i eeitinte eee

Games fever grips city as

opening day draws near

Second only to the Ol

sports story of the year as far as Canada is concerned,

monwealth Games officially open one week from today,
ing new Empire Stadium. Actual sports competition
a chance to see a parade of

evening spectators will have
witness the. official opening cere-
monies.

The list of countries which ‘have
sent athletes doesn’t quite run
from A to Z, but only because New
Zealand is listed under N. Here’s
the alphabetical lineup:

Australia, Bahamas, Barbardo,
Bermuda, British Guiana, Canada,
England, Fiji, Gold Coast, Hong

Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya,
Malaya, New Zealand, Nigeria,

North Ireland, Northern Rhodesia,
Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa,
Southern Rhodesia, Trinidad,
Uganda and Wales.

And how will they finish on
points in the unofficial scoring?

Australia, England, Canada and }

ympic Games in world importance, and the Number One
the British Empire and Com-
July 30 at Vancouver's spank-
begins Saturday — “but Friday
all the 25 competing teams and

Hundreds of visitors are going|to pick a winner of the big event of

up to UBC daily to watch the ath-
letes train. Most popular spot is
the new Empire Pool, where some
of the best swimmers and divers
in the world perform daily.

It is a certainty that many BEG
records will be smashed this year
—and possibly one or two world
records.

John Landy, Roger Bannister and
Murray Halberg, competitors in
the Mile of the Century on August
7, may not break Landy’s world
mark, but it is quite possible that
the winner will crack the magic
four-minute figure. It is possible,
too, that the man to do it may be
neither Landy nor Bannister. Hal-

. 1 2 . .
New Zealand, in that order, seems|berg is an up-and-coming miler

a likely possibility,

|who can’t be ignored when trying

New Zealand star Yvette ‘Williams
the broad jump.

is almost a sure bet to win

°

the Games.

Canada has an almost sure gold
medal winner in Doug Hepburn,
world’s heavyweight weightlifting
champ. The ancient sport of
weightlifting was only introduced
into the Games in 1950, but from
now on will be a regular event.

One of the most popular specta-
tor sports is swimming, and tickets
have all been sold for the finals,
Canada has a strong team but will
be running up against superlative
opposition and may not win many
firsts. Surprises can happen, how-
ever.

There’ll be a rush for BEG tick-
ets this coming week, as Games
fever grips everyone. More than
half the tickets have already been
sold, and the best seats for all
events have been gobbled up by
the wise early birds. :

Hungary vs
Scotland ?

GLASGOW

Hungary has offered to send a
second team toplay against Scot-
land here on October 10, accord-
ing to the Hungarian News Agency.

Four matches will be played
during the autumn by Hungary’s
first team. These will be in Buda-
pest against Rumania, Switzerland,
Czechoslovakia and Austria.

The Hungarian offer to play
against Scotland has had two dis-
tinct receptions.

Robert Kelly, president of the
Scottish League, was enthusiastic:

“1 would not be surprised if the
Hungarian second eleven was every
bit as good as their World Cup
team,” he said. “I am all for
the Hungarians coming here.”

Right at the other end of the
scale is the vice-president of the
Scottish Football Association, John
Park, who roundly declared:

“There is little sense in our
Playing second-class opposition. It
is only by competing with top-

class teams that we will get back
to the top.”

George Graham, SFA secretary,
thought the Hungarians should

send their World Cup team “or
none at all.”

Britain’s women’s high iump champion, Sheila Lerwill, is shown

clearing the bar
feei, seven inches
medal. One of Can
Priestly o
oui.

Gert Whyte's

(left) in a pre-Games trial.

She has cleared. fiive

on several occasions and is tabbed to win a gold
ada‘s hopes in the BEG, free style swimmer Gladys
f Montreal (above) climbs from Empire Pool after a work-

SPORTLIGHT

WRIEND of mine complained to
me the other day that he went
out to Lansdowne looking for a

mudder and wound UP paying for
fodder,

* * *

Took a trip to Lansdowne my-
self last Saturday to test the Pow-
ers of a piece of lucky cork from
the 350-year-old Wishing Cork
Tree at Coombe - in - Teignhead,
Devon, England. Sorry to report
that although I caught a few win-
ners, I lost $3.50 on the day.

; The “lucky cork” tree was in
its infaney when Charles I lost
his head January 30, 1649; to be
precise, it was the same age as
the unfortunate monarch.

The cork tree’s
bower to bring good luck” was
first recognized at the time of the

Great Plague of London in 1665.
The legend runs:

“Fortune favors those who see
More in me than just a tree.
Take my cork

And three times walk

Round my girth for all to. see.”

Now the tree has become the
basis for an industry. A sharp
promoter got the idea of selling
little pieces of the “lucky cork”
to suckers at home and abroad, at
33 and $5 per piece,

A Sample piece of cork was
sent to a local Printing firm,
along with an offer to enter the
business of peddling it. The firm
wasn’t interested and a secre.
tary made me a present of the
“lucky cork” last week.

Well, so what did I have to
lose? No scientific System of bet-
ting can peat the races, anyway.
I popped the cork in my pocket,
my wife walked around me three
times—my girth probably exceeds
tlat of the cork tree—and we put
$2 on Grey Tears in the
Re came in,
didn’t last,
losers in a row,
suit to win and
the seventh.

Feeling chipper, and $1.50 in
pocket as the eighth came up,
took a combination and a oneto
in the finale. One horse made it
but the other ran in the can.

“mysterious

Goodbye, lucky cork, Another

betting system down the drain.
; * x x
A 40-year jinx which has op-
erated against Canadian players
ended Saturday when Pat Fletch-
€r of Saskatoon won the Cana-
dian Open at Point Grey with a
i4-under-par 280. Ever since
1914 Yankee pros have been com-
ing in and picking up the marbles,
So Pat’s victory is a popular one.
x * x

Received a request from a San
Francisco paper this week, ask-
ing for an article on Canadian
football for the edification of U.S.
football fans.

I replied that I’d try to do the
article sometime in the future —
hut right now, with the British
Empire Games around the corner,
who in Vancouver except Annis
Stukus is excited about football?

* x ok
/ The Soviet Union has announc-
ed that it will participate in the
next soccer world tournament in
Sweden. Good. The broader in-
ternational competition becomes,
the better.

* x x

Amazing how the nearness of
the British Empire Games has
aroused interest in track and
field sports, which traditionally
attract only a handful of spec-
tators. Looks like the thinclads
are due to ride the crest of a
boom in coming months.

That statistically - interesting
Toronto teacher and shot putter,
Jackie MacDonald, broke one of
her own figures in Victoria at the
Scottish Games when she chuck-
ed the iron ball 43 feet, 1014

inches, a ful! 10 inches better
than her previous. record,
* * *

And speaking of track and field,
some thousands of miles away
from the BEG stadium a Russian
lass named Nina Otkalenko, run-
ning in Moscow’s Dynamo Stad-
ium, set a new women’s world
record in the half mile. :

The listed world’s record is
2:14.5 set by Valerie Ball of
England, but a month ago Diane
Leather covered the 880 yards in
2:09. Now Nina comes along and
does it in 2:08.4. A real fast
stepper.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —_ JULY 23, 1954 — PAGE 10