1950 British Empire Games

IV British Empire Games

Host city	Auckland, New Zealand
Nations participating	12
Athletes participating	590
Events	87
Opening ceremony	4 February
Closing ceremony	11 February
Officially opened by	Bernard Freyberg
Athlete's Oath	Stan Lay
Main venue	Eden Park
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The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. The main venue was Eden Park, although the closing ceremonies were held at Western Springs Stadium, see New Zealand at the 1950 British Empire Games. The fourth games were originally awarded to Montreal, Canada and were to be held in 1942 but were cancelled due to World War II.^[1]

Participating teams[]

(Teams participating for the first time in bold).

Games venue[]

The main stadium was at Eden Park. Other venues were the Auckland Town Hall (boxing and wrestling), the Drill Hall (fencing), Western Springs (cycling and the closing ceremony) Lake Karapiro (rowing), and the Newmarket Olympic Pool (swimming). Accommodation was at the Ardmore Teachers' Training College, 23 miles (37 kilometres) away at South Auckland. Total attendance was 246,694; higher than the following three Games, 1954 (159,636), 1958 (178,621) and 1962 (224,987).^[2]

Medals by country[]

At the 1950 British Empire Games all the teams won at least one medal.

  *   Host nation (New Zealand)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia (AUS)	34	27	19	80
2	England (ENG)	19	16	13	48
3	New Zealand (NZL)*	10	22	21	53
4	Canada (CAN)	8	9	13	30
5	South Africa (SAF)	8	4	8	20
6	Scotland (SCO)	5	3	2	10
7	Malaya (MAL)	2	1	1	4
8	Fiji (FIJ)	1	2	2	5
9	Ceylon (CEY)	1	2	1	4
10	Nigeria (NGR)	0	1	0	1
	Southern Rhodesia (SRH)	0	1	0	1
	Wales (WAL)	0	1	0	1
Totals (12 nations)		88	89	80	257

Medals by event[]

Athletics[]

Boxing[]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Flyweight	(SCO)	(CEY)	(SAF)
Bantamweight	Johnny van Rensburg (SAF)	Albert Perera (CEY)	Len Walters (CAN)
Featherweight	(SCO)	(RHO)	Peter Brander (ENG)
Lightweight	(ENG)	Billy Barber (AUS)	Jim Barnden (NZL)
Welterweight	Terry Ratcliffe (ENG)	(AUS)	Alex Obeysekere (CEY)
Middleweight	Theunis van Schalkwyk (SAF)	James Beal (NZL)	(CAN)
Light heavyweight	Don Scott (ENG)	Chris Rollinson (NZL)	(AUS)
Heavyweight	Frank Creagh (NZL)	(AUS)	none awarded

Cycling[]

Track[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Time Trial	Russell Mockridge (AUS)	1:13.4	Sid Patterson (AUS)	1:13.5	Tommy Godwin (ENG)	1:13.6
Sprint 1000 m	Russell Mockridge (AUS)	2–0	Sid Patterson (AUS)	0–2	Graham Avery (NZL)	2–1
4000 m Ind. Pursuit	Cyril Cartwright (ENG)	5:16.3	Russell Mockridge (AUS)	5:27.0	Les Lock (NZL)	5:26.7
10-mile Scratch	Bill Heseltine (AUS)	23:23.4	Les Lock (NZL)		Ken Caves (AUS)

Road[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Road race	Hector Sutherland (AUS)	3'13:06.4	Nick Carter (NZL)	3'13:06.5	(AUS)	3'13:06.6

Diving[]

Men's events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
3 m springboard	George Athans (CAN)	169.21	Peter Heatly (SCO)	168.80	Jack Stewart (NZL)	168.17
10 m platform	Peter Heatly (SCO)	156.07	George Athans (CAN)	145.36	Frank Murphy (AUS)	129.40

Women's events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
3 m springboard	Edna Child (ENG)	126.58	(AUS)	124.59	Lynda Hunt (CAN)	115.38
10 m platform	Edna Child (ENG)	70.89	(AUS)	65.64	(AUS)	59.93

Fencing[]

