Tournament Reporters

The temptation when reporting on this year's Winter Tournament is to dwell on the isolated bright spots and overlook the generally uninspired performance of teams from Victoria. It is equally tempting to propound theories like the one relating position in Tournament to distance of university from Otago.

The fact is our teams were temperamentally ill-equipped for Tournament. A quick spotcheck on the first day revealed a "tilting at windmills" attitude summed up in the oftheard remark "we could come second or perhaps third."

There were notable exceptions. The Badminton team was a perfect blend of experience and enthusiasm, our Soccer players coped extremely well with the daunting task of playing five games in three days as well as showing a determination to fight back in the face of ill-considered rulings and rough play.

From an organisational viewpoint Tournament '67 would rank as average. With the exception of the lighting in the Badminton courts few complaints could be made as regards general conditions.— David Smith.

Cross-Country Running

This Was one sport where Salient's pre-Tournament predictions failed to take into account that teams from other universities were entered also. The team's final placing of fourth, below Massey and above Canterbury, speaks volumes.

Individually Victoria's first man home was Dave Bullock, followed by a tired Tony Woolhouse, Places varied from seventeenth to thirty-first.

Incentive for teams to run faster next year may be found in the decision to include a Women's Cross-Country in future Tournaments.

Drinking

The Drinking Horn was held in a somewhat more Theatrical atmosphere than before. The venue was a university hall with seating accommodation for hundreds of alcoholic voyeurists.

A depleted Vic team made a gallant effort and actually reached the final only to meet a polished Otago who drank with a finesse unapproached by any other team. Vic's leader Steve Taylor's cavorting inspired apprentice drinker Ian McMillan to astonishing feats.

In the Individual events Otago asserted their superiority, Taylor being so tired by that stage he was more inclined to giving himself a hop shampoo, much to the delight of the large audience.

Fencing

Fencing Honours must go to the women for all-round performance and to Jim Loh for his individual brilliance.

Although weakened by the absence of many of the stars who have made Victoria feared in the fencing world, the women's team performed excellently.

It was generally felt that their failure to win the women's foil, in which they were unbeaten, could be traced to a faulty spool in the Otago match. They had won the match 10—6 but because of a tie with Auckland individual bouts were made to count and the disputed bout proved crucial.

Greta Firth, who captained the NZU team, was outstanding winning 15 bouts from 16. Creditable performances were also turned in by Wendy Fletcher and Sue Norris.

The men's events were dominated by Otago generally and Peter Ring in particular. Victoria leaned heavily on Jim Loh's abilities.

Considerable though these were they proved insufficient to take the team to higher than third place. Loh went on to fence for NZU in their annihilation of Otago-Southland.

The only other male fencer of note this year was Owen Davies. His best effort was in the men's epee where he beat John Gordon of Auckland 5—1.

Golf

Victoria Was second to Otago in tournament golf played at Balmacewan Golf Course. Poor greens and some reconstruction work on the course made scoring difficult.

Otago's victory was due in part to local knowledge, but they had by far the strongest team. Theirs was a well deserved victory.

Stars of the Victoria team were undoubtedly the captain, Rodney Baltrop and John Billington. Both were selected to play in the six man NZU team.

Baltrop was the top individual in the stroke play with a four round total of 307. He reached the final of the match play only to succumb to another Freyberg player, P. Adams of Otago.

R. Barltrop chipping onto a green at Dunedin, Rodney came second in the individual class.
—D. Smith photo

In Adams, Baltrop had the misfortune of an opponent who included three birdies and two eagles in his round. Adams was five under the card when the match finished.

Tournament results were:

Otago 933 1st

Victoria 965 2nd

Auckland 967 3rd.

In the NBU match play final, P. Adams brat R. Baltrop seven and five.

Hockey, Mens

Canterbury won. Vic second-equal with Auckland. See next issue.

Hockey, Womens

The Overall placing of the team (third) was a fair reflection of their ability. A gradual improvement was discernible but the lack of finishing power was more apparent still.

Perhaps with a little more dash amongst the forwards we could have reached second place. The lass of Marion McNeill-Adams proved an enormous blow to morale, and there is no doubt that the team could have been fitter.

