Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-12-21
Sports in Europe.
BY RING LARDNER,

To the Editor: Several of my read
ers has recently wrote in and mad
squawk because I been writing
about sports namely golf and foot
ball as played abroad and have not
wrote nothing in regards to their
favorite sports namely polo and ten
mis- and ten pins.
Well friends I apologize for the
oversight, but l can rectify the mis-
take as / seen a good deal of all
these games on the other side OF the
old pond as I have so aptly named
it and l just as soon say a few words
in regards 70 how these sports dif-
fers over there than how they are
played here.
The hot bed of polo at the present
time is Africa where the players rides
on giraffes instead of ponies and uses
fish poles instead of mallets. The
/ balls are made Of steel and the smart
players have magnets fastened onto
the end of their fish poles and II
| is very amusing when one OF the
dumbell players with no magnets
| think they are going to hit the ball
and one OF the smart players points
his ma gnetic pole at the ball and
the last named jumps right at him.
The Prince of Wales is not allowed
. to play polo in Africa as falling off
of a giraffe is different matter than
falling of little bit of a pony.
Where the Prince is allowed to play
is Belgium where the polo promoter
insists on the players riding in tanks
left over from the war. The Prince
! is put in tank and then the tank
is locked up and the keys given into
the possession of his parents until
the game is over
But In order TO get to Belgium
from England you have got to cross
over on a ferry and it's no small trick
10 stay on ferry a specially in rough
weather. So they have now got in
ventors working on a game that can
I be played right in London and the
most likely one SO far suggested is
game where the players rides in
/ taxi cabs. AS soon as the whistle
I blows for the opening of the first
/ chukker the cab starts off pell NELL
down Pail Mall and the player don't
! dast fall out because the driver is
| watching him like a hawk for the
! fear he won't get his fare.
! In Russia they are playing polo in
! box cars and instead of a referee
/ or field judge or whatever you call
/ them, these games is ran by a train
! dispatcher.
In Rumania one team rides on
! sheep and the other team on wolves
and the battle between the mounts is
! sometimes a great deal more excit-
! ing than the game itself.
| The only game of tennis 1 seen
! acrost the pond was in la belle
! France and they have got 2 new sets
| of rules there, one for female play
ers and one for male players. Under
| the female rules a doctor is stationed
| at each end of the court and the in
! slant the player shows signs OF
| swooning the doctor applies smelling
/ salts and etc. and il she don't swoon
1t is her point. Is she does swoon
a fault is called on her doctor and
| the point goes to the opponent
The new rule in male tennis is to
hang up the net very high and in
| stead of trying to put the ball over
| the net you are supposed to put it
| under. This is expected to give a
, big advantage to INNS. La Coste and
American invasion. One of the tennis
experts on the Matin told me that
the French players was making prac-
tically nothing but service aces since
the net was lifted.
Ten pins is played chiefly in the
| Dark Forest and the object Of the
I game is to knock down as many
trees as possible with medicine ball.
Duck pins is also popular in Russia
! A player throws a coupling pin at
you and If you duck he throws an
| other. This keeps up till you don't
duck in time.
In London (Eng) the American
colony is having great sport with
the new brand of hop Scotch. The
object is to see who can take the
most, shots of hop and wash II down
with Scotch
The Londoners themselfs depends
for their amusement on hide and seek
which is played day times right out
in the main streets. 1t is VS.. the
rules to hide behind anything but the
fog which is plenty. 1t is sometimes
| a matter of or months before
| they's enough light so as the man
who is it can find anybody
American foot ball is rapidly catch
ing on in Paris and this writer pre-
diets that within yr. or 2 the Paris
ian backs will be making Red Grange
look like coal barge. The French
coaches makes their backfeld men
put in hours day going back and
4th acrost the main rues and those
| that amt killed by a taxi the first
to 4 days has certainly proved that
they have got enough speed and can
dodge enough to make any All-Amer-
lean team in the world.
In both France and England they
seems to be lot of excitement over
sport they call weight lifting. The
contestants buys ringside seats at
heavyweight bouts in which French
man or Englishman Is opposed by
an American and the contest is won
by the first contestant that gets into
the ring and lifts the local man OF
| of the floor and carries him to his
corner.