ATHLETIC AND SPORTING NEWS.

The bicycle and skating rink in the Mechanics' Fair building opened this week.

Kecfe, formerly pitcher of the Troys, will play on the New York Association nine next year.

Two oarsmen have succeeded in rowing in an outrigger from Rome to Paris, the voyage occupying three months.

The Turf, Field and Farm will offer an international cup, to be rowed for in August next. Ten men, including Hanlan and Lee, will contest for the prize, under the London Sportsman rules.

The Post Office Department is considering the adoption of the tricycle for use in delivering the mail in the large cities of the country. It is though that a large saving would be made in time and labor.

A novel contest took place Oct. 8 in San Francisco, Cal., between the Olympics and the Featherstone-Adams amateurs. Nine innings were played, the Olympic players using only their left hands. The game resulted in a tie - 20 to 20.

The Princeton and Columbia foot-ball elevens play a match Nov. 7 at 3 P. M. at the Polo Grounds, and on the 20th the British Foot-Ball Club of New York will play the Britannia Club of Montreal, P. Q., under the English Foot-Ball Association rules.

The Harvard College Bicycle Club seems to be waking up to the question of making bicycling and bicycle racing a feature of college athletics, and certainly they could have no more attractive one. The club indulged in a very successful and exciting game of hare and hounds last week. - [Bicycling World.

The Metropolitan team for their league season of 1883 include three first-class "batteries," viz.: Ward and Ewing, Welsh and Dorgan, and O'Neil and Clapp. The infielders will be Connor, Troy and Hankinson on the bases, and Caskins at short stop. The outfield will include Gillespie, Dorgan and Welsh. When Ewing does not catch he will cover second base. It will be seen that but three of this year's players have been retained by the Metropolitan Company for their league championship team.

The Clipper thinks that the recent fall athletic meeting was not enough of a success to warrant any ease on Harvard's part in preparing for the intercollegiate contests of next spring. "In certain sports," it says, "there was a limit put, but why it does not appear, for it surely did not induce men to enter, and detracted from the enjoyment of the occasion. The standing high jump was omitted, as was the bicycle race. If Harvard has any idea of winning the cur next year there must be a vast improvement shown at the spring meeting."

The manager of the Australian cricket players, who have succeeded in defeating almost all the elevens with whom they have contended, and who are now on their way home, states that their tour has been the greatest as yet undertaken, even surpassing in length the distance travelled by Gregory's team in 1878. They left Melbourne March 17, and are due in Sydney Nov. 16. During the eight months the Australians will have travelled 35,300 miles. The team undertook no fewer than ninety-eight journeys in England and Scotland, making an aggregate of 5,786 miles, and playing in twenty-nine different cities and towns.

Baker, who won the 100 and 220 yards dashes, in the Harvard athletic meeting, is a cousin of Wendell, the Harvard sprinter of '82, and in running resembles him greatly. He has won every event he has contested at Harvard with ridiculous ease, and bids fair to be a phenomenon. He runs easily, and in comparison with his antagonists seems to go no faster than a jog. Delafield promises well for the mile run. '85 distinguished itself in this meeting by receiving only one prize, the second in the half-mile run '86 won six first and two second prizes; '83, four first and one second; '84, three first and four second; '85, one second. - [Clipper.