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Athletic Club.

Once more the Club is able to chronicle a very successful season. The Club is still practically as weak as ever numerically, but at least it has the quality.

The Inter-Faculty Sports were held this year at Kelburn Park, and the gathering proved very successful. C. B. Allan is to be congratulated on establishing new figures for the half-mile flat. He is, however, capable of much better time still, and we hope to see him bring the figures down to two minutes before long. T. P. Rollings is also to be congratulated on winning the mile walk in record time; and also F. W. C. Jones on establishing a record in the Shot-putting. Both of these men should improve very considerably in the next year or two. The Oram Cup for most points was won by G. J. Sceats, whose performances during the afternoon were most meritorious, despite the fact that he seemed to be dogged by ill-luck. In the high jump he failed at 5ft. 6in., but immediately afterwards jumped 5ft. 8¼in., which is considerably better than the existing record.

Unfortunately, the Club was forced to hold the Sports at a time when four of our best men were away, viz: Leadbetter, Kalaugher and McIntosh at Dunedin competing in the N.Z. Championships, and D. L. Jackson at Dannevirke, otherwise we feel sure that more new records would have been established.

At last we have been successful in bringing the N.Z. Athletic Shield back to V.U.C. For the past 4 years, we have been running very close seconds to Otago, but this year we made no mistake, winning the Shield with 20 points to Otago's 14. We were, however, beaten by Otago for the Relay Cup, which has been held by us for four years. Our congratulations to Otago. D. L. Jackson covered himself with glory by winning the mile walk in the record time of 6 minutes 46 2-5 seconds. Rollings was particularly unfortunate in being disqualified for breaking after coming in second. In the mile and 3 miles flat races, Priestley struck a very hard proposition in Taylor of C.U.C. who beat him by a very narrow margin in both races. C. B. Allan and E. B. Smith collected all the points in both the 880 and 440 flat. It was particularly gratifying to see Smith win the 440 and gain 2nd place in the 880. He thoroughly deserved his success. Sceats established a new record in the high jump by winning at 5ft. 7½in., beating the record held by Kalaugher by ¼in. On the day, Kalaugher was slightly off colour. He had had a very hard season, and a rest will do him a world of good.

In the Wellington Provincial Championships, the Club again filled third place. But our total points again showed an improvement. We are knocking at the door, and before long should win the coveted Shield.

Leadbetter was decidedly off colour in the sprints. He tied for first place in the 100 yards, and could only get in 3rd in the 220. However, he brilliantly retrieved his position later on at the N.Z. Championships, where he won both events, and he again scored a double victory at the N.Z.U. Tournament. Sceats jumped well to win the high jump. McIntosh again showed his quality by winning the 3 miles walk, and gaining 2nd place in the mile walk, being close behind Lankey, who had reserved himself for this race. Kalaugher had a day out, winning the 120 hurdles and hop, step and jump, and gaining 2nd place in the high jump and long jump. Priestley ran very well in the mile and 880 yards, gaining 2nd place in each event, and he ran brilliantly in the half mile of the relay race, showing the way home to the whole field. Priestley deserves, also, a special word of congratulation for his brilliant runs against Rose in the now famous Rose v. Hahn races at Athletic Park.

The Club is fortunate in possessing some new blood of first rate quality, and these men will do well in the future, provided they look after themselves and do not expect to do too much in their first year or two. At the same time, some of the older runners are dropping out, and there are still large gaps in the teams, and ample opportunities exist for new men to distinguish themselves. We are still hopelessly outclassed in the local page 71 handicap events simply owing to the lack of good "handicap runners." Our men are nearly all "back markers," and the Committee would particularly welcome men to run off good handicaps, thus assisting the Club in such competitions as the Dewar Shield competition, and also incidentally improving and developing themselves. One other thing the Committee would like to stress is the necessity for such men indulging in plenty of racing practice during the season. Ample opportunity for this is afforded by the evening meetings and Saturday meetings, and the runners will be abundantly repaid by the experience gained.