EPITOME OF SPORTING NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3577, 17 July 1912, Page 8

EPITOME OF SPORTING NEWS.

(By “Max O’Reilly.”)

Cabled that Arnst lias so impressed the oognescenti and other water rats of the Thames side, by the strength and style of his sculling, that they say that his! race for the championship with Ernest Barry is looked upon as a foregone conclusion. They might as well think that way as not, for, in any case, there are no sports in England game enough to back their champion. at any reasonable odds. It is hardly likely th'py’d back Barry against Arnst when they would not take odds and bade him against Fogwell.

The worst enemy of Dick Arnst cannot accuse him of loafing on his laurels. He has accepted every challenge that offered and competed in open events whenever a chance occurred, since he won the championship of the world, a title lie has twice gone abroad to defend. His race with Barry is set down for July 29, a year to the day since he rowed Harry Pearce, challenger for the title, on the Parramatta. That race was in the depth of winter ; in England it will be high noon of summer.

Thus the Sydney Bulletin : —The Quid of Discord. Maoriland Rugby Union recently blew up in a burst of fury when it received the invitation of the N.S.W. Rugby Union to send along a few representatives for the Australasian team which is to visit ’.Frisco. There has been trouble between the two bodies over money ever since the coming of the Yankee University team, each body having a different version of its liabilities. So the Maoriland body, deeming it could not he done without, prefaced all negotiations as to the proposed trip a couple of months hence with a demand for instant settlement of its old account. The N.S.W. Union rejected the demand, told the Maorilanders to rr > to Hades, and communicated with Queensland, which jumped at the chance of being represented in an international team. So now Maoriland is out of it, and the players who might have gone are declaring that their idea of a real good afternoon’s sport would he to play football with the Rugby Union Council—the Council to be the ball. * * a N J'lie newspapers make amusing blunders at times, and a recent illustration is afforded by the North China Daily Mail, which wanted to tell the Chow public that Edmund Herring, the selected Rhodes scholar, scored 55 for Bendigo against the M.C.C., and his uncle, Morris Herring, in the same match, scored 129. This is how the paper, probably upset on account of the revolution in Chna, interpreted the cable:—“An Elderly Scholar.— Mr Edmund Herring, aged 55, has just been selected as a Rhodes scholar. The veteran, Mr Morris Herring, aged 129, is the uncle of Mr Edmund Herring.

Evernden, the English boxer, whose vis-a-vis in the French ring, only three or four months ago became deceased, met one Bernard, in France, last week, and was, vide cable, apparently on the point of being knocked out in the second round, when the referee, presumably a Frenchman, disqualified him. To show how much knocked out he was, Evernden promptly handed one or two to the referee, while his second also entered the arena and got to the official. The gendarmerie interfered and salved a dishevelled and disgruntled Jean Crapand.

George Charpentier has met defeat at last. The wonderful French boy met the American middle-weight, Frank Klaus, at Dieppe, France, last Sunday week, and after a. desperate battle he lost a claim of foul on the 19th round, and his seconds threw in the flapper. It may have been the crazy Gaelic temper, or it may have been a bit of “pointing” to avoid the clean defeat of his man when George’s manager entered the ring and so lost his charge the battle on a foul. Anyhow, that’s what he did. The Frenchman claim that Klaus was hitting low, and seeing that he is a Gev-man-American, the claim may have been a just one. * * Hard luck! The Hon. J. D. Ormond’s luck as a staunch and honorable supporter of the New Zealand turf has been atrocious for years, especially when it is remembered how heavily he subsidises the entry lists. Recently he has h'ad sundry wins, and among them was the coveted and rich Great Northern HtiVdle Race with the five-year-old Napper, by Birkenhead— Snooze. But the. hoodoo was only sleeping, for wjien Napper ran in the Gieat Northern Steeplechase, the following day, lie fell and broke a leg and had to be shot. •K*. * * Fanny Durable, the Australian champion girl won the 75 yards swimming contest in England last week. * * *

Joe Woodman has taken Sam Langford on a tour of the North Queensland centres. The idea is a good one, and- there ishould be money, in it. Thousands of sporting men, miners, sugar-workers, et hoc, will uimp the chance of seeing, one of the greatest fighters of all time, even it it is only an exhibition spar. Joe bills “Liver ’ Davis, Sam’s sparring partner, as ‘‘champion' middle-weight of America.” Which is playing it low down on the “confiding” Queenslanders. * * * Jack Lester beat Pat Doran, in the Guild Hall, Melbourne, the other

night, in ten rounds, the towel coming from the Victorian’s corner. It was the usual thing with Lester, bullock hug, wrestle and punch all ways, and Doran’s strength and condition were not equal to his skill. The gate did not even pay the £2OO purse, and the promoter lost iheavily ; which should he cT warning to people who butt, in and buy third or fourth-raters at lirst grade prices.

The absurdity of the “two judges and a referee” system was again made apparent at Melbourne Athletic Pavilion the other night, when Roy Ivenny easily outpointed Eddie Williams in 20 rounds. The referee, Mitchell, considered that the tall Yankee won, but he was overruled by the “judges.” The crowd was violently with Mitchell, hooting furiously at the decision, and it was some time before the place could be cleared.

At the Olympic Horse Show, the other day, the Canadian horse Confidence cleared 7ft 51-in in the jumping contest. It was a great feat truly to jump nearly 7ft 6in, but the American horse, Heatherbloom, it is recorded, jumped Bft 2in on October 20, 1905, at the New Norfolk Horse Show, Virginia, U.S.A. This may be like some of the galloping records made when the prads race “slightly downhill.” ' * * * The new style of wrestling is known as I ‘G otch-as-Gotch-Can. ’ ’ * * * Taking several sums of splosh out to the course to back different mokes for men in town is a thankless task, as many have experienced over the late race meeting. *. * * How some of these hard ancients still love a flutter on the back of a gee-gee! A jockey, 89 years of age, won a hack race at a Queensland meeting last week. He celebrated his victory later by basiling a publican, ana is now doing quod for fiercely resisting the police. The good, hard old stock—you can’t kill ’em with an axe.

“Peculiarities of flight have been cultivated by Hazlitt since he last visited England with the Australians, and he only bowls his fast ball very occasionally,” says an English paper. Hazlitt has undoubted “flighty” tendencies if he can have managed to have reached England previous to the present tour without anyone knowing of it.

“I wonder how many of the legions who play lawn tennis nowadays made even a passing note of the deatli of Major Wingfield last week,” says a London correspondent. And yet he was the inventor of the game.” Lawn tennis has undergone a certain amount of revision since Major Wingfield devised it. Nevertheless, if 99 people out of 100 were asked who was the originator of the game which lias given pleasure to thousands in all parts of the world, it is more than probable that they would be unable to give the the correct answer.

The value of boxing as part of a young man’s education cannot be too highly estimated. It teaches speed of the thought that impels and directs swift action, and action quick as the thought and in the best direction. This was vividly exemplified in the act of heroism by the Adamstown boxer, Will McCroary, for which he is to lie rewarded by a presentation next month (says Sydney Fair Play). The young fellow was a passenger by a tram from Broadmeadow last September when a girl child fell out of the car on to the down line. A swift glance showed McCroary that a down tram would be over her in one'second, an.l be acted as a clever boxer might be expected to. Dropping off the car he snatched the child, and just succeeded in side-stepping the other car as it shot over tire spot where she had lain the tenth of a second previously. So near a thing was it that the mother and the rest of the up-passengers thought that both babe and rescuer were under the other car till it glided past, and revealed McCroary standing just clear with the half-stunned little one in his arms.