Sports Review

>a Comes Up

fhting

From Reg Spowart, in Suva WA claims the Pacific’s only woman boxing promoter. She’s 48-year-old Fijian widow Ana 0, mother of four adult sons and daughters. na for 25 years has been pre nt of a Fiji-wide young women’s 1, the Matanisiga Club, but last : she decided that what the • needed was a new approach noney making.

Ve used to run dances, but they I’t pay,” she said. “But the club led money, and somebody told to try boxing promotion.” t first the club’s seven-women mittee wouldn’t hear of it. Fijian len had not taken up that kind iromotion before. But Ana con ed . them it was worth a try. ) Ana will head the club when akes over the new Matanisiga ing Stadium in Toorak, Suva, i the builders in February, will be the largest indoor box stadium in Fiji, and will fill a I that Suva has felt since the venue, the Lilac Theatre, was id to boxing last June, nee then, boxing tournaments i been held at other centres Viti Levu, Vanua Levu and 3uni. la has shrewdly recognised the I in Suva, and has gone on the scheme to construct the •ak stadium from a former dance id she’s not letting the grass r under her feet with the pro ng, either.

The heavyweight boxing cham pionship of Fiji has been in the offing for several years, since veteran Mike Ravula won it.

Mike has been loathe to accept any challengers because he says the purses have not been high enough; boxing promoters claim, however, that his figure is beyond the reach of promoters in the Colony.

Ana, with her feminine approach, seems to be making more headway with getting Ravula to change his mind.

“He wants £l5O for a bout, but I am trying to bring him down to £100”, she said, smiling.

“I think he’ll break soon!”

Ana has staged three fights in Viti Levu since she started promot ing in November.

A non-title bout between Ravula and Nasaku, a challenger from Nadi Airport, in mid-February, will officially open the new stadium.

Racing Stages a

Territory Comeback

STEPS to bring back “The Sport of Kings” are being made in different centres throughout Papua-New Guinea.

At present Rabaul holds race meetings fairly regularly.

Port Moresby, which boasted a race track before the war, hopes to stage regular meetings again on a new track which is nearing comple tion. It has held occasional ones since the war.

Now the latest move is for Lae to form a New Guinea Amateur Turf

Club. The club is drawing up its Constitution.

Meanwhile the chief racing in terest in Port Moresby still centres round the Australian meetings, which are broadcast on Saturday after noons.

French Champ for

Pacific Tour

From Fred Dunn, in Noumea FRANCE’S middleweight cham pion, New Caledonian born Frances Anewy has returned to Noumea from France, and plans a boxing tour of the Pacific.

Anewy says he intends to fight in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, there is a strong pos sibility that he will defend his title in Noumea against challenger Michel Diouf.

Fiji Girts on

The March

LAST September a girls’ marching team from Wellington went to Suva to take part in the Hibiscus Festival, and they caught the imagination of the locals with their precision drill.

If New Zealand can do it, why not Suva, they argued, and then they proceeded to do something about it.

Mrs. Matilda Wendt, a keen sportswoman, had a chat to Harry Charman, of boxing fame, and Harry agreed to coach the girls.

The first parade, held in secrecy at the Boys’ Grammar School in Suva, was more than moderately successful.

Mrs. Wendt pleaded for secrecy in the early stages for she feared that the girls, all of them a little shy, might become confused before

Abaul Races. But

[?] more leisurely pace, more leisurely days. early photograph [?]s a pre-war race meet [?] near Matupi, but the [?]se is not there any [?]. Racing is only now [?]ning to return to the [?]tory with any strength, new Rabaul race course [?] the other side of the our, southwards of [?]nt Vulcan.

ritical and cynical audience of ig men, and lose heart, ut initial worries over she and girls, with Harry coaching n are going ahead, and there already talk of inter-house

petitions.

e Ashes Were

npened

From Norman Baxter, in Suva ICKET enthusiasts in Fiji have little chance to see the ;ame played at an international , so they have decided to do ‘thing about it. A band of srs in Suva got together and led that England and Aus a could have > their mythical es”. ii would have its own dravusa an for ashes) and the com ion would not be confined to and and Australia only, but Zealanders would be invited in. one Sunday towards the end anuary the Kiwis set out to the Kangaroos’ tail at Suva’s rt Park. t they reckoned without Suva’s dous wet season, and after t an hour’s play, in which the ’s defied the Kangaroo attack ue sporting fashion, rain took md. e players braved the elements a short time, but eventually to take shelter under a big tree, where they waited hope for a break in the weather, the break never came, so the

“internationals” conssled them selves with a handy-sized keg of a new brew manufactured in Suva.

Arrangements are now in train for another game, weather per mitting, with the Lions growling in the sidelines, all ready with a challenge for the winner/

Indians May Make

A Fiji Tour

WINTER is still a long way off and while it may be odd to talk about winter sports at the height of a Fiji summer, in these days of international sports tours have to be arranged well ahead.

So even though it is early Feb ruary the Fiji Hockey Association, a new body (formed less than six months ago, and representing all races), is preparing to act as host to a team from India in the com ing winter.

A visit from an Indian team would be a great impetus to the game there as the Indians are re cognised as the best players in the world.

An Indian team is expected to visit New Zealand in the coming season, and the present proposal is that it return home the long way round, via Fiji.

Fiji hopes the visitors will play seven games in the Colony.

Cost, always a bugbear when talk ing about international sports tours in Fiji, should not be high, as the visitors will pay their own fares there.

Fiji will be up for internal travel and accommodation which is always billeting in Fiji.

Actually such a tour could result in a profit for Fiji for if No. 1 ground at Albert Park in Suva were enclosed there would be decent “gates” to see the visitors.

Last winter the ground was en closed twice and in each case the promoting sporting body made a handsome profit.

Maybe the Indians will not only be able to teach Fiji a little bit about hockey, but they might help to fill the coffers of the Fiji Hockey Asso ciation.

Lae Sets The Ball

Rolling Officially

From Pat Robertson, in Lae LAE has been suffering drought over the last few weeks —but on January 24 the Lae Bowling Club greens stood out like an oasis in a withered wilderness.

And they couldn’t have been greener at a riper time—for Jan uary 24 was the club’s official open ing.

District Commissioner Horne Niall sent along the first bowl after the jack had been set up by Associ ate president Mrs. Pat Farmer— and then it was officially “on” in Lae.

The secret of the green rinks was the club’s own supply of bore water.

Sprinklers were kept going night and day before the big occasion.

Now the club wants a new club house and a night green.