Sert Whyte's SPORTLIGHT A fe DER of this column wants le why I don’t write the opie about bike racing, and ae embers of the BEG cycle nue The answer is simple: il ®. ho one in this province Late €ss about the sport than oes, sports writers don’t aa a depend on their own oy ge alone. Digging into ah a G. Menke’s authoritative able Obedia of Sports, I was .. '0 Uncover some interesting aan facts. F’rinstance: One ss in 1690 a French inventor, eect de Sivrac, constructed a with pac. oF two wooden wheels, sin pee ent posts on the wheels Pedals oe by a crossbar. No taped ou straddled the cross- pa 0 Propelled yourself by Burs eet. This was too strenu- and Me the sportsmen of the day, to fh the first “bicycle” proved ha Too many varicose veins. bf 18 Baron de Saverbraum ‘ a tried another model— wu § Wheeler. His masterpiece wheel -¢ abortion with a front wheel 64 inches tall and a rear ated Just one foot high. It oper- the On the gear-rope principle, Tider pulling the rope. man ee years later an English- 4 ote a bicycle chain and Kibicpst a Scottish blacksmith, with Tick McMillan, came up ay he with connecting rods, tr Sear shift. His model was es however, and it never Rute Popular, « es tires took the place of Owin N ones in 1868, and the fol- thon year wire spokes made Was appearance. The bicycle i; a its way. bike 883 H. L, Cortis set the first in a ee covering 200 miles her taight 24-hour ride — less s Nine miles an hour. ee 1885 the highwheeler had front Teplaced by bikes with ie Wheels only slightly larger Seay back, and in the Gay rite €s, biking became the fav- Ao of thousands of. Eng- eae! Yankees and Canadians. New a bike racing began in tinue in 1899 and continued th Y until 1950. A glance at Moa sore book shows that Y Peden of Victoria, was a Mem} oe hs Mber of winning teams on four 1Ons, 0 W that Viancouver has a de- Cent 1: Mt bike racing bowl, it is ex- BSS OS Ss bo ; phepely (42-27-39) J th ee shot put and discus throw at the 155 ey enth, Jackie, who stands 5 feet 10 ackie MacDonald pected that the sport will do a great comeback in the immediate future. * * * Somewhere in the world today there’s a young man with a punch who is destined to topple Rocky’ Marciano from his heavyweight throne. It could be our own Canadian champ, Earl Walls, cur- rently training at Western Sports Club here for his fight with Ed- gardo Romero next week. Walls looks good — in fact, he’s the best heavyweight pros- pect this country has developed since the days of Tommy Burns. And Burns wasn’t really a heavy- weight at all — just an overgrown middleweight. But. that didn’t stop him from winning the title in an elimination tourney held after the retirement of Jim Jef- fries in. 1904. Walls has a dilly of a sock, and displays no sign of the “glass chin” some sports, scribes claim he has. If he gets past Romero, and I think he will, he'll be in line for a crack at the roly-poly Briton, Don Cockell. From where I sit, fat man Cockell seems made to order. for Walls. : * x a Never -mind the luck of the Irish, how about’the luck of BEG officials? Hardly a week goes by but some British, Australian or New Zealand runner sets a new world mark ‘and gives sale of Games tickets another shot in the arm. Latest joint record-breakers are the virtually unknown Fred Green and cigar-smoking, beer- drinking Chris Chataway, who set a new mark for the three-mile with a time of 13 minutes, 32.2 seconds. As usual, Chataway, the “‘al- ways a bridesmaid but never a bride” character, was nipped at the wire by inches, but he was so close that the official cloekers eouldn’t separate his time from Green's. Both Chataway and Green will run in the three-mile here on Tuesday, August 3. Got your tickets yet? * * * Ezzard Charles will probably get a third crack at Rocky Marci- ano in September. If he does, I look for Rocky to kayo him in less than 10 stanzas. will represent Canada British Empire Games inches and weighs founds, is holder of the Canadian women’s discus title. Pool at UBC (above) preparing Although the team is a powerful one by Canadian standards, our 54 men and 19 women track and field stars are not likely to win many firsts against the Australian, New Zealand and British thinclads. Canada’s best bets are the weightlifter§, fencers, lawn bowl- ers and swimmers. Rowers and cyclers may also do well. Our track and field hopes rest on athletes like Alice Whitty, Don MacFarlane, Gerry Bemister, Jackie MacDonald, Doug Clement and Roy Pella. Their best may win a few second or third spots. In rowing the Hamilton Leander eight or the St. Catharines Rowing Club was’ expected to represent Canada, but the Vancouver Rowing Club’ UBC eight won a surprising victory last Saturday at Port Dal- housie, Ontario, lengths ahead of the St. Kitts crew. Canada’s best swimmers are working out daily in the Empire The pool is the most modern in Canada. Bill Patrick of Calgary practising a high dive. 61 from B.C. on BEG team British Columbia athletes have won 61 places on Canada’s 180- competitor British Empire Games team, the strongest this country has ever fielded. Ontario placed 50 athletes on the squad and Quebec is third with 45. Then comes Manitoba, 10; Alberta, 8; Saskatchewan 4: and Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland with one each. for the British Empire Games. Photo at right shows The 15 bike riders on the BEG squad are described as “the best ever to represent Canada” and could. conceivably win a few medals. Many . national records have been broken during the past fortnight and some of the young- sters are improving so rapidly that they may spring one or two upsets next month. British Columbia swimmers |. swept 17 of 30 positions on Can- ada’s BEG team and Percy Norman of Vancouver, one of the outstand- ing swim coaches of the countries thinks our swimmers and divers will do well in the Games. All BEG contestants, including all Vancouver athletes, will live at Empire Village, at UBC, during the Games. Swimmers are already working out every day at Empire finishing five, Pool under the watchful eye of Norman. The underdog American Leagu- ers outslugged the Nationals to win the 20th All-Star Game played in Cleveland on Tuesday this week. An annual classic, the All-Star Game was originated in 1933 by Arch Ward, sports editor of the Chicago Tribune. This week’s game included, the American Leaguers have won 13 games to National’s 8. The American Leaguers 11-9 vic- tory this week was unexpected, as Underdog Americans win 11-9 over National League . all the experts picked the Nation- als to win. The Nats hadn’t lost since 1949. There were six home runs with Cleveland’s Al Rosen getting two, driving, in five of the American tallies. The Americans got a total of 17 hits and the Nationals got 14. The combined output of 31 set a new All-Star record, while the run total of 20 cracked the record of 18 in the 1949 game at Brooklyn, when the Americans won 11-7. ie i te 1 | | |