OUT DOOR SPORTS

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 231, 14 February 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 communicating any items of interest connected with their sport, Same, or pastime; more especially viithrespecb to coming 1 , events. . ■ . , ; ■; :

Short sketches of sporting or pleasure excursions willbewelconie,and questions en all matters connected with sports will be gladly answered. All , communications must be addressed to "Referee."

EVENTS TO COME

BOWING. Feb. 28— W. Beach v. T. Clifford ; £200 a-side and championship ; Parramatfca "River. Eeb. 14— Auckland Rowing Association's Regatta. Feb. 17— Bay of Islands Regatta. March 28— Hanlan v. Beach ; £500 a-side and championship, if held by Beach. April 18 —Intercolonial eight-oared race ; Parramatta River. April 18— E. Hanlan v. T. Clifford ; £500 a-side and championship, if held by Clifford. ATHLETICS Rayner v. Stevenson, 6 days; £ LOO a-side—pro-bable. McKune v. Stevenson, 48 hours ; £100 a-side— probable.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

J.T.O'S. — If you made your wager without stipulation, it is off ; as, in backing A. against , 8,, " one to win " is understood, unless as before arranged. Gordon won their two-days' match with TJnited by 50 runs on the result of the first innings played last week. United had the good total of 129 for 5 wickets down on , Saturday. Murphy knocked his opponent. Burton, of the Thames, out in three rounds 1 minute on Saturday night last at the Academy of Music, Grrahainston. In the last minute Billy floored his man four times. Burton'/r, weight is lOst 71bs and Murphy's 9st. The paragraph in this column last week seems to have stirred the Amateur Athletic Club up a bit, a committee meeting being held^bn Tuesday night with a view to inducing the cricketers to set. apart a Saturday afternoon on which the sports could be held in the Domain. I trust to see an announcement shortly that the date for the sports has been fixed. Scott beat Hancock at Dunedin under most painfully peculiar circumstances. His sister had died during the month, his mother a week before, and his father the day before. -After knowing that, 1 look upon Scott's 114 miles as a big record. Hancock says he (Scott) is the best 24-hour mau he has ever met, and with the one exception of Howes, he does not think there is his match anywhere. Coming from a good judge like Hancock, that is saying a lot. , "Lees and Atkinson fought with soft gloves in Melbourne the other day. They went quietly about 10 miles out of town and pitched their ring in a nice paddock, and, with the sun shining, a few choice friends, I and no bad blood, they just bucked away, f ;till Lees, who had the best of it all through, got his right home with tremendous force .on the point of Atkinson's jaw, and finished the 11th round and the fight in 44 minutes, the loser being knocked clean out of time. .Lees is 25, stands 6ft., and weighs (stripped) list lOlbs; Atkinson is 26, stands oft. lOins, •and scales 12 stone. The cricket on the Domain on Saturday ■wasof a very interesting nature. Auckland, who. had done rather, badly in the commencement of the first innings of their match with West End on the previous Saturday, were enabled, chiefly through the efforts of A. E. Dewes, who scored 55 in splendid" style, to run their total up to 203 before the last wicket fell. West End sent in Arneil and Lynch, who had each 31, and ten extras before time was called, or 72 for no wickets. They had 109 on their first venture, . so things don't look so very bad after alii Lynch's cutting was a treat to witness. The match will be concluded next Saturday, The match, last Saturday between I. Zingari Ist and .N atonal was wouTby the former by -8 runs and 3' wickets, chiefly through the good innings of Laird (35) and MiJner. Although the' latter only got 7, he was in a considerhble time and gave the bowlers great trouble .through his stubborn stonewalling. Milner is one of; the most patient young batsmen in Auckland and should with practice 1 And experience become a great acquisition to •any team. Laird's 35 was a series of very 1 pretty cuts and 'drives. The other double ; figure score was Beale, 19, / not out. Smith proved of much service with the ball, taking ,$. wickets for about 10 runs. . Waters bowled very well for ,the National, getting 4 wickets. < The' fielding of both . teams was somewhat loose. . ■ ■■ ■ - That prince of blowhards, W. E. Stevenson, - who, by-the-bye, goes about with a hunk of "blue ribbon dabbed on to his reach-me-down 'jacket, has brought a regular breeze about his s . By the time he has taken down MeKune and Kayner (no less), he will have several more thirsty to have a shot at him on the sawdust. If his bold challenge was : /nbt all blow, we should hear by this of furjheivproceedings, as MeKune and Rayner ibotK want their money covering. I mio-ht remind this. ujifortunate and misguided young

man that Rayner is only the man who claims to be able to beat W. Edwards easily, and says it was through fear of meeting him that Edwards left Australia. That is all he isff "W.E.S., and if you could not beat Jim Hendry, my weak-kneed friend, in a twelvehour worry, y.ou can't expect to " do " Rayner in a 142-hour. I may be all wrong in my deductions, but I don't think so. Anyway, this disgusting tramping round and round a sawdust track day and night, hour after hour, ,is a revolting and senseless, thing. I don't think, good readers, that there is on this terrestrial globe any man more strongly imbued with interest in all athletic and sporting pastimes worth calling such, from a maggot crawl to a horse race, than your,, faithful servant, " Referee." But when these exhibitions come on' so frequently, and are so often " put up jobs," lordy ! I get full up. and seem to want to emigrate. For once or twice, while a novelty, I don't mind seeing a man or men making darn fools of themselves, and wearing out the machinery before its time. But, hang it! draw the line somewhere. Why can't Stevenson, if he must keep walking, go out and exercise those pitiably thin shanks of his on the green sward of the Domain in a burst of a mile or a good stiff seven miles for the championship, and not go dragging his pale visage and attenuated . figure round and round that pasty, mustysmelling stage at the Royal for six mortal weaiy days and nights ? Bah ! there is nothing in it — not even a decent whack of dollars.