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Minto Club, Ottawa, Won Grey Cup, While Local Skaters Take Three out of the Four Events

CLUB, OTTAWA, WON GREY CUP, WHILE LOCAL SKATERS TAKE THREE OUT OF THE FOUR EVENTS Miss Dorothy Jenkins, Ottawa, Victor in Ladies' Singles in Canadian Figure Skating Championships, Miss Alden Godwin and A. G. McLennan in the Pairs. and Miss Elizabeth Blair, Miss Florence Wilson, P. H. Chrysler and C. R. Morphy the Fours for the Local Club. Duncan Mcl. Hodgson of the Winter Club, Montreal, Retains the Men's Singles Championship. Keen Interest was shown in the Canadian Figure Skating Competition which was staged at the Rideau rink yesterday under the auspices of the Minto Club of Ottawa, and under International Skating Association rules. Competitors from Montreal and Toronto came in force and brought their friends with them, nearly fifty visitors being present. Owing to the severity of the weather the spectators in the morning were limited to competitors club members and these, finding it a little too cold to stay in the body of the rink, took refuge in the clubrooms and watched the events from behind glass. All events were keenly contested, the men's singles in particular producing a elose struggle. Duncan Hodgson, of the Winter Club, Monttitle by him last year. The othreal, succ succeeded in retaining the er two competitors--Melville Rog-! ers, of the Toronto Skating Club. and John Machado, of the Minto Club, of Ottawa--ran him very close, their skating having improved greatly during the last twelve months. In the Ladies' Singles Miss Dorothy Jenkins, of the Minto Club, and Miss Alden Godwin clearly outshone their opponents and the first named well deserved her victory. Miss Godwin, also of the Minto Club, put up such a splendi: fight in the singles that it was a great source of satisfaction to all the spectators when she and her partner, A. G. McLennan, annexed the Pairs' Championship. Their program waS strikingly original and excellently skated. Perhaps the most decisive superfority shown in any of the events was in the Fours. The Minto Club Four--Miss F. Wilson, Miss E. Blair, P. H. , Chrysler and C. R. Morphy gave a wonderful exhibition. The program was original, the skating individually was perfect, the time excellent, and the various figures were models of symmetry and beauty. one skater could be singled out, the team work being perfect. By winning three events out of four the Minto Club, of Ottawa, win the Grey Trophy, which goes to the Champion Skating Club of Canada. THE MORNING PROGRAM. At 9.30 a.m. the the ice" at the Rideau rink. They faced a cold day's work, the temperature being lower than ever remembered for this annual event. The three judges chosen to handle the competition were men well qualified for the job: Mr. Louis Rubenstein of Montreal: Mr. J. J. Cawthra of Toronto, and Mr. Paul D. Armitage of New York. The latter was unable to be in Ottawa in time for the morning program and his position was filled by Mr. M. B. Bonnell. who for years has studied this branch of the art of skating and who has the theory at his finger tips. The Judges. Mr. Paul D. Armitage is chairman of the figure skating committee the International Skating Union of America, and chairman of the executive committee of the American Skating Union. He has had considerable experience in judging in New York and elsewhere at important competitions, He is known to local skaters and was one of a team of four who came to Ottawa last year from New York to contest the Connaught Cup, open to any skating club in the North American continent. Mr. J. J. Cawthra has given up a great part of his life to the furtherance of skating. He was recently very prominent in getting the Toronto Skating Club in the flourishing condition that enabled them to merge into the Winter Club of Toronto with 1,400 odd members and an artificial ice rink of their own. He is a member of the York Club of Toronto and of Princes, London. For seven years has wag captain of the English Ice Hockey team and has played hockey in nearly every country in Europe. He skated in the Minto Cup competition in 1906, when he secured second place. As Mr. O. B. Haycock, Toronto's clever instructor, said, to record all that Mr. Cawthra has done for skating would fill a book. Mr. Louis Rubenstein is too well known as a skater and sportsman in general to need an introduction. He is one of the very few skaters from this continent who have competed he with ternational won the a masters special skating of medal Europe. in In competitions the 1890 In- I held at St. Petersburg. He is secretary-treasurer