Summer Tournament

So Vic craps out again, while Otago wins the Easter Tournament Sheild.... for the eighth year in succession. Once more the relatively small groups of student sportsmen at Vic must languish in self-pity and mutter bitterly about 'apathy' and 'disinterest' within their university. For, the number of people who made themselves available for selection this year was again far too small; once more only the usual stalwarts were prepared to get off their arses and do things. It is a great pity that sports-wise there is little depth in most of our university clubs. Deep within a university of Vic's size there must be the sporting talent somewhere....

To what factors can Otago attribute its success? Undoubtedly the greater interest in sport generated by the Phys. Ed. and Med. Schools plays a large part in the development of sport within Dunedin's university. But perhaps it is more the spirit inherent in the activities of this university which constitutes the major factor for its successes on the sports field. Anyone associated with Otago in any way will know this.

The programme at Summer Tournament this year comprised twelve sports; Cricket, Tennis, Athletics, Rowing, Yachting, Shooting, Waterpolo, Swimming, Underwater Swimming, Volleyball, Billiards/Snooker, and Surfing. If you by any chance read the relevant issue of Salient, (pardon the presumption), you would know that Vic was represented in all but Surfing. It eventuated however that the Otago Underwater Club decided to forego competition because of recent shark scares, and so the underwarter team did not travel down either.

Nor did the Volleyball team, who pulled out at the last minute, without leaving time for another squad to be arranged.

Consequently, Vic had no representation in the surfriding, underwater and volleyball competitions; this is the main reason for the gap between Otago (who finished with 54 points) and Vic, who finished third with 20 points. (Canterbury Uni totalled 25 points and so came second overall.)

Perhaps the best feature of Tournament from our point of view was the success of the cricket team, who won their competition by consistent playing of bright, positive sport. They were rewarded by having four players selected for the N.Z. Universities Eleven; these players were Richard Priest, Tim Druce, Peter Reid and John Greenwood. The success of the cricket team was especially heartening after their disappointing showing last season.

Socially the Tournament was from all accounts a big success! (Even our revered police force joined in the fun on the way down.) And, despite our mediocre showing, we still finished third, and so our team must be congratulated for the manner in which they approached Easter Tournament 1971. And so must Otago Uni be congratulated for the hospitable and well organised way in which they ran it. The results for each of our teams were:

Athletics:

Though the athletics team was the smallest for some years, it gained third place in the mens' competition and some creditable individual placings.

Victoria took first two places in the mens high jump with Colin Banks and national champion Ian Finlay-son, while veteran tournament performer Graeme Sutherland, threw (the shot) just under 38 feet to win the shot put. Phil Kear ran .3 sec. inside the N.Z.U. blues standard to win the 400 metres, but later in the afternoon was beaten into second place in the 200 metres by Otago's Terry Morrison, who repeated his last Year's double by also winning the 100 metres.

Both relay teams (4 × 100 metres, and 4 × 400 metres) gained third places and harrier rep, Eric Cairns ran a creditable third in the 10,000 metres.

Mary Belsey the solitary woman member of Vic's team, hurdled well to take second place in the 100 metres hurdles.

Ian Finlayson, Colin Banks and Phil Kear were selected to compete for N.Z.U. against an Australian Universities team on Easter Monday. Since the visiting team was given the choice of events, the Australians were able to almost completely dominate the test match. A notable exception was a very powerful run by Auckland's Wayne Madden in the 800 metres to win in an N.Z.U. record time of 1 minute 49.8 seconds.

An impromptu meeting held in conjunction with the test saw several more fine performances from Vic athletes. Most notable were Bernie O'Donnell's win in the 400 metres hurdles and Bruce Batten's run in the 800 metres, with one of the fastest time by a New Zealand junior this season.

Rifle Shooting:

Vic's team left with high hopes of bringing back the Haslam Shield so rudely swiped by Massey last year, and with a team of considerable combined experience we were in a good position to do so. However, Massey were able to produce virtually a repetition of last year's top-scoring team, and the battle was on.

The Pelichet Bay range provided excellent conditions for Vic's John Whiteman to open the scoring with a possible 50 at 300yds, but Massey were able to get 10 points ahead by the end of the 300 yds. But then two 50's, from Whiteman and Neville Wynn, helped reduce Massey's lead to only 5 after 500 yds., and the first 100yd. shoot in the afternoon put Vic ahead by 2 points. Whether it was the pressure, or just the night before, Vic cracked up at this stage, though it was anybody's match till the last shooters. However the second 600 yd. shoot gave Massey a total of 1123 (1200 possible), Vic 1114, Otago 1076, Lincoln 1027 (Canterbury's team was incomplete).

