SPORTING CALENDAR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 777, 11 June 1954, Page 19

SPORTING CALENDAR

\VITH New Zealand sportsmen active at home and abroad, sports enthusiasts this year should not lack for winter listening. In addition to the normal local and national fixtures, the NZBS will be providing cover of the Empire Games at Vancouver, of New Zealand tours abroad, and of overseas tours of New Zealand. The Empire Games tend to overshadow the other fixtures, but there are tours overseas by New Zealand: Rugby, cricket, League, Soccer, golf and hockey teams, and tours of New Zealand by an English League team and an Australian Rugby team. Having won a Test against Australia on their last tour, the Fijians are now entering international Rugby class. There will therefore be considerable interest in the selection of a Maori team to tour Fiji. The last match of the trial series, between Te Waipounamu and Tai Rawhiti, will be played at Hastings this Saturday, June 12, and the team will be announced after the 9.0 p.m. news

25) thé Maoris will play four matches against major unions, and after their return, on August 28, they will play a New Zealand team at Auckland. On June 19, New Zealand’s golf team will) be competing for the Royal St. George’s Vase at St. Andrews, Scotland, and in the period July 5-9 will compete in the British Open. For Rugby fans, June 26 will be something of a red-letter day, for then the New Zealand v. The Rest match will be played at Wellington, giving enthusiasts_a chance to reopen discussion of the quality of this year’s All Blacks. "From July 14 on, Rugby followers will be taking an interest, too, in the N.S.W. Country team’s games against New Zealand’s minor unions. As its name implies, the team is drawn from country districts-plus Newcastle-and it will be playing 10 games here. During July and August, New Zealand Soccer and hockey teams both will be touring Australia. On its last tour, in 1950, the hockey team lost only two of its 22 garnes. There are hopes of a team being entered in the 1956 Olympics. On July 3 League followers will be watching the results of the North ‘y. South match, when a team will be chosen to play an English side touring later in the month. The Pisitors will play 10 games, three of © them tests. Later, on October 31, a New Zealand League team will be playing its first ‘ game in a World Series to be held in | France. In the New Zealand Women’s Cricket Team’s current tour the highlights will be the tests, to be played at Headingly on June 12, 14 and 15, Worcester on July 3, 5 and 6, and the Oval on July 24, 26 and 27. The women’s play in the early matches of the tour promised well. Details of the NZBS cover for the Empire Games are to be announced shortly..