, and it is a mutter upon which the champion may be congratulated that he has never been fairly beaten on even terms by any sprinter with whom he has come in contact, and his record, through his courtesy, we are enabled to append: — 100 yards, !) 4-f>ths sees.; 120 yards, 11 A sees.; 'i:io yards, W} 2 sees. ; 1-i!) yards, 144 sees. ; 150 yards. 14 4-sths sees. ; 200 yard's, l'Ji- sees : 120 yards, over 10 flights of hurdles, oft (tins, 17 l-sth sees.; 221 yards, '2\h sec?.; 440 yards, 50 sees. ; 880 yards, 1 mm. ,~>S± sees. ; running high jump, sft lOUns; running long leap, 2;>ft -A-in ; Hop, step, and jump, 4fjft llin ; putting 141 b weight, 42ft Om : putting 101 b weight, 39ft; putting 421 b weight, 20ft" 5Ain. On Thursday week last the most unique thing in mile races on record was decided on the Cambridge Racecourse 1 . Waikato. Talk about diamond-cut-diamond ; it's a fool to this. Lumsden, the well-known trainer, went to " catch " some greenhorns (?) over a mile running race for £5 a-side, backing himself to run any man in the Waikato. The softies named 1). Craig, well known in Auckland and Waikato as a sterling ped., to go for their money. The rest is best told in my contributor's own words; they can't be improved upon : Next morning at seven o'clock the competitors, accompanied by a few friends, met on the racecourse. Lumsden was accompanied by one of his lads on horseback. He had been careful to remind the other crowd on the previous evening that horses should be left behind, as the lessee of the course would object, but he being a trainer was a privileged person. Everything being ready, a good start was effected, and both men ran some 200 or aOO yards in good style, Craig leading, when up galloped the lad with Luinsdcn's nag, and the gallant ped holding on to the stirrup went off at a pace which would have ensured victory, if — ah ! that if — if the other side had been so green as he took them for. They, smelling a rat, had their horse concealed behind the grand stand, to come in if he was wanted ; and on finding their suspicions verified, as Lumsden clung to the stirrup of his nag, Mr G. McCann galloped up, and Craig hanging on to the long tail of his pony, fairly flew over the ground, and came in an easy winner, as Lumsden fell before reaching the post. The whole affair proved a capital joke, the biter was bit, and the "crowd that scooped the pool" were especially jubilant. The time of the race was J3min. 28seos. — a "best on record," truly ! •