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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1978-02-16, Page 10Pqge 10 Times-Advocate, February 16,1978 Sports Spotlight By Ross Haugh Fantastic We can’t think of enough superlatives to describe last week’s Sportsmen’s Dinner sponsored by the Ex­ eter Lions club. It was by far the best of any of the five held to date because of several reasons. First of all the facilities at the new South Huron Rec Centre were ideal for taking care of the terrific crowd of over 400 persons. The calibre of guest speakers was again very high and master of ceremonies Bill Brady kept everyone in a good frame of mind with his wit. Another highlight this year was the increase in attendance of ladies and young people. The WOAA champion Kirkton bantam fastball team was there in full force. We were privileged to attend a press conference for close to two hours before most of the people arriv­ ed and had a chance to talk to a goodly number of the visiting sportsmen and women. One of the most pleasant to chat with was Milt Wilcox of the Detroit Tigers. Wilcox one of the newest members of the Tiger pitching staff expects his club to be in the thick of the pennant battles. He said he was pleased with the Tigers in not go­ ing after free agents. He continued, “High priced players cause jealousy. Jim Campbell and the rest of the Tiger executive really take care of the players. They treat us like human beings.” Wilcox said he expected rookie sensations Tim Corcoran and Steve Kemp would be much improved and would form the Tiger outfield along with Ron LeFlore. The latter just completed an excellent year in winter ball with a batting average of .392 and ap­ parently improved his bunting abilities considerably. During the banquet speeches, Howard Starkman of the Blue Jays said Wilcox was the pitcher who stopped the 33 game hitting streak of Steve Staggs while in the American Association last year. Staggs came up to the Blue Jays late in the season and was a pleasant surprise at the plate. Bob Bailor of the Blue Jays is in the middle of a contract hassle with management and had very little to say about it. He commented, “I’m leaving the negotiations to my agent. But, I would like to be sign­ ed up before we go to camp on February 28. I’ll be able to concentrate better if <he contract is signed.” Bailor is reported to be trying for a long term con­ tract at fairly fancy figures. He gave a lot of credit to his batting im­ provements during the 1977 season to the Blue Jays batting coach Bobby Doerr. He said he .felt the one time Boston Red Sox second baseman was one of the top hitting coaches in baseball today. One of the most talkative during the press con­ ference was Doug Dieken of the Cleveland Browns. Dieken who makes Glenn Weir of the Montreal Allouettes look fairly small in comparison will be star­ ting his eighth year with Cleveland. Dieken said the Browns had an excellent season as far as crowds were concerned. They were second to the Denver Broncos in overall attendance. He cited the excellent opposition as the reason for two sellouts at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland and several others very close. Visitors for the Browns 1977 games included Denver, Los Angeles, New England, Pittsburgh and Oakland. Dieken said he never played football in Canada but was a team-mate for a few years of Bo Scott and Hugh McInnis who were quite prominent in the CFL. Jim Valek who is now general manager of the New England Patriots was Dieken’s coach at the University of Illinois and a personal friend of Leo Cahill of the Argonauts. The minimum years of service for National Foot­ ball League players to qualify for a pension has been reduced to four. Dieken said under current conditions a player upon retirement would receive $100 per month for each year of service put in. NFL players do not contribute directly to the pen­ sion fund. Monies come from television contracts which he said have doubled in recent years and from bubble gum card endorsations. Dieken said the take for pensions from the gum cards is about $300,000 per year. The headline speaker Normie Kwong said he didn’t regret playing Canadian football when salaries were much lower than they are today. Kwong added, “Money was secondary. Football certainly taught me that life is competitive and that we should make the best use of our God given skills.” Kwong is now in commercial real estate in Calgary and has no connections with football. He told of the present occupations of several other Western stars of his day. Jackie Parker is in sales with a steel company; Rollie Miles, a high school director of athletics and Johnny Bright is an Edmonton high school principal. Heading for busy season Jack Darling of Exeter who is fast becoming one of Western Ontario’s top harness race participants as an owner, trainer and driver is