Volley Ball

Canterbury won all their matches to win tournament Volleyball. Second was Victoria and third Otago.

The standard of play was unexpectedly high with many fine individual performances to be seen. Not only were Canterbury strong individually, but their teamwork won the admiration of all who saw them play.

Both the A and B New Zealand Universities' Teams beat the Wellington teams and this in itself was an indication of the standard of University Volleyball. The sport being new to New Zealand, is strong among new New Zealanders and these people were predominant in the Wellington teams. They had all played the sport overseas and had gained representative honours.

Such was the success of this sport at tournament that negotiations are now under way to hold an open tournament in Christchurch next May. This should prove to be a major step in the development of the sport in New zealand.

In the first day's play, Canterbury won three games, Victoria A two, Otago one, and Victoria B nil. The playoff on Monday saw Canterbury beat Victoria A three sets to nil and then Victoria A beat Otago two sets to one.

Cricket to Otago

After live days of near perfect playing conditions, Otago ran out winners of the cricket section of tournament. Canterbury, who won the tournament at Dunedin last year, needed an outright win in the final round to repeal their success, but after they had scored 220, Auckland batted soundly enough to prevent an outright decision.

Massey emerged as the surprise of the series when they filled second place ahead of Canterbury. In their final match with Otago Massey scored 116. Morton scoring 53 of these. But the Massey bowling held little terror for the Otago batsmen, and with Hutchison in fine form, the Massey total was soon overhauled.

Hutchison, who earlier scored an excellent 101 against Auckland, was perhaps the outstanding batsman of tournament, but fine performances were also registered by Plunket Shield players Garrod and Mitchell.

These two players were particularly aggressive against Lincoln, Mitchell scoring 69 including 5 fours and 5 sixes and Garrod being not out 72 when Canterbury declared at 254 for 3. Their partnership put on 122 runs in 81 minutes.

Much was expected in the match between Lincoln and Massey for the Mike Martin Memorial Cup, after Lincoln had won on the last ball of the game at their last meet, but the match petered out to a draw, after rain had rendered the pitch completely docile. Still attractive batting was seen by Gleeson and Armstrong for Lincoln.

Victoria did not fare particularly well in the series, and this can probably be attributed to lack of genuine pace in the attack. G. Gewland was sorely missed by his team, and his illness prevented him from playing in all but the final two rounds of play. In his absence Bibby and Beban both bowled well.

For Otago Plunket Shield player Matatamumua was the outstanding bowler, turning in good performances against Lincoln and Auckland. He was ably assisted at the bowling crease by Hutchison and Ellis, the latter being responsible for the rout of Massey in the final match.

Tennis

Otago won the tennis competition with wins in the women's team event and singles. Victoria managed a second placing largely on its win over Otago in the men's team final. Canterbury closely followed, gaining most of its points by reaching the final of the women's team matches.

The games were staged at Khandallah after a slight delay caused by intermittent rain.

Men: In the first round of the teams events Massey beat Lincoln four matches to two. The two agricultural Colleges produced a high standard but it was Massey who gained the edge from a clear cut doubles win.

Canterbury decisively beat Waikato six matches to love in the other first round. Victoria topped Massey 5-1 and Otago gained the same result from Canterbury.

Victoria and Otago were thus left to contest the final. This match proved most exciting with matches even at two-all. Victoria gained the edge after this to win seven sets to six.

Women: Auckland proved too strong for Waikato as did Canterbury over Massey. Both won six matches to love. In the semi-finals Otago beat Auckland in a dramatic encounter by 58-53. Canterbury defeated Victoria in the other semi-final by four matches to two.

Otago faced Canterbury in the final which turned out to be yet another even encounter. Otago won 53 games to 42 after matches and sets were even. Here it was Otago representatives Carol Johnstone and Marilyn Vent who ensured Otago's victory, with, fine exhibitions of tennis.

In the individual events, the men's final was contested between Graham Boddy (Lincoln) and Jim Martin (Canterbury). This match proved to be disappointing. Martin winning 6-0, 6-2. The margin of defeat was perhaps not realistic as Boddy had played some extremely good tennis to reach the final.

In the women's singles, the No. two player for Otago Marylin Vent won the final. She beat Hapgood (Canterbury) 6-2, 6-3. Hapgood made the final unexpectedly, after a gruelling semi-final against the Otago No. one, Johnson, only to go down to Vent.

Results: Otago 1, Victoria 2 Canterbury 3.

Swimming

Three new records were set in an otherwise mediocre display of swimming at the Naenae pool over Easter. As well another record was unofficially broken by G. Ruzio-Saban in a special time-trial.

Arriving too late for the 220 yards men's breastroke on Saturday morning Ruzio-Saban of Auckland persuaded the swimming organisers to allow him a time-trial at the completion of the morning's swimming. In this trial he easily bettered T. Graham's record time of 2min 49.8 secs, but was not allowed to receive official recognition for it because it was not set during actual competition. On Monday evening, he won the 110 yards breastroke event for Auckland and in doing this established a new NZU record with a time of 1 min 15.8 secs.

