SCULLING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2428, 17 February 1909, Page 2

SCULLING.

THE WORLD’S CHAMPIONSHIP. AYHAT BARRY HAS TO SAY. If Arnst car eg to make the trip to England (says a Home correspondent) ho will find Ernest Barry, the. English champion sculler, quite prepared to challenge his title of AVorJd’s Champion. -A member of the National Sporting Club has just offered to hack Barry, up to any reasonable amount, and this should induce Arnst to come out here.

In sculling, it is not customary, as in other branches of sport, for the challengers always to- visit the existing champion's country. Otherwise Barry would have, in consequence, to go to New, Zealand to attempt to win the championship. “This I do not wish to do,” said Barry recently. “I have my work to do over here, and my family to look after, and I should change my mind only if remunerative expenses were guaranteed. “I understand,”* Barry added, “that Arnst is by no means unwilling to visit England, and an offer for him to scull for £SOO a-side is likely to clinch the. matter. I shall be ready at any time, and it it not unlikely that next May or June may see a race between us. “I see. that Arnst’s victory over AVebb caused a lot of surprise, o-.in-here, but I was prepared for it f for it seems that George Towns had Arnst up his sleeve. Asked after his race, with mo what his opinion of iny sculling was, Towns ‘Ho’? a good man, and would beat all of ours except, perhaps, one.’ And that one, Towns afterwards divulged, was Arnst, whom he described as a sculler of great ability. “Not for a moment do I wish to disparage the Australian and New Zealand scullers of the present moment. But I do not see how these men can be of much class, with the championship changing hands so often. Tressider easily beat all the Australians; AA 7 ebb just as easily beat Tressider, and now Arnst does the same to AVebb. I am, however, quite prepared to take Town’s word about Arnst.

“I hope, for the sake of sculling in this country, that Arnst comes over. One of my grievances is that the Enlgish public take far more interest in a couple of unknown foreign wrestlers than they do in their own athletes. I know that in the past one or two faked matches did much harm to sculling, but I am sure that two or three, genuine ones would restore the popularity of the sport.”