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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 28, No. 5. 1965.

[Monday continued]

9.40am: The VUW and AU teams took to the courts and battle commenced. VUW built up an early lead to be five goals ahead at halftime. AU staged a comeback and VUW began to fall apart until captain Lyn Almond managed to get her team functioning efficiently again, and VUW eventually won 26-24. Apart from the closeness of the game, some interest was provided by the dirty indoor basketball tricks used by the VUW goal shooter and the AU goal keeper.

11.40am: VUW played their final tournament game, against MUM. VUW dropped behind on points then made a valiant effort to draw level. By this time the heat was enough to give the spectators sunburn, and the VUW team in the ridiculous regulation costume were visibly wilting. The VUW defence ran out of energy and MUM ran out the winners, 39-27. OU had beaten AU and CU both quite comfortably and were thus clear overall winners. MUM withdrew because two of their team were ineligible, so VUW wound up second in their best performance in years.

1.45pm: After a slow, crowded bus trip out we arrived at Lincoln to watch the athletics. We ran into Murray Boldt, and after we picked ourselves up he informed us in his usual inimical manner that he expected VUW to win 10 of the 20 events on the programme. If you think that last sentence was long wait for this one. Alan Osborne won the 100 yds, with A. Robinson third, Gillian Davies added to her personal points tally with a second in the long jump, Brian Milne demonstrated his tactical superiority to win a fast half-mile, Osborne won the 220yds, Chris Corry took third in the triple jump. Jane Corry did likewise in the discus. Brian Collins topped timber fast enough to win the 120yds hurdles, Brian Matthews was third in the 440yds, Murray Boldt managed a third in the 220 hurdles, and both the 4 x 110 female relay and the 4 x 440 male relay were won by VUW.

Penny Haworth in the 220yd not only won the event in a tight finish from A. Tong of AU but took 0.9sec off the NZU record; she thus deserves a special mention. Miss Haworth's anchor leg in the relay was a decisive factor in VUW's win, as was the third lap of the 4 x 440 by Osborne.

A special event, the three-legged race, caused much hilarity. Alistair Taylor and Helen Sutch of NZUSA, and Gorden Hewitt and Pat Grieg of NZUSU, were entrants, and it was felt that the winner should get the most money of the NZUSA levy. Hewitt and Grieg made a good start, but being in front went to their heads and the co-ordination went out of their feet, and over they went. The steadiness of Taylor and Sutch thus won the day, to the disappointment of the assembled NZUSU delegates.

VUW came out winners on the final points tally with a total of 80 compared to OU 67, CU 61, and AU 47. Murray Boldt won his flagons and was obviously considering his chances as a professional punter.

5.52pm: After another slow bus ride through the raceday traffic, including a stop at the Carlton to let off the Drinking Horn team, we found ourselves back at the University. The Canta staff were looking pretty tired; ever since Tournament began they had been cyclostyling vast quantities of material for NZSPA, doing most of the reporting themselves, and being extremely co-operative to other student journalists.

7.12pm. Time for the records room again. A pleasant surprise was in store. The VUW cricket team had taken the advice of the Duke of Edinburgh and beaten MUM on the first innings. AU and CU had draws against CAC and OU respectively. Aggregate points were OU 20, CU 12, VUW, MUM, CAC 10, AU 7 with one more game each to be played.

8.05pm We found Malcolm Buchanan of the VUW Volleyball Club. He seemed rather pleased with himself, so we presumed that VUW had won the volleyball. Malcolm begged to differ— winning was too weak a word. He preferred the term annihilation.

We knew that VUW had had a two-point lead after the first round. We also knew that the VUW side had discovered that their book of rules was inaccurate and had had to change their style of play. That morning the team had finally sorted themselves out. They lost only one set and increased their lead to 12 points. Unfortunately, volleyball was only an introductory sport and didn't count towards the Tournament Shield, but this victory shows how strong the sport has become at VUW.

8.20. Our AU yachting friend passed by, so we chased after him for the sailing results. VUW were still consistently last. In the fifth and final race OU took their third win and the yachting championship. CU were third in this race and second overall since AU were disqualified in the third race after a protest was lodged by CU.

With a further three events decided—yachting, athletics, outdoor basketball—OU were closing in on CU for the Tournament Shield. Progress points were CU 30, OU 28, VUW 18, AU 8, MUM and CAC 0.

9.35pm: Off we go to the Tournament Ball. A comment from Ross Martin, which just about sums up this supposedly high-class formal affair; "This isn't a Ball, it's a shabby tournament hop."