In the 440 yards Men's freestyle. G. Dempsey of Massey won the event and set a new NZU record of 4 min 55 secs. The previous record of 4 min 56.4 secs was held by B. A. Crowder (Wellington). Dempsey, the National title-holder for the 1650 yards and 440 yards events, is also the Junior Beltman titleholder and a member of the National Surf Team. His time in winning the 220 yards Freestyle was 2 min 14.7 secs, well behind Walker's 1966 record of 2 min 11.5 secs.

In winning the 220 yards Men's Medley Relay for the first time in tournament history, Massey set a new New Zealand Universities record of 2 min 9.1 secs. Previous record of 2 min 11.4 secs was set by Otago in 1965.

Otago again ran out the overall winners with a total of 73 points. Second equal were Auckland and Massey with 33 points, fourth Victoria with 31 and fifth Canterbury with 4 points. Results of the swimming and water polo follow.

Basketball

Once again Otago emerge from Easter as the Champions of University Basketball. Leaving in their wake sore knees, frustrated hopes and demoralised opposition the Otago lassies proved conclusively that in order to succeed without really trying, all that is needed is a little skill and a lot of teamwork.

For the other teams at tournament the first day was spent in bewilderment, the second (Sunday) in discussion and Monday, the third, in implementation. As the teamwork and combination improved so did the performances, but all too late to make any impression on the tournament domination of the Otago ladies.

Waikato, competing for the first time at tournament Basketball, beat Auckland University and saw their goalkeeper, J. Rawson selected for the North in the North v South trial game. From this trial she went on to play for New Zealand Universities in their match against the Wellington team.

Wellington won this game by a single goal after a half-time score of 12 all. The final score was 18-17. This was, however, a creditable performance by NZU as every player in that team had already played two games within the last five hours, besides it being the last day of tournament.

The New Zealand Universities team was: R. Reynolds, K. Howard and P. Dallas (reserve) from Victoria; R. Johnson and C. MacDonald of Otago; A. Lees, Canterbury, and J. Rawson. Waikato.

Otago finished tournament with a total of 10 points, followed by Canterbury with 8, Victoria 6, Massey 4, Waikato 2 and Auckland nil.

Quality Athletics

Fine weather, spoiled only by a light wind, made possible two days of quality athletics. The light wind, never much in excess of 4ft to 5ft per second over that allowable for the setting of records, affected only the sprints. It was for this reason that, although the competition was there and good times were recorded, only three new records were set.

On Saturday a new men's discus record of 164ft 1in was recorded. This was by Canterbury's P. Crawford, last year's champion, who bettered R. Ball's 1960 record by 6ft 11in.

G. Moore, Victoria, equalled the current record of 12ft in the pole vault event. This record, set last year by Woodcock of Otago, is still one foot short of the NZU standard.

Monday saw the women's discus record of nine years' standing bettered by 1ft 1in. B. Walker of Otago with a throw of 128ft 10in exceeded the NZU standard by 10in.

The third new record was B. Walker's second at the meeting. With a throw of 111ft 9in she broke the women's javelin record, set in 1957 by N. Westling, of 109ft 4½in. The NZU standard is 124ft.

In a close finish to the 120yds hurdles final, M. Grover. Victoria, was placed first, ahead of A. Cranshaw, Otago, and R. Rhoades, Auckland. These three all recorded the same time of 15.9sec. This was .7 of a second slower than the present record set in 1955 and equalled in 1958.

Only Victoria women to gain placings at the meeting were Pat Winslade and Rosemary Askin. Pat came second to Auckland's Adrienne Tong in the 440yds event with a time of 60.9sec. The winner's time was 58.5sec. In the 220yds she was again second. Her time in this race was 26.5sec, 3sec behind the winner, L. Watt, of Papatoetoe.

Rosemary Askin, with a time of 11.2sec, came second in the 100yds Open to Lorraine Tong. Auckland, who ran the distance in 11.0sec.

In the women's 4 × 110yds relay, however, Victoria ran out clear winners with a time of 50.3sec. Second was Otago and third, Auckland. Victoria won this event last year with a record time of 49.6sec.

The men won the men's 4 × 110yds relay. In a close finish they beat Massey and Otago.

It was a different story in the 4 × 440yds when Victoria were lucky to come third after Canterbury were disqualified at the final baton change Otago were first with Auckland second.

The results of the Women's Athletic Shield were:

Otago, 48 points, 1st.

Auckland, 30 points, 2nd.

Victoria, 8 points, 3rd.

Canterbury, 4 points, 4th.

Otago and Canterbury both collected 49 points in the Men's Championship Shield. However, with six wins to Otago's five, Canterbury this year took the shield from Otago. Third was Victoria with 30 points, fourth Auckland with 26 points, and fifth Massey with 25 points.