WALLY INGRAM HAS THE FACTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 78, 20 December 1940, Page 14

WALLY INGRAM HAS THE FACTS

2ZB’s Sports Commentator

HEN Fenske won the " Mile of the Century" from Cunningham and Rideout in 1939, all America was surprised, and all New Zealand, too, except Wally Ingram. : Even in Wisconsin, Fenske’s home town, they did not think the local boy would win. . But Ingram ohtiaa the winner, and picked Cunningham for second place. The thought Wooderson would come third, although Wooderson was the world’s favourite. Wooderson may have come into a place and given Ingram the hat trick, but that was the race in which the infamous "incident" occurred. The biggest listening audiences ever surprised by one of these "long-shot" pickings, was surely the audience Ingram had from 2YA in 1934. It was the night of the selection of the All Black team, and everyone in the country was tuned in to hear the choice. Ingram came on the air at 7.40 p.m. with a sports talk. He discussed the forthcoming " Mile of the Century," between Bonny Lovelock and Glen Cunningham. Cunningham was favoured. He had just established the then record of 4 mins. 6% secs. for the mile. Ingram predicted that Lovelock would win and that the time would not be better than 4 mins. 10 secs. Lovelock did win, and the time was 4 mins. 114 secs. How He Does It How does 2ZB’s sports expert come so close with his prophecies? For years Wally Ingram has been watching track and field statistics. He tran for eleven years himself, with enough success and plenty of enjoyment, in the Poverty Bay district. And he has been keeping what has become a great library of information. He watches runners, and watches results and times. He had enough information before Fenske won in 1939 to know that Fenske was putting up good times and that he reached the peak of his form just at that time in the season. He had the same information about Cunningham, and knew how Wooderson was shaping. From facts, and facts only, he predicted the result with wonderful accuracy, and astonished American sports writers who had their information on the spot. Copies of his discussion of these facts before the event were sent to America and were received, especially

in Wisconsin, with no small surprise that a critic so many thousands of miles away should prove more accurate than men there. At Home Ingram keeps up the same up-to-the-minute knowledge of world and local track and field events, although these days there is not so much to follow, and information is harder to come by. In New Zealand, where he can see the men in action, he uses his knowledge to even better effect. He was one of the few who recognised the potentialities of Wade, the Auckland runner. He says, when he is watching a race, that he does not worry too much about who is coming first: He notes the winner, and watches the next few men coming into the tape: These men, he has found, are the coming champions, and it pays him to watch them coming. Wade was one example. Paradox Although Wally Ingram claims that his own participation in sport has been for enjoyment only, he has been in his time a very fit man. He admits a paradox. He spends his time now persuading athletes to specialise more, and not take on too much at once. He is busy these days telling those theories to promising secondary schoolboys. And yet, when he was running, between 1920 and 1931, Ingram won all races. between 75 yards and five miles. He would do a five-mile run and come in to play hockey in his home town, Gisborne. He held the Poverty Bay Championships over the 440 yards, the mile, and the three-mile. In the mile and threemile events he established provincial records which were only broken by Randolph Rose and Phil. Francis, the Welsh international. He has represented Poverty Bay (against Wellington) in the half-mile. He played soccer (senior grade), hockey (senior), and cricket (for enjoyment only). He was a member of the Olympic Surf Life Saving Club in Gisborne as No. 3 (resuscitator) on the line, and he remembers one summer during which, on every Sunday except one, a fatal accident occurred at Waikanae-every one of them at a time when he was not on the beach. He cites this as a coincidence, and not as an example of lack of co-operation between Providence and himself. He grew up in the town that produced Tom Heeney, and has always been interested in boxing. He trained Lyn Robertson, and looked after Syd North when the Australian came over to meet Tommy Donovan and Cyril Hearne. : Administrator In the administrative side of sport he has been equally busy. In fact, at one ary Ping so much on re ad to up everything. He was for five years on the Council of the N.Z. Amateur Athletic Association, for two years on the Council of the Amateur Cycling Association, and one year on

the British Empire and Olympic Games Association. He has worked for the Athletic Football Club. It was in 1931, when he was with the N.Z.A.A.A., that he suggested that D. Leslie should go away to the Olympics as a starter. The move was successful, and Ingram now carries with him, on a watch fob, the first bullet fired at the games in 1932. Leslie gave it to him by way of appreciation. Track Methods He has many theories about track technique, and mention of Leslie’s starting reminded him of a new idea in starting positions. which he is endeavouring to perfect. He won’t let us publish the details yet, but he hopes for success. There is nothing in the rules, he claims, to make it illegal; but the rules say that the starter is. in charge of the runners when they are on the track, and he has yet to persuade Wellington’s Number One Starter to pass his method. He has been discussing it with American experts, with whom he keeps closely in touch. His methods have had considerable success; but perhaps the most interesting, if not the most notable, was one successful year at Gisborne. He trained two runners and four cyclists. He was himself running at the time. The seven of them took every ‘trophy offered by the club, and Ingram himself claimed an unusual success by winning, two years in succession, the club’s poirits prize. Journalism All his life has been devoted to sport. His first days in journalism were spent with a small weekly, the "Te Rau Press." From Gisborne (where he first: saw the light in 1904), he came to Wellington in 1926 to work for the "N.Z. Sportsman." In 1934 he transferred to. "Sporting Life" as track and fields editor, and in 1937 added boxing and wrestling to his cares. In 1938 and 1939, fans will remember his "Guide to Wrestling." He talks weekly now from 2ZB at 9.30 a.m. on Sundays, and announces sports results. Last year he gave the commentaries on the New Zealand Centennial Championships, through the NBS relay from Basin Reserve. Microphones have become as familiar to him as stopwatches and starting guns (his wrist watch, always worn, is a stop watch), and his voice is almost as familiar to listeners as his subject is to Wally Ingram,