Men's events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Foil	René Paul (ENG)	7 wins	John Fethers (AUS)	6 wins	Georges Pouliot (CAN)	4 wins
Foil team	England Arthur Pilbrow Robert Anderson René Paul	20 wins	New Zealand Austen Gittos Gordon Dearing Murray Gittos Malcolm Millar	13 wins	Canada Georges Pouliot Robert Desjarlais Edward Brooke	12 win
Épée	Charles de Beaumont (ENG)	7 wins	Robert Anderson (ENG)	6 wins	Ivan Lund (AUS)	5 wins
Épée team	Australia Allan Jay Ivan Lund Charles Stanmore	3 wins	England René Paul Charles de Beaumont Robert Anderson	2 wins	Canada Georges Pouliot Robert Desjarlais Edward Brooke	1 win
Sabre	Arthur Pilbrow (ENG)		Robert Anderson (ENG)		Georges Pouliot (CAN)
Sabre team	England Charles de Beaumont Arthur Pilbrow Robert Anderson	4 wins	Canada Georges Pouliot Robert Desjarlais Edward Brooke	2 wins	Australia Jock Gibson	1 win

Women's events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Foil	Mary Glen-Haig (ENG)	7 wins	Patricia Woodroffe (NZL)	6 wins	Catherine Pym (AUS)	5 wins

Lawn bowls[]

Rowing[]

All events were for men only. The events were held at Lake Karapiro, 160 kilometres (99 mi) south of Auckland. Three special trains took 1500 people to Cambridge on 7 February 1950.^[3]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Single sculls	Mervyn Wood (AUS)	7:46.8	Tony Rowe (ENG)	7:54.0	Ian Stephen (SAF)	8:04.0
Double sculls	Mervyn Wood and Murray Riley (AUS)	7:22	Joe Schneider and Des Simonson (NZL)	7:32	Ken Tinegate and Jack Brown (ENG)	7:39
Coxless pair	Wal Lambert and Jack Webster (AUS)	7:58	David Gould and Humphrey Gould (NZL)	8:10	none awarded
Coxed four	New Zealand Ted Johnson John O'Brien Bill James Bill Carroll Colin Johnstone	7:17.2	Australia	7:24.0	none awarded
Eights	Australia Edward Pain Phil Cayzer Bob Tinning	6:27	New Zealand Bruce Culpan Donald Adam Don Rowlands Edwin Smith Grahame Jarratt Kerry Ashby Murray Ashby Thomas Engel William Tinnock	6:27.5	England Tony Butcher Hank Rushmere Michael Lapage Patrick Bradley Peter de Giles Peter Kirkpatrick Dickie Burnell William Windham Jack Dearlove	6:40

Swimming[]

Men's events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
110 yd freestyle	Peter Salmon (CAN)	1:00.4	Frank O'Neill (AUS)	1:00.6	Pat Kendall (ENG)	1:01.8
440 yd freestyle	Garrick Agnew (AUS)	4:54.6	Graham Johnston (SAF)	60.8	Buddy Lucas (NZL)	4:55.5
1650 yd freestyle	Graham Johnston (SAF)	19:55.7	(CAN)	20:08.3	Buddy Lucas (NZL)	20:10.1
110 yd backstroke	Jackie Wiid (SAF)	1:07.7	John Brockway (WAL)	1:08.0	Bert Kinnear (SCO)	1:10.8
220 yd breaststroke	David Hawkins (AUS)	2:54.1	Roy Romain (ENG)	2:54.2	(AUS)	2:56.0
4×220 yd freestyle relay	New Zealand Buddy Lucas Lyall Barry Michael Amos Noel Chambers	9:27.7	Australia Garrick Agnew Frank O'Neill	9:34.5	England Donald Bland Jack Hale Pat Kendall	9:36.8
3×110 yd medley relay	England Jack Hale Pat Kendall Roy Romain	3:26.6	Canada Allen Gilchrist Lucien Beaumont Peter Salmon	3:29.4	New Zealand John Shanahan Lyall Barry Peter Mathieson	3:30.1