of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada, and has been connected with that body for 30 years. on the board of control the International Skating Union of America and is a past president. His activities have not been confined to skating. He is a well known judge in nearly every branch of sport and is an acknowledged authority. At times a casual onlooker may form the opinion that Mr. Rubenstein's attention is wandering from the matter in hand; as matter of fact there is nothing that escapes his eagle eye; his knowledge of the game is so great that his decisions are made rapidly and without conscious effort. Ladies' Singles. The ladies who entered the singles' championships were called on first to skate five obligatory figures as laid down by the I.S.U., viz.: 1-Backward change of edge. 2.-Forward inside 3-backward outside 3. 3.-Forward change of edgedouble 3. 4.-Inside forward bracket 'and backward outside bracket. 6.-Backward outside loops to center, right and left. The competitors in this event were six In number and they skated in the following order: 1, Miss Jeannette Rathbun, of Toronto; 2, Miss Dorothy Jenkins. of Ottawa: Mrs. F. Stanton Mathewson, of Montreal; 4. Mrs. John Law, of Toronto; 5, Miss Alden Godwin, of Ottawa; 6, Mrt. Clifford Sifton, Jr., of Toronto. Certain It is that the skating of Miss Godwin and Miss Jenkins in this part of the program was masterly. These two ladies seemed to be quite a little stronger than any of the visitors. But this must not be held to detract from the performance of the ladies from Montreal and Toronto. They all knew their figures and performed them in 2 creditable manner. Mra. John Law showed a complete knowledge of the figures, and executed them well and with great energy. It was obvious that the visitors found the ice a little hard. The Winter Club at Toronto has artificial ice, which, of course, is much softer. At Montreal, the rink is heated, and the ice is made at a certain fixed temperature. Vents are opened on all four sides, and the water let in. clear.ess of his impres will win for Dr- .n." Obligatory Figures for Men in Pa' The figures that competitors in these events were called upon to skate were the same set the ladies in the same competion and except for the pres-ited no difficulties. In this latter, all of the competitors except P. Chrysler lacked finish. Even Melville Rogers slipped badly twice and once fell. Those who did lay the brackets accurately did so with such obvious effort and with such a jerk at the peak ne ket all grace was Chryster showed that he had lost this. of his old time prowess in His poise was perfect and he must hove r -nived maximum marks awarded. In fact his performan- this event was outstanding. Evening Program A large crowd was attracted to the Rideau pink for the exhibition of free skating and the seating capacity was taxed to the limit, A very fine exhibition of skating was greatly enjoyed by the crowd who were not low in showing their appreciation. Individual Skating Ladies The six ladies who competed in morn crowd a wonderfu! exhibtion of graceful and clever skating. Their programs were original and very dificult to describe in detail. At the conclusion of the event, there little doubt in the minds of spectators as to the winner. It is hard to imagine a more perfeet exhibition of free Gating than that given by Miss Dorothy Jenkins. She was throw perfect time with the music and that in itself made her " ion a treat to | watch. She *ment of ! grace and agility. In her jumps, during which she twisted and changed edge, she sometimes leaped a foot or more in the air. Her spins were marv. lous and very pretty. 'Her dance steps were airy and light and she seemed to flit acros the rink from figure to figure like a butterfly. She finished with a perfect grape vine backw.rd to the end of the rink and well deserved the sto-* that marked the end of her Miss Alden Godwin also gave a delightful exhibition. Her spins and ! -ent de edges were a delight. She also kept perfect time to the music and seemed to be conducting the hand following it. She finished every movement to the centre on he. toes. She was very speedy and all her figures seemed close to perfection. A feature of her program was a difficult spiral with heels together and toes outward turned so that both feet were in a line and both on back-| ward edge. Of the other ladies, Mrs. John Law's program was noteworthy. She has lots of dash and her curves were very perfect. Whilst vigor was the most noticeable characteristic, she was very light on her feet, rising fre-| quently to her toes and jumping quite high from the ice, landing