24
Sport and Recreation
WORLD-WIDE recognition came to Hong Kong in 1963 through one of the Colony's least-practised activities-motor racing, when Albert Poon beat a powerful field of crack Asian and British drivers to carry off the Malaysia Grand Prix and the M$3,000 'Esso' trophy. Driving a new Lotus 23 which he saw for the first time when it was taken off the ship in Singapore, he covered the 180-miles Malaysia course in 2 hours 37 minutes 46 seconds, beating the previous best time by 11 minutes 38.4 seconds, with an average speed of 72 mph. Shortly afterwards, three other local racing drivers--Don Bennett, Dr Henry Lee and Arthur Pateman -competed in the inaugural meeting of the Japanese Grand Prix and carried off some minor honours. Poon later completed an excellent double by winning the Johore Grand Prix in the same car. Experts consider him to be the finest Asian racing driver in the area.
Go Kart racing was introduced in Hong Kong with much success and two Interports were held, one in Hong Kong and the other in Manila; on each occasion the home team triumphed.
Interest in the Far Eastern golf circuit continues to gain mo- mentum and the 1963 Hong Kong Open attracted another star field of golfers from as far away as South Africa and the United States. But it was a golfer from the Far East who carried off the top money awards. Hsieh Yung-yo, a 28-year old professional from Taiwan, showing brilliant form on the green, returned 272 for the 72-hole tournament-14 under par. Asian golfers in fact occupied four of the first five places. Tomoo Ishii of Japan was second with 275; Chen Ching of Taiwan and Peter Thomson of Australia tied for third place with totals of 276 and Hsieh Min- nam, a brilliant young amateur from Taiwan, captured fifth place with 277.
It was an important year for Colony football. Leading soccer officials made resolute efforts to raise the status of the game to