Top scorer for the day was J. Whiteman, with 197 (200 possible), with J. McLaren (Massey) on 195 and M. Adlam (Canterbury) on 189.

An N.Z.U. team was selected to shoot on Monday, against an Otago Assn. team which wasn't able to turn up, and a North v South Universities match was held simultaneously.

Remaining Vic shooters N. Wynn, M. Apthorp and K. McGregor shot for North Island (1449) which lost to South Island (1474).

Although not victorious in the shooting the team were fully represented in all social events, special credit going to Jim McKinlay for helping Massey to not win the Drinking Horn, after a busy morning during which Vic won the Canterbury University Newts Trophy for the fastest drinking shooters.

Congratulations are also due on the award of N.Z.U. Blues to John Whiteman (Vic) and John McLaren (Massey), while still under consideration at time of writing are Jim McKinlay (Vic) and Ian Warrington (Massey).

Billiards and Snooker:

This year, for the first time in the history of Easter Tournament, billiards and snooker were included in the itinarary, but only as "Invitation Sports". In other words, the points tally for these games did not count in the final total of each university.

An eight man team represented Vic and it is interesting to note that they were billeted above the Capt. Cook Hotel. However this devious piece of sabotage by the Otago organisers Failed!

Victoria excelled itself in both sports. We won the snooker with a total of 1,056 points; Otago was the nearest rival with 952 points. Vic also won the billiards, Otago again running out in second place. Bill Marshall, of the billiards team, managed 215 points in one hour, and both B. Bridson and Greg Keene won all their four snooker games.

Cricket:

So the final points were:

Victoria 45.87, Lincoln 39.21, Otago 33.71, Auckland 30.76, Canterbury 25.28, Massey 21.95.

The Victoria Team was:

J. Fluker (capt.). R. Priest, T. Druce, M. Brown, N. Kenning, P. Reid, R. Deyell. I. Storkey, T. Shand, J. Greenwood, P. Beaven, N. Thorne.

Congratulations to the only Vic team to gain a first placing.

Yachting

The yachting events were held on Otago harbour, in reasonable conditions conducive to good yachting. Victoria's Gary Coleman did very well by scoring three wins, a second and a third in the five races held for the Moth class. He won this class, second place going to Otago, and third to Canterbury.

The Cherubs team from Victoria. R. Dykes and P. Taylor, came fourth in that class, after three third and two fourth placings.

The overall points tally showed Otago 1st, Victoria 2nd, and Auckland 3rd.

Swimming

Although Victoria was not too successful in the swimming, this part of Tournament was interesting because several N.Z.U. records were broken. Besides Canterbury University's national champion A. Kindred slashing 7.3 secs, off the 440 yds. free style, other records broken were: 220 yds. medley relay - Otago; 2mins. 6.2 secs. 110 yds. freestyle M. Borrie; 57.5 secs. 110 yds. butterfly - M. Toomey; 1min. 2.6 secs. 220 yds. medley - B. Bond; 2 mins. 29.6 secs. Women's 220 yd. freestyle - H. Cambridge; 2mins. 39.2 secs.

All these record breakers represented Otago University. N. Hope of Victoria came third in the 110 yds. butterfly, the 110 yds. backstroke and the 220 yds. medley. Miss C. Spoor, also of Vic, came third in both the 220 yds. women's medley, and the women's 110 yds. breaststroke, while M. Haymen scored a second placing in the 110 yds. breaststroke.

Otago took the swimming shield, with Canterbury a close second.

Water Polo

Victoria's team featured in some good games here; perhaps the best was our beating of the Massey team, 11-3. B. Britten, G. Stevens, and M. McKinley all won berths in the N.Z.U. rep. waterpolo team. Our loss to Auckland, 5 goals to 3, meant that once again we had to accept second placing to Otago, with whom we drew 1-1.

Rowing

Vic was at a big disadvantage here, for the rowing team had only been formed three weeks before Tournament and so was not in the best of conditions for competition. Because the various teams had not practiced together very much, their performance suffered at Dunedin, where they came up against some very fit and experienced opposition. However, the ladies novice fours must be congratulated for their third placing in the Ladies 1000m. invitation Fours!

In scoring its victory at Easter Tournament, Otago won in tennis, water polo, swimming, and yachting, and gained a third placing in the cricket, to give it another easy shield win. Canterbury retained their second placing by finishing runners-up to Otago in the tennis and swimming, and third in the water polo. Vic did creditibly to win the cricket and take second placings in the water polo and yachting, and thence finish third, our best effort for some time.

The Vic contingent wish to thank Otago for making the Tournament such a success, and for giving us such a good time.