Women's events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
110 yd freestyle	Marjorie McQuade (AUS)	1:09.0	Margaret Wellington (ENG)	1:09.6	Joan Harrison (SAF)	1:10.7
440 yd freestyle	Joan Harrison (SAF)	5:26.4	Margaret Wellington (ENG)	5:33.7	Denise Norton (AUS)	5:33.8
110 yd backstroke	Judy-Joy Davies (AUS)	1:18.6	Jean Stewart (NZL)	1:19.1	Helen Yate (ENG)	1:20.5
220 yd breaststroke	Elenor Gordon (SCO)	3:01.7	Nancy Lyons (AUS)	3:03.6	Elizabeth Church (ENG)	3:10.3
4×110 yd freestyle relay	Australia Denise Spencer Denise Norton Judy-Joy Davies Marjorie McQuade	4:44.9	New Zealand Joan Hastings Kristin Jacobi Norma Bridson Winifred Griffin	4:48.7	England Grace Wood Helen Yate Lillian Preece Margaret Wellington	4:56.0
3×110 yd medley relay	Australia Judy-Joy Davies Marjorie McQuade Nancy Lyons	3:53.8	England Elizabeth Church Helen Yate Margaret Wellington	3:56.6	Scotland Elenor Gordon Margaret Girvan	3:58.9

Water polo[]

Water polo was contested by men's teams only, with New Zealand and Australia the only two teams entered. The matches were played at the Olympic Pool in Newmarket.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Tournament	Australia Peter Bennett Bruce Bourke Herman Doerner Ronald Faulds Colin French Kevin Hallett Malcolm Hastie Frank O'Neill	3 wins	New Zealand Charles Brown Jim Cameron Terry Harris Bob Hatchwell Barrie Hutchinson Tom Logan Edward Raven Jim Walsh Neil Williams Wally Williams	0 wins	none awarded

Weightlifting[]

All events were for men only.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Bantamweight	(MAL)	655 lb	Rosaire Smith (CAN)	615 lb	Keith Caple (AUS)	600 lb
Featherweight	Koh Eng Tong (MAL)	685 lb	Julian Creus (ENG)	670 lb	(SAF)	640 lb
Lightweight	Jim Halliday (ENG)	760 lb	Thong Saw Pak (MAL)	735 lb	Vern Barberis (AUS)	730 lb
Middleweight	Gerry Gratton (CAN)	795 lb	Tony George (NZL)	740 lb	(AUS)	720 lb
Light Heavyweight	(CAN)	815 lb	Issy Bloomberg (SAF)	815 lb	Tan Kim Bee (MAL)	765 lb
Heavyweight	Harold Cleghorn (NZL)	900 lb	Ray Magee (AUS)	830 lb	none awarded

Wrestling[]

All events were for men only.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Flyweight	Bert Harris (AUS)	1 win	Eric Matthews (NZL)	1 loss	none awarded
Bantamweight	Douglas Mudgway (NZL)	1 win	(AUS)	1 loss	none awarded
Featherweight	John Armitt (NZL)	3 wins	(CAN)	2 w – 1 l	Arnold Parsons (ENG)	1 w – 2 l
Lightweight	Dick Garrard (AUS)	3 wins	Morgan Plumb (CAN)	2 wins	George Hobson (NZL)	1 win
Welterweight	(CAN)	3 wins	(AUS)	3 w – 1 l	(SAF)	1 win
Middleweight	Maurice Vachon (CAN)	3 wins	Bruce Arthur (AUS)	3 w – 1 l	Callie Reitz (SAF)	2 w – 2 l
Light heavyweight	Pat Morton (SAF)	2 wins	Arthur Sneddon (NZL)	1 win	(AUS)
Heavyweight	Jim Armstrong (AUS)	3 wins	Pat O'Connor (NZL)	2 wins	Kenneth Richmond (ENG)	1 win

References[]

Further reading[]

External links[]

• "Auckland 1950". Thecgf.com. Commonwealth Games Federation.
• "Results and Medalists—1950 British Empire Games". Thecgf.com. Commonwealth Games Federation.

Preceded by Sydney

British Empire Games Auckland IV British Empire Games

Succeeded by Vancouver