looking forward to another successful and busy season in the state of New York. Jack who currently has 11 horses stabled at Wind­ sor and Western Fair Raceway in London will be heading for Buffalo about April 15 and then on to Batavia until the end of the meet there the middle of September. Darling was a guest at the Sportsmen’s dinner along with Jack and Alice Kopas of Ilderton. When asked how many of the 60 colts now in training in the Kopas stable would actually make the track there was a difference of opinion. Jack said 45 and his wife said 60. Alice Kopas received a silver tray at Toronto January 10 in honour of her Super Clint being named the top three year-old pacer for 1977, In next week’s column we hope to continue with bits of information from dinner guests including Red Kelly and Brian McFarlene. Lucan or Seaforth first opposition Hawks open playoffs at home, Sunday night The first game of the On­ tario Hockey Association playoffs for the Exeter Hawks is expected to be played at the South Huron Rec Centre Sunday night at 8 p.m. but the opposition was not known at press time, Wednesday afternoon. The Mitchell Hawks came through with an exciting 1-0 win Tuesday night over'the Lucan Irish to take over first place with 50 points. The Exeter Hawks are second with 49 points and have one game remaining. That’s tonight, Thursday in Mount Brydges. All the Hawks need is a tie to win the league championship as they have an edge over Mitchell in both wins and goals for and against. The Lucan Irish are in third place with 47 points and will be in Tavistock Friday night for their final game of the regular schedule. The closeness of the race was emphasized this week as the Exeter Hawks played ties with the other two con­ tending clubs. In Lucan Wednesday, the Hawks and Irish played to a 4-4 draw and Sunday after­ noon in Mitchell the two Hawks teams played to a 5-5 stalemate. In between draws, the Hawks scored a 4-3 victory over the Thamesford Trojans at the South Huron Rec Centre, Friday night. Lose lead In Mitchell Sunday after­ noon, the home Hawks came through with two goals in the last half of the third period to get the 5-5 tie. Neither team could gain any edge in the first two periods with the score 2-2 at that time. Harold Davis opened the scoring for Mitchell at 9:35 of the initial session and three minutes later Phil Knight knotted the count on a three-way effort with Don McKellar and Dave Kinsman. In the second period, Fred Mommersteeg hit for the Exeter club with assists go­ ing to Ken Pinder and Jim Ferguson and Brad Fischer replied for Mitchell. In the first two minutes of the third period, Exeter scored twice to take a 5-3 lead. Don McKellar shot the first goal on passes from Brian Taylor and Steve Jen­ nison at 43 seconds and only a minute later Phil Knight registered his second goal of the afternoon. Assisting were Ken Pinder and Fred Mommersteeg. Mike Avery scored for Mitchell shortly after, but, Mommersteeg regained the two goal Exeter margin at 8:36 with the assist going to Pinder. Later in the period, Murray Elliott and Tom Pickard scored the goals for Mitchell to create the 5-5 tie. Score shorthanded The two goals which enabled the Hawks to defeat Thamesford Friday night came with the opposition on power play attempts. The first period was all even with Ken Pinder con­ verting a pass from Matt Muller for the Hawks and Roger Quinn replying for Thamesford. The Hawks moved in front at 5:01 of the second period on a successful shot by Ran­ dy Parsons. Assisting were Brion Penhale and John Van Gerwen. Thamesford roared back to tie the score at 6:57. Tom Land was the marksman. With less than five minutes remaining in the middle frame, the Hawks were able to cause two oppo- nent power plays to backfire. Fred Mommersteeg pull­ ed the trigger on both shots. Ken Pinder assisted on both and Steve Jennison picked up one assist. The final Thamesford goal was fired by Max Lindsay in the third period. Power plays help Each team scored power play goals in Wednesday’s 4-4 tie between the Exeter Hawks and Lucan Irish. The Hawks took a com­ manding 3-1 lead in the first period but the Irish rebound­ ed with two unanswered goals in the middle session and each team scored once in the final 20 minutes of play. Rick Freeman opened the game scoring for the Irish at 8:30 on an unassisted effort. The lead lasted less than two minutes as Jamie Caldwell counted for Exeter on a pass from Jim Ferguson. The Hawks moved ahead at 14:40 on a shot jy defenceman Phil Khight on a power play and increased the margin to two goals with only 22 seconds left in the period as Steve Jennison hit on a pass from Matt Muller. The second period belong­ ed to the Irish as Gary Herr scored on a solo dash and Rick Freeman registered on a combination with Paul Medd and Gary Herr with the Hawks a man short. ‘ Jim Maguire put the Irish ahead 4-3 at the