In congratulating the women's Indoor Basketball unbeaten Senior B team I would like to point to the club's strength in that they also have another team in the same grade which is doing quite well. The general standard of play within the club has improved considerably with more regular practises in the new gymnasium under the direction of Bill Landreth, who is also assisted by Vic's Texan, Joe Arden. who is the pivot man in the men's senior A team.

A new recruit to the women's team this season is Lillian Betts (younger sister of another Senior A team member, Peter) and an ex-Taranaki A-grade representative.

With Rosalie Erikson, Lillian will provide Vic's representation in the provincial team to play in the North Island B grade champs at Newtown Stadium in mid-July.

Other club members are included in another provincial team to compete at a tournament in Levin on the following weekend.

They are: Bridget Kerr, Lesley Hastings, Sandra Nicholson, and Christine Bridgeman.

From these two squads the final provincial team to play at the N.Z. B grade champs in Nelson during August will be selected. While it is gratifying to see so many club members in the rep squads, the unavoidable clash with Winter Tournament (to be held at the same time as nationals) is unfortunate and the Vic tournament team will be weakened with the loss of at least Lillian Betts, and possibly other key members as well.

Golf Club

Although not as numerous as in previous years the club is very active. Club days are enthusiastically supported and provide good opportunity for Varsity golfers to get together. However, the committee will probably have to give serious thought to the continuing use of Tui Glen course at Wainui-omata. For, although the Tui Glen members have been very kind in allowing the Varsity club to use their course, the distance is proving too far for most students and interest in these club days has definitely waned.

A recent club day at Manor Park was quite well supported and future club activities may be held in the more central courses. At the recent club day the top scorer was the consistent Peter Rankin (78). Other scores included Tony White (82) Dave McKegg (84) and Richard Tuckey (84).

Although the club days provide good fellowship, the club's leading golfers seek competition on a higher plane by competing for local club teams in the Arthur Duncan competition. They are Stewart Crombie (Heretaunga), Tom Gault (Paraparaumu) Peter Rankin (Miramar). Rankin recently achieved distinction by returning the best score of all the players and. with Stewart Crombie he was selected for the Wellington provincial team which played Hawke's Bay last week-end. Amongst a rather mediocre team effort their records were most impressive and this reflects a pleasingly high standard of golf at Vic at the moment, a fact which is borne out by Vic's tournament record in recent years. The last three teams competitions have been won by Vic and the individual title has gone to Slew Crombie (1960), and Pete Rankin (1961), who will be defending his title this year.

An added attraction at this year's tournament will be the appearance of an Aussie University team, who will be later touring N.Z. and are due to play a match against Vic in the late August holidays.

Men's Hockey

In congratulating the Men's Hockey Club on its excellent record this season "Salient" would Like to point out that Karori and Wellington College Old Boys have held a firm grip on the title for some years now and the achievement of the Varsity team in defeating both teams this season while remaining undefeated themselves is a very commendable effort

The team played convincingly in defeating the Old Boys team. 4-2. and also in defeating Karori, 2-1.

Those responsible for this very (me record include the club's two Wellington representatives, Dennis Padget and Wilf Haskell. Padget, in particular, is having a very good season and has several times received more than favourable comment in the local hockey write-ups. However, he would be the first to admit that the excellent record which the senior team has built up is due to a fine team spirit and solid team work.

We congratulate the Hockey team and wish them well in the remaining matches of the season. We look forward to seeing this team capturing the Tournament Hockey Shield in August at Christ-church.

Badminton

The Badminton Club is faring quite well this season in the local C-grade champs. There are two teams entered and the top players in the "A" team are as yet unbeaten. Safri Zaidell, John Rees and Zul Hamid have all been playing well and should fare well in the Wellington championships to be held in September.

Several young members have replaced the annual loss of several older players and these should see the Badminton club to the fore in the tournament competition in August.

The club has one of the most numerous and active memberships of all Varsity sports clubs, but there is still plenty of opportunity for new members wanting to increase their badminton skills or merely to play a social game.

Club nights are held in the Gym each Friday evening from 7 p.m. onwards.

Rome Olympics

In 1960 (September 5th to be exact) an almost unknown New Zealander defeated some of the I world's top middle distance runners and earned recognition not only for himself but also for N.Z. athletics.

Peter Snell was not very highly rated, even in N.Z., except by a few optimists and a highly confident coach. Since this very fine win Snell has achieved added distinction in the establishment of a string of world records in the early months of this year.

Just what did Snell's gold medal and his world records do for N.Z. athletics in general?

In the first place it gained for his coach, Arthur Lydiard a worldwide reputation as the foremost middle-distance coach of the present day. His coaching and training methods have been implemented, adapted and modified over much of the United States, in England, Australia and other isolated parts of the world. The influence of Lydiard in the emergence of N.Z. and Commonwealth athletics has been recognised in the awarding to him of an O.B.E. and several leading overseas sports journals have awarded him their "Coach of the Year" honour.

Secondly, with this growing recognition came offers of tours for N.Z's top athletes—Snell, Murray Halberg and Barry Magee. These tours have added more to N.Z's reputation and have led to reciprocal tours from American and British athletes, and these tours have helped to awaken the public's Interest in N.Z. athletics. Although the recent crop of athletes were not over-impressive they did help to encourage the rising N.Z. athletes—showing them that there were more athletes in N.Z. equally capable of holding their own in international athletics.

This was recognised by the. N.Z.A.A.A. who arranged a trip to] the U.S.A. recently for John Davies, who appears to be capable of a sub four-minute mile. The prospects of Davies and Snell clashing in middle-distance events in N.Z. next season should again attract the large crowds which flocked to see the sponsored tours during the past two seasons.

While on the subject of overseas tours I would like to congratulate the N.Z.A.A.A. on their attitude to the proposals made by the Norwegian association. The N.Z. council recognised that athletics was an individual sport and that the proposed tour was too demanding on the athletes concerned. At no stage did the N.Z.A.A.A. exert any pressure on the athletes although this would have meant that two other N.Z. athletes would have had an overseas trip.

These internal tours have added much valuable revenue to the coffers of the N.Z.A.A.A. and to the individual centres. The Wellington Centre has purchased new equipment and invested a considerable sum of money towards the construction of a new all-weather track from the proceeds of these sponsored meetings. The West Coast (N.I.) centre, who organised the meeting at which Snell set his world one-mile record in January, have also set aside a sum for the purpose of building an all-weather track.

The Otago Centre raised the money required for their track by a public appeal, and surely some of this interest must have stemmed from the exploits of Snell and his colleagues. Auckland, as was to be expected, was the first centre off the mark in the development of an all-weather track, but in their haste they failed to consult some of the leading coaches who could have helped them, and in consequence the track proved to be too hard and required considerable modification before it was suitable for general use. This mistake led to a more watchful approach to the development of these tracks and thus other clubs in Auckland are at present progressing towards the construction of these tracks. Thus Auckland, which is already dominant in N.Z. athletics is taking a further step ahead with the development of several of these tracks.

Another result of Snell's achievements is the re-awakening of an interest among officials and sponsors alike. They both realise the enormous possibilities in the promoting of athletics in N.Z., and the West Coast (N.I.) Centre is a very good example (outside the Auckland centre) of what could be done in the promoting of athletics.

They have brought the pole-vault (one of the "Cinderella" events in N.Z. athletics) from the back fields and empty sides of the athletics field and staged them in front of the crowd, who have been quick to appreciate the great skill and strength required in this event, The pole-vaulters too have responded to this recognition and the West Coast centre has the best group of vaulters as well as two very promising juniors in this event in N.Z.