RADIO'S HOLIDAY SPORTING ROUND-UP

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 805, 24 December 1954, Page 6

RADIO'S HOLIDAY SPORTING ROUND-UP

HEY go to their seaside baches and into the hills, those New Zealanders you see on our cover this week. They go camping at Queenstown or yachting in the Bay of Islands, or they bike through to Nelson to pick fruit. But whatever they do with their holidays, at some stage you will find them crouching over their portables and shushing the youngsters or irritably jolting their car radios to hear how the M.C.C. are getting on in Melbourne. Or, if they haven’t a radio of, their own, they will sing out to the man in the tent next door, "Say, did you hear what won the fifth at Auckland?" The NZBS is doing its bed to give them the sports coverage they want. Over the period from December 27 to January 9 all sporting results will be broadcast in the National Sports Summary, from linked YA and YZ stations, at 7 p.m. each day, Progress scores, summaries and commentaries from the various sports will also be broadcast throtighout the day. On Monday and Tuesday, December 27 and 28, and on Saturday and Monday, January 1 and 3, 2YA will conduct a Sports Round-up, in which selections from broadcast commentaries on the various sporting activities throughout the Dominion will be given, starting at 1.30 p.m. each day. TEST CRICKET RICKET enthusiasts will be hard put to it to make up their minds-should they listen to the local Plunket Shield series or to the England-Australia Test? Here is the timetable to help them decide. For the three days beginning Monday, December 27, the M.C.C. play the New South Wales Country team.

Progress scores will be broadcast in the 7 p.m. link, with the stumps scoreboard after the 9 p.m. news. On Friday, December 31, the third Test begins at Melbourne-Australia won the last Test there by only 28 runs -and 29-minute commentaries from this match will be given daily at 3.15 p.m., 5.45 p.m. and 7.45 p.m., with frequent progress reports and, where possible on holidays, extra commentaries. The previous day’s Test scoreboard will be broadcast each morning at 7.18 following the weather forecast from the YA and YZ stations. PLUNKET SHIELD CRICKET (COMMENTARIES of about 20 minutes’ duration will be given periodically through the day on the Plunket Shield cricket. The stumps scoreboard, along with any outstanding features of play, will be broadcast in the 7 p.m. link. Monday and Tuesday, December 27 and 28, will be the final two days of the Wellington v. Auckland miatch (commentaries from 2YA) and of the Canterbury v. Otago match (3YA). From December 30 to January 1, Auckland will play Otago (1YA) and Canterbury will play Central Districts (3YA). From January 3 to January 5 Otago will play Central Districts (4YA) and Wellington will play Canterbury (2YA). Finally in this. period, on January 7, 8 and 10, Wellington will play Central Districts at Nelson (2XN and 2YA) and Auckland will play Canterbury (1YA). The Commercial stations will give the scoreboard at the luncheon and tea adjournments and at stumps on each day of play. BOWLS \ IVES and clubmates of the 1750 bowlers, who will be in Wellington for the New Zealand Championships

from December 29 to about January 15, can hear a ten-minute summary of the play daily at 9.30 p.m. from all the YA and YZ stations. In addition, 2YA will broadcast the opening ceremony and selected commentaries in the finals of the singles, pairs and rinks. DAVIS CUP TENNIS T Sydney’s White City tennis courts, either the United States or Sweden (at the time of going to press the interzone finals had not been played) will compete against Australia for the Davis Cup. For the three days of play, beginning on Monday, December 27, the Main National stations will rebroadcast as much as possible of Radio Australia’s Davis Cup commentaries. : From January 8 to 15 2YA _ will broadcast eye-witness accounts and selected commentaries on the New Zealand Tennis Championships at Central Park, Wellington. Five-minute summaries will also be heard in the 7.0 p.m. link. Results of the North Island Championships at Palmerston North from January 1 to 6 will be given in the 7.0 p.m. link with selected commentaries from 2ZA on the semi-finals and finals. CROQUET ESULTS from the quarter-finals onward of both the North Island Croquet Championships (at Hamilton) and the South Island Championships (at Christchurch), which begin on January 5, will be broadcast in the 7 p.m. link. SOFTBALL ‘THE results of the New Zealand Men’s Club Championships at Hastings from December 27-30 will be broadcast periodically throughout the day from

2YZ. 2YZ will then broadcast commentaries on the North Island v. South Island match on January 1, and the Men’s National Inter-provincial Tournament. on January 3-6. The results of these matches will also be broadcast nightly on the 7.0 p.m. link. RACE RESULTS ESULTS of the 45 race meetings held during the holiday period will be given nightly over the Commercial network at 6.30 p.m. and at intervals during the day. In addition, running commentaries on the following meetings will be broadcast:- * Monday, December 27: Manawatu R.C. (2ZA), Dunedin J.C. (4YA), Auckland R.C. (1YA), Gore T.C. (4YZ). Tuesday: Manawatu R.C., Dunedin J.C., Winton T.C. (4YZ), Auckland T.C. (1YA). Wednesday: Auckland R.C. (1YA). Thursday: Auckland T.C. (1YA). Friday: Auckland T.C. (1YA). Saturday: Auckland R.C. (1YA), Wyndham R.C. (4YZ), Hawke's Bay J.C. (2YZ), Canterbury Park T.C. (3YA). Monday, January 3: Auckland R.C. (1YA), Hawke’s Bay J.C. (2YZ), Southland R.C. (4YZ), Canterbury Park T.C. (3YA). Tuesday: Southland R.C. (4YZ), Bay of Plenty R.C. (1YZ), Greymouth T.C. (3YZ). Wednesday: Greymouth T.C, (3YZ). : BOXING ON Thursday, January 6, 3XC will ~ broadcast a commentary on the bout between Ross Sadler, New Zealand middle-weight champion, and = Pran (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) Micus, Australian middle-weight champion, at Timaru, for the Australasian middle-weight title. THE GRAND PRIX PART from Argentina, New Zealand is the only country in the Southern Hemisphere which stages an_ inter-nationally-recognised car race, The New Zealand International Grand Prix-100 laps of a two-mile circuit at Auckland’s Ardmore aerodrome-will be run on Saturday, January 8. Listeners to Steve Fleming’s Friday night Sports Page from 1YA_ will already have heard something about the race and the months of intricate preparation which go into it. They will also have the chance to hear interviews with some of the drivers-including Britain’s Peter Whitehead (to drive a Ferrari), Siam’s Prince Birabongse (a Maserati), and Tony Gaze (a Ferrari)-in the Sports Pages before the race.

Radio coverage of the race itself presents a problem, A ridge on the aerodrome makes. it impossible to see all the track from ground level. One commentator will be stationed in the con-

trol tower, and two others at vantage points round the ttack to pick out close-up detailwithout themselves being picked off by skidding racing cars, which will reach up to 140 m.p.h. on the straights. LYA will broadcast commentaries on the race throughout the

day. The southern YAs will link for five minutes at 1.0 p.m. to broadcast the start, and again for four minutes every half-hour until the end-about 3.45 p.m. A summary will be broadcast over the main National link at 7.0 p.m.