SPORTING ITEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1938, Page 10

SPORTING ITEMS

SOME NOTABLE ATHLETES JACK HEMI STRIKES FORM Jack Hemi, the former Wairarapa and New Zealand Maori Rugby player, was given a great ovation when he turned out again for Manakau Rugby League team last week. Auckland reports that Hemi made all the difference to the crack League team, and in addition to kicking four fine goals, he scored a try from the full-back position. On form he looks a certainty for the trip to Australia and possibly England, this season.

J. McShane, the university student, who played half-back for Australia against the Springboks last year, has retired from the Rugby game. McShane will long be remembered for his plucky and effective tackling against Nel’s men, and at no stage of the tests was he overshadowed by either de Villiers or Craven. He was one of those players who never admit defeat. McShane was half-back for Oxford University when the 1935 All Blacks were on tour.

Two Australian boxers are to be imported by the Napier Boxing Association to meet Jack Jarvis. They will be offered all expenses and substantial purses for three contests. The revival in Napier boxing is due to the completion of the new . Municipal Theatre, the association having been unable to obtain suitable halls for its matches since the earthquake.

The Maungakiekie Golf Club will lose the services of its popular professional, T. S. Galloway, in about a month’s time, as he has accepted an appointment with the Rotorua Golf Club. Galloway has been attached to the Maungakiekie Club for the past seven years. He will replace J. McCormick at Rotorua. ' <■

In the last three season, Miss K. Callinan, Canterbury’s leading lady athlete, has been unplaced only seven times. out of eighty-five starts. Her record is 45 firsts, 15 seconds, 18 thirds. In the season just concluded she was first 19 times out of 32 starts, second four times and third six times.

Fred Fuller, who earned fame as a phenomenal goal kicker for the Wairarapa and Wellington rugby representatives a few years ago, is now working for the Public Works Department in Gisborne, and is reported to be donning a Marist Club jersey this season.

lan Percy, skipper of the Masterton senior team, who with I. McGregor, was the only player last season to figure in all but one of the matches of Wairarapa’s heavy representative programme, is again playing fine football. A brainy type of player, he should go still further this season.

The Australian cricket captain, D. G. Bradman, has made a century in every test match in which he has played against England o:| the Melbourne ground. Bradman has played in five tests on that ground, and his centuries are:—l92B-9: Third test, 112 in the second innings; fifth, 123 in the first innings; 1932-3: second test, 103 not out in the second innings; third test, 270 in the second innings; fifth test, 167, in the first innings.

Two sets of brothers were among the more prominent players in the Hamilton Old Boys’ Rugby team which defeated Cambridge in the first round of the Stag Trophy competition on Saturday. They were B. Paterson, a prominent junior player, who gave a very solid display at centre threequarters, and his brother, D. Paterson, a forward who scored one of his team’s three tries. H. Sayers, a Hamilton representative last season, was on good form on one wing as was his brother A. J. Sayers, who was having his first competitive game since he played for Auckland Grammar School four years ago.'

The Australian golf team has left Melbourne on its way to play in the British championships and other events. Mr C. W. Rundle is the manager, and in this respect the team is fortunate. L. Nettlefold (Tasmania) is the captain, and with him are such well-known players as T. S. McKay and H. W. Hattersley (New South Wales) and M. J. Ryan (Victoria). It is a good team, worthy to represent Australia on and off the links, says a Melbourne writer. The team will play in Adelaide and Perth, and as soon as England is reached it will settle down to hard practice.

“Thirteen” is supposed to be an unlucky number. What about 19? asks an Australian writer. Sydney Grammar School some years ago lost the athletic championship of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales afterwards Melbourne Grammar School won its first Head of the River boat race for 19 years, and now the Melbourne Harriers have won the amateur athletic premiership of Victoria after a lapse of 19 years. It is extraordinary how some numbers attach themselves to certain people or things. It will be remembered how often W. H. Ponsford made 110 in Sheffield and test matches —he made that score twice in one game—and how frequently one of the numbers in the ninties have intervened to stop a century.