“Tennis is only a game, and I am only a player” …. that summed up Neil Edwards, a Railway .Service employee, when asked about his plans after having won the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Championship. Since then he has been selected to represent New Zealand in the Davis Cup tourney in England, the first match of the series to be against Great Britain. The Railways are proud of this keen and capable young representative and wish him well. Win or lose, he will prove a fitting representative for New Zealand.

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Playgrounds of Picton.

During the past weeks I have been enjoying a holiday in Picton—a sports-writer endeavouring to get a spell away from sport! However, not altogether to my disappointment, I have not been able to get away from sport in its entirety—I do not think such a thing would be possible anywhere in New Zealand.

From the sun-porch of my temporary home I stood and watched cricketers play until 7 p.m.—no thoughts of 6 o'clock closing (of hotels or innings) seemed to worry these “flannelled fools”; from another vantage point I watched rowers going through their training for the New Zealand Championship Regatta to be held on the smooth waters of Queen Charlotte Sound; yachtsmen and those who find their sport in motor-boats continually called at and left Picton on their ways to the many sheltered bays; swimmers—not so many, because of a plague of sandflies—basked in the sunshine of Picton's foreshore, within 50 yards of the busiest portion of the town; tennis players were seen in numbers, many of them taking tennis racquets with them to the guest houses “across the Sounds.” It was just another week in a New Zealand summer and Picton was just a typical New Zealand town—a town where “Fitness Week” is every week in the year.

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Cricket has Drawbacks.

Cricket has never reached the state of popularity in New Zealand that it enjoys in Australia, but has established a following that is to be seen Saturday after Saturday, “sitting in the sun, talking about last season's football.”

The increasing popularity of tennis has taken a number of would-be players away from cricket and the gradual public interest in softball, a modified form of baseball, is also making its presence felt. Softball is providing recreation, too, for a section of the youth that has never found cricket sufficiently exciting in this age of speed and thrill.

Cricket, despite its age-old English atmosphere, is not the truly ideal team game. It is a game where stars are able to get the most enjoyment and the “rabbits” used as stop-gaps. Recently a Wellington cricket club suggested that mid-week matches be organised to provide play for a number of players. During the discussion it was mentioned that some players had not had an innings for seven weeks!

There you have a drawback in cricket. The star batsman is assured of a “knock at the wickets,” but the mediocre batsman is often used only as a fieldsman and, when sufficient runs have been amassed by the batsmen, the innings is declared, leaving the not-so-good batsman, who would dearly love to have “a smack at the bowlers,” to go out for another stretch of leather-chasing.

In softball it is compulsory to provide a batting list and as the innings close—there are usually nine innings each in a match—the man next on the batting list is called on to re-open the innings. This ensures each player getting an equal chance at batting—and who will deny that the weaker batsman also gets a thrill while batting?

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Two Sporting Principals.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy….” so they say. At least two important secondary schools in New Zealand are fortunate to possess young principals who will never fall into the fatal error of cutting down on recreation.

A few years ago Wellington possessed the best track and field athletes in New Zealand, two of these being Malcolm Leadbetter and Stan Ramson. Leadbetter, a sprinter, shares the New Zealand sprint record with several other well-known speed-merchants, and Ramson dead-heated with Frank Nesdale page 62 in the 440-yards hurdles at the final Australian and New Zealand Championship meeting.

For three years Malcolm Lead-better has been principal of the Waimate District High School, a school which is making itself known in academic and sporting circles. He has devised a sound scheme of measuring an athlete's capabilities and is obviously well-suited for his important position.

Now comes word that Stan Ramson who has been on the staff of the Hutt Valley High School under the watchful eye of another well-known sporting personality, Mr. J. N. Millard, has been appointed Director of the Hutt Valley Memorial Technical College.

Time marches on … it seems but a day since I saw these fine young athletes competing for New Zealand in international or inter-Dominion sport; to-day they are guiding the destinies of young New Zealanders. They are to be congratulated on reaching such high places in the teaching profession; the pupils are to be congratulated on having such excellent masters.

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Mr. T. W. (“Dorrie”) Leslie.

A tribute to a world-renowned athletics official, Mr. T. W. (“Dorrie”) Leslie, was paid by the Wellington Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association when it appointed him manager of its team to compete at the New Zealand track and field championships at Napier early in March.

Formerly one of New Zealand's greatest track walkers—he once set a world record for one mile at Napier—“Dorrie” Leslie has been official starter in Wellington since 1905, following on the sensational incident when Mr. G. Watson sent Duffey, the American sprinter, off the track for “breaking.” For many years Mr. Leslie provided his own ammunition while carrying out his duties as honorary starter, but the increasing popularity of track sport in Wellington made it necessary for the centre to relieve him of that responsibility. In a season it is estimated he uses 3,000 rounds of ammunition.

In 1932, Mr. Leslie was a starter at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, earning the highest praise for his efficient starting. He fired the first shot at the Games—I have the engraved cartridge case—and also the last shot.

Mr. J. Sigfurd Edstrom, of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, the world controlling body in amateur athletics, assured me, when he passed through Wellington in 1937, that Mr. Leslie would have been appointed Olympic starter at Berlin but for the decision to place Germany on an honour test, in view of the racial feeling that had been introduced, the Germans being asked to supply all key officials. He was definite, however, that Mr. Leslie would receive an invitation to be starter at the Games in Tokyo.

Since then the Games have been transferred to Helsinki—on the other side of the world—and it is more than likely that the distance to be travelled will prove a bar to an invitation being sent to Mr. Leslie. Under the circumstances it is almost certain that European officials will be appointed.

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Motor Cycle Clubs.

Although the most obvious references to motor-cyclists are invariably found in the section of the newspapers