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SPORTING NOTES FEOM HOME
By ROBIN HOOD.
LONDON, Feb. 4.
Once again there is practically no cur
rent matter to write about. The minor
hurdle and steeplechase fixtures purBue the
even tenor of their way, unhampered by
frost or fog, for the weather continues the
most unwinterly on record, and during the
whole of January the temperature hardly
ever fell below the freezing point. This
week there has been a somewhat better
meeting at Gatwick; there were large fields
and a good attendance. The noteworthy
features were , that Manifesto,, the top
weight in this Grand National* and the
winner of last year, unexpectedly put in an '
appearance for a two-mile steeplechase. '
lie carried 12st. 101b., and was giving, of
course, a lot of weight to all his opponents,
yet he won easily, starting, too, at the long
price of 4 to 1 in a field of seven. This is
acountcd for by the fact that he belongs
to a party whose doings are always inex
plicable. Thus the opening quotation in
the-case J am referring to was 2 to 'l taken i
freely, and a rumour, gaining ground that
there was a screw loose, he gradually
drifted out to the price I have mentioned,
the money, of course, being,on him at.
starting price in London and the pro
vinces. He was ridden by Williamson,
who lias been engaged to ride him in the
Grand National, for which race the horse
has recently found support at as short a
price as 10 to 1.
Mention of the Grand National brings I
me to the subject of the spring acceptances, j
which were declared yesterday. Beginning j
with the National, I may mention that,
nineteen only have gone out of the original
entry of 76. These, however, include
Knight of Rhodes, who, as mentioned last
week, was handicapped to within 21b. of the
top weight, so that now Manifesto, with
his 12st. 71b., has to concede 161b. to the
next on the list, viz., The Soarer, Cathal,
and Grudow, who are on the same mark,
viz., list. 51b. The mm-acfceptaijce of
Knight of Rhodes,leaves Escott wiuHlhe
three still in the, race, Daimio lOst. lOlbu
Parapluie lOst 51b.,/ Norton lOst., all ofv
whom cried consent " \ '
The Lincolnshire Handicap lias suffered
more relatively in .the matter of non-con^'
tents, as no less t'hanljS~haV£_goiie. oiity^f
t lie original 50. Afcrman^T^m-.iinV'in', as
do St. Cloud, Chelandry, Knight of the
Thistle, Prince Barcaldine, and pleuty
nthers to make a good race. The most im
portant of those who have gone out are
Kager, Bay Ronald, Bradwardine, Bride
groom, Rosemerryn.
The City and Suburban has lost 16 out of
52, the best-known of the non-acceptors
being Diakka (who was certainly hardly
treated at 8st. 121b.). Crestfallen, Voter,
Cortegar, and Liinasol. Of those left in,
Kilcocl; heads the list at 9et. 41b., with
Xewhaven next to him at 8st. 81b., Merman
(8st. 71b.), and Dobbins with the same im
post. It was, of course, anticipated the
Australian crack would accept here, where
lie was only set to give his countryman
Merman lib. instead of the 10lb. he was
made to concede him at Chester. It will be
remembered I pointed out this discrepancy
in my last letter, and I no\v find that in the
Chester Cup Newliaven is one of the ten
which figure in the list of non-acceptance.
Count Schomberg, who has top-weight, has
also declined the 9st. 51b. alloted him for
the long-distance Chester event." Merman,
however, once more cries content, and the
weights now read:-The Rush, (i yrs, 8st.
121b.; Carlton Grange, 6 yrs, 8st. 51b.; Mer
man, the same aftc, 8st. 41b.; and Labrador,
5 yrs, also 8st. 4ll>.
The Jubilee Stakes, which had so disap
pointing an entry of only 40 subscribers,
has, however, a splendid acceptance of 35,
for only five have declined Major Egerton's
allotment. The five non-contents are
Diakka. Melange, Wild Foiwler. Nota Bene,
and Neish. .Once more, therefore, Merman
is an acceptor; indeed, he declined none of
the imposts in either of the four events, in
which he entered. He is perhaps rather
better in here than in the City and Subur
ban, to which I have alluded above.- Kil-.
cock is top-weight at Kempton, but he has
Ust. 71b. to Carry against the Ost. 41b. at
Epsom; and as Merman has 8st. 71b. in both
these handicaps, the Irish crack lias the ad
vantage at Epsom. Again, in the City and
Suburban, the American colt, St Cloud, has
7st. 131b., and thus receives 81b. from Mer
man, whereas in the Jubilee where the
Yankee lias been allotted ~8sfc 31b., he is
witliin 41b. of Mrs. Langtry's Cesarewitcli
winner. I think I have written enough
about the handicaps, and I am still of
opinion that if Newhav6n shows anything
like his true form, the City and Suburban
looks a good thing for him, and it is now
the only, handicap in which lie is engaged.