Thrashed by the Otago and Australian teams, well beaten by Auckland, Victoria managed two fairly good wins against Canterbury and Massey.

Indoor Basketball, Mens

Canterbury first with Vic fifth. See next issue.

Indoor Basketball, Womens

Winning only one game, the Women's Indoor Basketball team finished fourth. Canterbury was clearly superior and deserved its win.

Poor teamwork and the absence of any positive playing tactics accounted for the team's disappointing performance. These girls have been playing all season without a coach.

Their play showed no organised methods of attack and the defence, usually the team's greatest strength, constantly gave under pressure.

They were handicapped by the last-minute loss of a key player and were reduced to a tournament strength of six. This was at least two less than any other team. This meant loose guarding to prevent any player being fouled off.

The win was against Massey in an exciting game with a final score of 53-52.

Sue Jackson gained a place in the NZU team.

Judo

Otago won. Vic's D. Feihert and I. McMillan look secand placings in the open and middleweights respectively See next issue.

Smallbore Rifles

Runners-Up in tournament shooting, the relatively inexperienced Victoria team fulfilled Salient's prediction. Norm Robieson, Roger Smith and Roger Dewhurst were the lop shooters in the Vic team, finishing fourth, fifth equal, and tenth equal, respectively.

Early indications were that Robieson could qualify for an NZU blue, but tournament strain began to tell in the North-South match. Points were also lost at that stage by Smith and Dewhurst.

Robieson did qualify for a Victoria blue by totalling 986 points. The Victoria standard is 981; he was the only shcoter to reach this.

The whole team w.nt on to shoot in the North v. South match, narrowly won by South. The three top Victoria shooters went on to shoot for NZU.

Squash

Victoria came second to Otago in squash. Individual honours went to Victoria's Richard Hawkes and Teresa Lawes, who respectively won the Men's and Women's championships.

In the final, Hawkes beat Canterbury's J. Henderson. Henderson has beenthe NZU titleholder for the past two years.

Hawkes won the first set 9-6 and then lost the next two 9-3, 9-7. In the fourth set Henderson raced to 8-5 and played match ball.

With an immaculate volley inches from the tin, Hawkes! took the serve. He survived the match point and went on to win 10-9, 9-2.

Teresa Lawes won the final of the women's by beating Otago's Carol Johnston 3-1. This match never really flowed, it was fitness and determination that won the day. Carol Johnston had beaten Teresa in the teams event held earlier in the week.

Loss of John Parsons two days before tournament was a disturbing blow to the team The injured Parsons's placewas taken by F. Wilson, a former co-holder of the world Squash endurance record.

Despite the pre-tournament setback, the team performed well to finish runners-up to Otago. The matches against Lincoln, Canterbury and Auckland were won by all players. Against Otago, the Otago Nos. 2 and 3 proved too strong.

Massey provided the closest match of the tournament Hawkes beat the Massey No. 1, G. McDonald, and Wilson lost to the strong C. Irving The vital match between Anderson and J. Maher and peared to be all over after the third set when Maher led 9-0 5-9, 9-1. However, with up setting tactics, Anderson won the next two sets 9-7, 9-6.

The women's team had easy victories prior to meeting Otago's stiff oppositiong Against Otago, Miss Lawer lost in the fifth set to Miss C. Johnston after an unfortunate umpiring incident, and Miss Christie lost 10-9 in the fifth set against Miss R Johnston.

Table Tennis

On Paper this was the weakest team that Victoria had sent to tournament for some years. The team did not match Canterbury for consistency, nor were the women members as forceful as their Auckland counterparts, yet it managed to retain an overall cohesion, particularly when behind. This was in evidence against Otago, when Victoria finished strongly to pip the home side 11-10.

Despite a heavy defeat by the team winners, Canterbury, Victoria continued to fight for every point. Inspiration was provided by the assured Robert Armstrong, who won eight of his 10 singles matches with copybook play. His nonselection for the NZU team was somewhat perplexing.

More fortunate were Glynn Kelly and Bruce Langridge, who struck splendid form on the last days. Their contribulion to the NZU team proved worth while.

The sharing of third place' with Otago was due mainly to the individual brilliance of Keith Jackson, who made up for his team's less sparkling performance. Overall, the results were satisfactory in what proved to be a well-organised competition.