four minute mark of the third period on passes from Jeff Hartman and Marty Wraith. Exeter was again playing shorthanded. The situation was revers­ ed at 10:30 as Don McKellar scored with his team en­ joying a one many adyan- tage. Getting assists were Brian Taylor and Jim Ferguson. The Irish held an edge in shots on goal by 40 to 26 and part of this came from nine minor penalties called against the Hawks. The Irish took only four penalties, all of the minor variety. WIN BOYS VOLLEYBALL— The Exeter Public School team won the area public school boys division volleyball championship Friday. Back, Left, Jeff Hohner, Dave Bidtnes, Mark Vandergunst, Dave Delbridge and Bill Glover. Centre, Jeff Van Harlen, Brent Atthill, Bruce Anderson, Peter Parsons, Kevin Parsons and coach Mike Soldan. Front, Walter Van Essen, Mike Clark, cap­ tain Dave Shaw, Dave Bell and Steve Bidtnes. T-A photo HXX/ tillll v conn Ji /7’ y two Jets lose to Huskies, playoff hopes fade Every one of the seven games remaining in the schedule for the Lucan- Ilderton Jets in the Ontario Hockey Association Con­ tinental Senior league will be very important. The Jets with only nine points to their credit in 29 starts trail the Stratford Perths by four points for the last playoff spot. Jets manager Don Urbshott said Monday after­ noon, “three of our seven remaining games are against the Perths and they are musts for us”. Friday night the Jets dropped a 5-2 decision to the Durham Huskies in Ilderton and Sunday night at the Lon­ don Gardens they were on the short end of a 5-3 score to the London Kings. This week the London Kings will be in Ilderton Fri­ day night for a return engagement and the Jets hit the road for two games. They will be in Durham Sun­ day afternoon and Stratford Tuesday night. The other two contests against Stratford are rescheduled from previous postponements and will be played February 26 and March 1. Both are in Ilder­ ton. Fall behind early In Sunday’s game, the Kings hit the scoreboard at 55 seconds on a successful shot by Randy Kozar and were never headed. Tom Trevail counted for the Kings less than two minutes later and Ed Robb replied for the Jets at the six minute mark on a three-way effort with Jamie Robb and Terry Johnston. The second period belong­ ed to the Kings with goals from the sticks of Al Johnston and Randy Kozar. Jamie Robb scored both Jets markers in the third period. The first came at 7:48 on passes from Gerald Weido and Jack Chipchase and the second with only 36 seconds left in the game from Brian Murphy and Ray Love. Chuck Robbins was the marksman for the final London score. Slow scoring start The first period of TAKE YOUR PICK!Wrestlers tops in dual meets The South Huron District School Wrestling team has compiled an excellent record so far this season. They have chalked up 10 victories without a defeat in dual meet competition and have won the Huron-Perth Conference dual championship for the ninth consecutive year. During the past two weeks, the South Huron grapplers defeated Stratford Nor­ thwestern on two occasions and picked up single wins against Listowel, Stratford Central and Goderich. In a 16 team tournament at Stratford Saturday, the locals finished second with 11 wrestlers losing only one match each to finish either second or third. The second place finishers were Tim Martens, Vince Winters,. Cliff Hicks, ..Ron Miller arid /^ick Skinner. Third placd' awards were captured by Jeff Wemyss, Mike Westelaken, Kevin Hern, Brian Pym, Randy Fisher and Ron Bilcke. The best wrestlers of the week were Tim Martens and Jeff Wemyss while Brian Pym and Cliff Hicks were the most improved and Vince Winters recorded the fastest pin at 26 seconds. Over the season to date, Mike Westelaken has 34 wins against four defeats and Rick Skinner has 17 victories and a single defeat. The Huron-Perth Con­ ference wrestling champions are slated for the South Huron gym Friday providing the teachers are not on strike. LARRY SNIDER MOTORS LTD. HAS THE NEW 1978 FORDS ON DISPLAY NOW ☆ FORD LTD -A- THUNDERBIRD -fr ☆ LTD JI GRANADA ■& ☆ MUSTANG H ft FAIRMONT ☆ ft PINTO ft FIESTA ft ft WAGONS (Ford LTD, Fairmont, Pinto and Club Wagon) ft Sized Right/Priced Right LARRY SNIDER MOTORS LTD. 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Chuck Niesen upped the Durham lead to 4-1 at 9:33 of the final session before Scott Graham hit for the Jets on a play started by Ken McCutcheon and Ian McTavish. Larry Farr counted the final Durham score. The game was a “mild one’’ compared to many Jets-Huskies set-to’s during the past few years. Durham was called for only one minor penalty and the Jets two while each team took one major penalty. ON THE SPOT FINANCING Kawasaki The hottest thing on snow. /Kawasaki BUY NOW AND BEAT THE PRICE INCREASE We have been lucky to get this shipment...they'll sell fast, especially * at last years prices. qqUNTRY rIMEr STORES