The death is reported this week of Mr. 1
H. S. Tidy, whose colours .were well|
known on the turf during the past twenty
two years, and were at tunes borne to vic
tory by very .fair horses. His first good
horse was Henry Geoige (subsequently
renamed Repufltion), who^at five years of
age wonfirerM^out of eleven, and was
afterwards sold to Lord William Beres
ford, and sent to India. But the veiy best
horse he ever mil Wbb Bird of Freedom,
who in the 1885 Lincolnshire Handicap was
beaten by the mighty Bendigoalone. He fol
lowed up tliis good form by carrying off the
City and Suburban, and then won the
upsom Grand Prize from Pepper and Salt
aud others. After thU last victory the colt
necaine the property of Mr. Douglas Baird.
yyf»er, winners whose - names were allied
with Mr. Tidy's were Royal Prince, Town
land, and Isabeau.
second footrace between Kilpatrick
and Tinder.runafc Blackburn on Satur
day resulted as mahy had anticipated--the
distance bdiigthree-gueftere M a mile
insteod of half a. mile wfy-rin?% for tl»e
^o thus avenged his defeat by
at Uie shorter distance. The
makes weft pnoe more £100, andKtfpatrick
u, * ? Yery hot favouriteat 8 to I on,
though he openly expressed his dMfets as
hfe §lmP8.tatl.c® M1* * bit out of
TMw having made a better
mile At iV1*? in the half
front vmk to tlie
71 ^^e of wini jnade the half
1 suffering from somewhat of a
surfeit of billiards just now, .matches being
in course of play in all quarters. Roberts
2m1 -s ogainst Cecil Harverson by
P°int8, after conceding him 10,000 out
24,000, spot hatreds This was certainly not
a very , great margin, but I think it might
nave been made larger if necessary'.? -The
champ^n is now engaged in tackling E.
Digglfe, who is content to acept 7,000 in
24,000, and who for. the flrst two days
scored as many as Roberts. The latter
has since, however, made up a deal of lee
way, and as both men are playing grandly,
some brilliant breaks may be looked for.
Roberts on Tuesday made two in succession
of 590 and 470, The stakes in this con
test are stated to be £250 a-side.
The most important of the many other
matches now on the board is one in which
W. Mitchell is playing H. W. Stevenson
18,000up, level, for £100 a-side, the game
being interesting mainly because it has so
far shown Mitchcll with some glimpses of
his old-time brilliancy. Runs of one or two
centuries came from his cue with consistent
frequency, and the veteran has established
so strong a lead that the young South
African will have to come out in his best
form to have any chance of victory.
After a long interval the Grand Prix du
Casino, at Monte Carlo, the blue riband of
this pigeon-shooting world, has come once
more to England. The winner, Mr. J. R.
Curling, singularly enough, never shot at a
pigeon match till a few mouths before the
present gathering, but he was the only one
to bring down a dozen birds without a miss.
He is a Cambridge University man, but was
born in Wiltshire, and is about 30 years of
age. He is a bit of a globe-trotter, and was
always fond of wild game shooting. Eng
land has now won th^ coveted trophy (and
nearly £1,000 attached) 11 times out of
27.
MIXED ITEMS.
King Leooold (of Belgium) has purchased
the yacht Mayflower, formerly owned by
the late M. Goelet.-Mr. M. D. Rucker'fc
horses will come up for sale during the New
market Craven meeting. He has soon tiredof
racing!-Mr. A. N. Hornby has been re
elected president of the Lancashire County
Cricket Club.-Mr. Brice has been appointed
to the position of judge at the approaching
Waterloo Cup gathering.-The date of Billy
Murphy's fight at Newcastle with Will
Curlcy, of that plaoe, is now fixed for the
25th infit.-Ernest Brady, of Newcastle, and
Mike Small, of London, fought on Monday
for £150 and the 7st. 61b. championship of
England, the latter knocking out the notth
countryman in the third round.-James
Wray's backers signify their willingness to
match him against W. A. Barry for the
| championship course for £100 a-side, if
Barry allows £15 for expenses.-Meanwhile,
Charles Stephenson, of New Zealand (now
landlord of the Shakespeare Hotel, Middles
borough), purposes rowing Barry on the
Tees for £200 a-side.-W. G. George has
covered W. Cummings's deposit of £10, so
that the projected mile race between
these veteran runners may be looked
on as certain to . come off.-At
the London Pavilion music-hall on
Saturday, as Louis Geister, who claims to
be the champion ball-puncher, was being in
troduced to the audience, a diversion oc
curred through the rising of a lady in the
stalls, who objected to Geister's claim, and
challenged him to meet her in a friendly
contest. The lady was Miss Lillie Reed, and
she and Geisler are to meet and contest the
championship this evening. Billy Edwards,
the Sydney boxer, who has for the past 18
montlis been residing at the Cape, arrived
in England on Friday, afid is anxious to get
on a match at lOtst. 121b; Jim Richardson
(of Australia), Dido Plumb, Jerry Driscoll,
or Tom Wood ley preferred.-Greatly to the
joy of the public generally, the Oxford and
Cambridge boat race lias been fixed for
Saturday, March 26, when the tides allow
of its being started at 4 p.m. Needless to
say, enormous crowds of people will line
either bank of the Thames.-1-Gay Hermit
heads the list of winniug stallions in Argen
tina for last year, his stock having
carried off 65 races, with 229,365dol.
W. G. Edgerton, of Magdalen College,
Oxford, on Thursday, last week, at
Davos, lowered the world's record for an
hour's skating, covering 19 miles (less 55
yards) in that time. The previous best Eng
lish record was 16 miles, 774 yards, by A. E.
Tebbitt.-The M.C.C. have offered, if the
leading counties are willing, to draft a new
set of rules to deal with some vexed ques
tions concerning the conduct of county
crickct; such as the residential qualification
and other delicate matters.
J.O.W., a steeplechaser who had won 12
or 13 races during the past two years, broke
his leg at Gatwick this week, and had to be
destroyed.
$