1938-08-17 — Page 21

THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 17, 1938.

South Africa-Land Of Sport

National Sport

Is Rugby: Captain's 100 Mile Journey

Binding The Ties Of

Empire

(By R. MAILLARD STEAD)

London.

modern conditions, has been to de centralise, as other Empires have done before. Neither do you need to be particularly close student of sport to preceive that a strong tendency of sport is to bring people together for purposes in which the proverblay man in the street has an apparently insatiable interest,

games held after the War (at Ant warp, Belgium, in 1920)-is one the four Olympic running champions of produced by South Africa so far. The

LEAD TO UNDERSTANDING. other three are Reggie Walker, 100- In an age of increasing enlighten- meter winner at London in 1908; ment, bringng with it the insistent Kenneth McArthur, Marathon winner desire for self-determination, the ut Stockholm in 1912, and S. J. M. only tenable basis for Empire is un- Atkinson, victor over the 110-meter derstanding, and it would be hard, hurdles at Amsterdam in 1928.

therefore, to overstimate the impor- Rudd, resident in England for tance of the Empire's sporting con- many years, has worked hard in the tacts, effected by interchange of visits, cause of international sport. As such as the one paid to South Africa president of the Oxford University by the British Rugger men just now,

IN the places where British Rugger men fore- immediately after the War, and occasioned in very striking man-

gather-which is a great many places indeed- the talk these days is of South Africa. Or, to be quite accurate, of the British Rugby Football team

he did foster. introllegiate ner by the British Empire Games competition between the track and instituted at Hamilton, Ontario, field athletes of Britain and those of Canada, in 1930 and staged since at the United States, as well as between London in 1984 and Sydney, New sportsmen of Britain and those of the South Wales, Australia, early this Empire overseas.

year.

to certainly help to lift the phrase "Em- perceive that the tendency of the pire kinship" above the sphere of

which is now in South Africa, engaged on a three larly close student of sociology

You do not need to be a particu Contacts-frequent and friendly- months' tour under the honorary managership of British Empire, under the stress of easy platitudes. that cheery and popular figure on the administra- tive side of the game here, Maj. B. C. Hartley.

It would not be right to call the team really representative, be- cause some of the outstanding Rugger characters here were unable to make the journey; but it is a strong side all the same and, by the time they have played together for a few weeks they should give the South Africans plenty to think about in the three "tests" matches arranged—the first at Johannesburg, on August 6; (South Africa won this one by 26 points to 12) the second at Port Elizabeth, on September 3, and the last at Cape Town, on September 10.

South Africa awaits these, Wales, and France and lost only to games with impatience. For, as that of Scotland. possibly you know, Rugger is It may seem curious that in a coun- "the" South African sports

try where there is summer weather in- for nine months of the year, the most terest. And when 15 "Spring- popular game should be one designed bóks" play an international match for the British winter. But I think it is, for a very big section of you can trace to this very adaptation some of the reasons why South Afri- their countrymen, not merely a cans play Rugger so well. You see, football game but an affair in their grounds are hard and dry and which the honour of the nation the ball is seldom greasy. Which ex- plains why they have developed pace, is at stake.

accuracy of passing, and kicking power to an extent seldom equalled by players trained on the often muddy fields of the British Isles.

Defeats in other branches of sport --even in cricket-can be borne with something like equanimity; but to go under at Rugger-that is another, and much more disturbing matter,

The main cause of the South Afri- cans's success, however, is their in- FRUITS OF ENTHUSIASM tense keenness to play. In a country Now this enormous enthusiasm for of the "wide open spaces" that the the game has caused South Africans novelists delight to dwell upon so af- to excel at it internationally, The en-fectingly, it is often extremely diffl- time white population of the country cult for a man to get his game on a to-day is not more than one fifth of Saturday afternoon. the population. of London; yet more than a quarter of a-century ago, South Africa was able to send to Britain a Rugger team which defeated the na- tional sides of England, Ireland,

AUSTRALIAN'S POOR BATTTING AT SWANSEA

(Continued from Page 19)

But he gets it. Even if it means as I am told it does in the case of Philip Nel, captain of the Springboks on tour in Australia and New Zea-

·land last summer—a ride of 100 miles on horseback.

CRICKET AND BASEBALL Mind you, I am not suggesting that the South Africans are a one-sport nation. Far from it. Their record in test-match cricket is long and honour- able and the last team that they sent to England in 1935 went away as victor in a series of five engagements with the pick of the Motherland's talent.

At the start of the twentieth century, the only "official" test-match playing countries were England and Australia. South Africa then joined them, and since the World War the 27 West Indies, New Zealand and India 58 have all been lifted to the same crie- 22 keting status.

On Monday, more than 23,000 people paid well over £2,500 for ad- mission. Both these figures con- stituted a-record for any one of first-class cricket in Wales.

GLAMORGAN-First Innings Dyson, c Bradman, b Waite Davies (E.), c Walker, b Waite... Brierley, e Barnes, b Waite Davies (D.), e Brown, b Waite M. J. Turnbull, st. Walker, b White Smart, not out

Extras

Total for five wickets

(Innings declared closed).

AUSTRALIANS-First Innings

11 America's national sport, baseball, 11 has also an enthusiastic following in 8 South Africa. It has been played at 11 Johannesburg, more or less, principal- ly the latter, since 1896 but in the past 10 years it has made a specta- cular advance and has become estab- lished in the schools. A -South Afri-

148

W. A. Brown, c Dyson, b Davies (E.) 8 can Baseball Association was founded

J. H. Fingleton, c Davies (H.), b

Wooller

at Bloemfontein in 1984, the number

1 of clubs increases all the while

In

D. G. Bradman, st. Davies (H), bterprovincial contests attract, thousands

Clay.

A. L. Hassett, not out!

S. Barnes, not out

Extras

Total for three wickets

BOWLING ANALYSIS: Glamorgan-First Innings

M'Cormick

Walte

White

Mercer

17 of spectators, and, one way and in.

26 other the game in South Afric

5 to have a big future. :

To summarise the rest of

Africa's main sporting preoccupa one would cite soccer football, played and watched with much zest; track and field athletics; boxing; golf; lawn water 0. M. R. W. tennis, bowls; field hockey; 4 2 480. polo; swimming, and yachting. 36.1 17 4541. Andito, hint at the International

49 23 10.

eminence South-AfricanTM stars' have Wained one need mention merely the names of Mrs. Heine Miller and N. Q. Farquharson (lawn, tennis), A., D.

M'Cormick bowled one no-ball,

Australian First Innings

Wooller penden

Clay

Davies (E) Jones

Mercer bowled two wide

1

1 Locke and B. F. Brew" (golf), and B. G. D. Raid (track and Beld) an

OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS Rudd-winner of the championship in the first

400-meter

Olympic

Voted the BEST"

by

POPULARITY

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For 280 years BEEHIVE BRANDY

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