al-| ways lightly gracefully. Her performance ands conspicuous for good, clean skating. Miss Jeanette Rathbun was very confident and did some great skating on one leg changing edge many times without changing feet. Her | program included a very pretty 2- | step movement and she kept perfect time. The concluding movement, a beautiful spiral to the center at which she rose to her toes, was very graceful. Mrs. Clifford Sifton gave a splendid exhibition, her curves being very regular. One of the prettiest movements in her program was a backward outside spiral with right hand | on hip, left hand and balance foot extended. Mrs. Mathewson was a little unfortunate in following Miss Jenkins Her figures were well executed, but showed perfection rather than originality. Men's Singles. Melville Rogers, of Toronto, wellknown to Ottawa skaters, received a great welcome. His program was almost too fast. to describe in detail. He showed himself equally at home on either edge. He had a most unfortunate fall when reversing on his toe, due probably to hard ice. He went half the length of the rink on : C. one foot, circling the other fair, and a beautiful dance in the center, finishing an outside edge to spiral. It was beautifully executed. He circled half a dozen times on one foot. Considering the fact that he had been skating hard all afternoon, the exhibition was wonderful. His figure is almost perfect for this work. He nearly fell again, but made wonderful recovery. He was trying very difficult skating, but obviously found the ice too hard. Undeterred by his falls, he kept trying most difficult backward spins and executed them successfully on several occasions. Lovely backward edge on outside foot. John Machado, Ottawa, came on ly with a dash in an "S"' before music started. He raced down beautifully, jumped and changed to back inside circle. He tried successfully the spins that had brought Rogers to ice and did some very pretty | spirals and seemed to combine a grapevine and Virginia creeper all one, showing wonderful balance. covered the whole rink with his ate, patterns and did some wonderful spins other on one foot, without touching | to the ground or losing his balance, jumping and changing edge direction during the jump frequently. He finished with a long, beautifully executed jump and straight run out to the center of the den reversing on the way. Duncan Hodgson, the present holder of the Singles Championship, showed clearly by his exhibition his right to the title. He showed wonderful grace and speed. His skatthe was very rhythmic, keeping time per- was with the music. He changed feet and edge with the greatest of ease. He executed some beautiful spins on both edges. He I the E. V. the MacTavish, W. Badgley, Mr. P. S. and ice and used loss with executed. heel, little strikingly four to the Your 386 MacLaren | The thermometer is carefully watched, and at six degrees vents are closed. At the Rideau rink, owing to the spell of very cold weather, the ice was exceptionally hard, and even local skaters found it a little difficult. Method of Awarding Marks. An innovation this year is the compulsory skating of singles figures by all ladies and men who entered the pairs and fours. object of this is educational. It was thought that by compelling these tests, the competitors would encouraged to enter the singles events in coming years and would gain confidence by this experience. So far as marks are concerned, those awarded in the obligatory figures only constitute a small proportion of the total obtainable. In the tests for the ladies and men entering the singles competition, the obligatory figures are naturally very important, and 60 per cent of the marks obtainable go to the execution of these set figures. But, in the pairs and fours. the principal part of the contest is skating of an original program to music. The individual skating consequently does not carry a large percentage of marks, and forms only one twelfth of the total possible to the fours. Some of the competitors were A little nervous, but the majority agreed that the experiment was well worth trying, and was likely to improve very materially the standard of skating in the Dominion. Tests For Ladies in Pairs' and Fours. Following tests for the ladies' for all entering pairs fours. singles, came chin obligatory figures skate the first four figures outlined These a ladies were called on to above, and they did so in very good style indeed. The competitors in this event were as follows: Mrs. D. P. Secord, Ottawa: Mrs. R. 0. Johnson, Montreal: Miss S. Pepler, Toronto; Miss F. Wilson, Ottawa: K. Capreol, Toronto; Miss E. Blair, Ottawa; Miss