Sports Review

i7/i/a Puts Her

i t Foot Forward

ALKING can be regarded as a r pastime, a necessity, and a i sport. It comes into the latter •o-ory at the Olympic Games, lire Games, national games,, 5 so on. . , rhen it comes to tramping 1.000

c 3 from John O’Groats, the

rhernmost point on the main of Scotland, to Lands End in jiwall, walking seems to come another category, especially [;hose in the tropics where going a mile on “Shank’s Pony” can in ordeal. obody knows what classification , Lavinia Whippy gave walk r when she recently set out on [l,OOO-mile trek, which was part , holiday camp publicity stunt, ilously she had no intention of ning the walk for when she tied Edinburgh she was 200 ; s behind the leaders, iss Whippy, aged 24, from nunu, Vanua Levu, Fn, is at 3ent in the United Kingdom -ling the finer arts of tailoring, ore she left Fiji in 1958 she was jell-known Suva dressmaker, ne long distance behind the ?ers at Edinburgh did not worry mia in the slightest. Bravely i commented, “I don’t mind tak my time on this walk. I love country. I want to see as [:h of it as I can. I could die n her own say-so walking could classed as a pastime, but who :o say she will not organise a nd-Viti Levu hike on her re ii? nt a long walk may be all right ,:he United Kingdom. When it ies to the tropics, even in ter, it is a subject to make one jpire at the thought.

osese is a

oblem Child

,JIAN heavyweight boxer, Mosese Varisikete is something of a problem child to his man t, Mr. C. A. (Gerry) Adams, » took him off to New Zealand icuple of months ago to fight ori, “Sonny” Pehi, and others. ;ehi, for some reason or other, :cked Mosese out in the sixth id, something he had never done an opponent before. What went mg with Mosese his manager mot explain. His charge had a d reception in the Dominion.

He had a weight advantage of about 16 lb over the Maori, plus much more experience, and “on paper ” looked a racecourse cer tainty. The betting had him that way for he started at odds on. But even racecourse certainties have been known to become unstuck.

A couple of pictures published in a New Zealand weekly showed Mosese on the canvas, smiling broadly.

Adams asserts that Mosese was not hurt, which makes his loss more difficult to explain.

Maybe he was suffering from home-sickness. He has not done himself much good, for apart from the loss against Pehi he called off a couple of fights Adams had up liis sleeve But Mosese did not want to stay in Maoriland. He wanted to get back to his village home at Nadi and perhaps dream of his 1959 victories over Tongan Kitione Lave.

Yet once back in Lautoka in early April Mosese took on heavyweight Sakiusa Cawaru in a non-title 10round bout. Up till the eighth, Sakiusa shaded Mosese, and Mosese was once knocked down for almost the full count. But in the opening of the ninth Mosese delivered a stinging right to Sakiusa’s head which sent Sakiusa off to hospital.

Mosese won on a tko.

He's a Patron of

Fiji Sport

From Norman Baxter, in Suva SPORTS bodies in Fiji could not be called wealthy organisations by any stretch of imagination— in fact some of them are so poor that it is amazing that they are able to conduct any sport at all.

The Fiji Cricket Association is no exception, yet only a couple of months ago it was able to undertake an ambitious tour of NSW which was likely to cost more than £3,000 for transport alone, and Fiji had to foot that bill.

Fortunately for cricket a Suva lover of the game, ex-Australian Les Martin, came to light with a guarantee sufficient to cover these costs. Away went the team with everybody’s good wishes and Mr.

Martin’s money.

But Les was not worried. In fact he was so thrilled with the early performances of the team he con fessed he would not be concerned if repayment took 20 years. It gave him and the team a great deal of pleasure when Les was able to at tend the match at Gosford while

the benefactor was on one of his frequent visits to his homeland.

His generosity did not begin with the tour, nor has it ended there.

He has offered to guarantee the Fiji Rugby Union the cost of a new club house in Suva, and this will cost £2,000 or £3,000, and he is likely to have to wait a long time for any return. . , . , He encouraged Suva cricket by offering trophies for the best per formances during a season. A few years ago when the first Fiji rugby tour of Australia was in the offing the impoverished Australian Rugby Union was unable to come to a de cision because they feared a heavy drain on funds. Les finally offered to put up the guarantees himself.

Les is recognised through and through as a sportsman —he has proved this many times over the years. He must have been able to take it on the chin, for only last year, in spite of all he had done for rugby, the Suva Rugby Union unceremoniously dumped him from the office of president. Men of his calibre are needed if sport is to continue to flourish in Fiji.

Nothing Racial

About Basketball

SOME interest was caused in Port Moresby in March when it be came known that the Port Moresby Basketball Association had rejected applications by two native teams to play in the European competition.

Five clubs voted for the decision and five against, but the Associa tion considered eight “yes” votes were needed for approval. Somehow, as a result of this, the suggestion grew outside that racial discrimina tion had something to do with the decision.

This was strongly denied by the Association president, the Rev. D. E.

Ure. He said the only thing that had stopped the applications being approved was that the standard of the native basketball was not high enough.

Mr. Ure is secretary of the Lon don Missionary Society in Port Moresby and has very long ex perience and has done distinguished work among natives of the Terri tory. Coming from him, the state ment was guarantee enough that this was no matter of racial dis crimination.

However, a club official said later that integrated sports com petitions had not worked in other parts of Papua-New Guinea. “Once native teams are admitted fights and squabbles break out among the clubs and associations break up,” he said. “This happened in Lae in the Rugby League competition not long ago and as a result no one plays rugby”.