B. MacDougall, Montreal, and Miss T. Cockburn, Montreal. again it is difficult to praise one without saying something nice of every one. One a figure in which there was a very decided star Was the fourth. The brackets executed by Miss Blair were as good as most of those performed by the men in the afternoon. This lady and Miss Wilson both showed the result of very good training and assiduous practice. The other ladies all did very well in three of the figures. Miss Capreol of Toronto had particularly good style. She had all the grace of the other competitors and seemed to have a little more power, which enabled her to put down larger curves than most of her ly, but rushed de the program through rivals. Mrs. Secord skated splendida little fast. Miss MacDougall was conspicuously good. In this event Miss Rathburn was confident and very All efficienties who skated made it abundantly evident that their work in the pairs and fours in the evening would be of a very high order. When it is considered that all these figures described above had to be skated three times in succession by each competitor, the difficulty of the task becomes apparent. The impression remains on the ice and the judges are able to see how ! well each competitor achieves the triple repetition. Marks in this way are awarded for accurate placing. Marks are also awarded for the shape of the curves and for the clearness of the outline. If in making a curve "snow" is thrown up, the judge immediately knows that the edge is not quite true, and marks are docked. These two tests are the all-important ones. The size of the curve will give additional marks, if all else is equal, but the quality of the curves and the accuracy of the repetition | are the main points considered. This concluded the morning's skating. At 1.30, competitors, officials and visitors were guests of the Minto Club at lunch. Colonel Edwards, the popular president of the local club, welcomed the visitors and said how gratifying it was to see so many present from Montreal and Toronto. He also announced that arrangements had been made for the members and guests of the three clubs competing, to skate at Government House tomorrow afternoon from 3 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. He invited members of all skating clubs in Canada the United States to I visit the Minto and make use of the club premises whenever they were 111 Ottawa. About 25 guests from Toronto and 18 from Montreal were present. The Afternoon Program. Men's singles, obligatory figures- Five figures were set for competitors in this event: 1. Outside backward double 3. 2. Rockers inside right foot; rockers inside left foot. 3. Counters outside right foot; counters outside left 4. Change loops forward right; change loops forward left. 5. Backward bracket--change bracket, right foot and left foot. The three competitors in this event were Melville Rogers of the Toronto Skating Club, John Machado of the Minto Club, Ottawa, and Duncan McI. Hodgson of the Winter Club, Montreal, the present holder. These three men were 90 nearly perfect that it must have been diffcult for the judges to differentiate. The first two figures seemed to be skated perfectly by all three competitors, Rogers and Hodgson being slightly weaker in the second part of the second figure. In the third figure, Rogers slipped on a change of edge and Hodgson put the balance foot down once. Machado seemed to have a slight lead on his opponents at the end of this figure. The difficult loops and brackets were splendidly executed by all three and the ordinary spectator could find no fault with either. Rogers' brackets were particularly fine and Hodgson's loops were magnifcent. Machado skated the figures with apparent ease but perhaps his outlines were not quite go clear as those of the other two. At the end of the performance, very few of the spectators or competitors even could have decided in which order to place the three. The situation was well demonstrated by the various opinions heard. "Very good," came loudly from Mr. 0. B. Haycock as Melville Rogers completed his last figure, which meant to indicate that in this gentleman's opinion the Toronto man came Arst. "Very good: he wins" came equally loudly from a well known local sportsman Tahn Machado completed his programme. This was qualified by the remark which followed. "Wasn't he my neighbor for years!" "Excellent" wae the opinion of a Montreal man when Hodgson skated off after fifth figure. "The

Article from 18 Feb 1922The Ottawa Citizen(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

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