Canuck’s voice just needs a rest wim Kearney .. TRE SPECTATOR THE VOICE of the Canucks is spending the summer “tending his Galiano Island vegetable garden, playing a little golf and denying stories that he has retired from hockey broadcusting. At ~ Teast, he says, he hopes he - hasn’t. What he has retired from is 24 _ years of doing the home and away "radio broadcasts on NW. But he wants to keep hand in and would “Jove to do about 20 to 25 telecasts a ~ season, ’ ‘So far, no offers. But he’s bound to get some, for there’s no more competent, dow n- ~ the-middle play-by-play man than Jim Robson, now 59 going on 25. He has lost none of the youthful exuberance that has marked his 42 years behind the mike. He has, however, lost his taste for constant travel, and it really came home to him this past season when the Canucks made that fine Stanley Cup run into the middle of June. At the end of it, he was saying on the blower from Galiano, it occurred to him that since last Christmas he had spent only seven nights at his island home. That wasn’t what he had in mind when he and wife Bea sold their Vancouver home to move away from the city in 1987. Next-to- nature peace and quiet is a treasure that should be lived, not just sam- pled. Thus the cutting of the radio connection. As the first and only Canucks play-by-play man since the team joined the NHL in 1970, Robson has logged more air miles than most of the pilots flying the machines he has travelled on. How many? He hasn't kept track, but says: “Maybe you can figure it out. A few years ago, before the schedule went up to 84 games, I saw a story that said the Canucks were the most travelled team in the league —- 75,000 miles (120,750 km) annual- ly. But i can teil you this: in the last two years I did 222 home and away games and spent 221 nights away from home.” Add another 25,000 miles (40,250 km) annually to take in pre- season and playoff games, plus expansion into the southernmost United States, and Robson probably has 2.5 million miles (4 million km) on the odometer. And that’s just for NHL games. An entire generation has grown to maturity unaware that he flew up and down the coast and out to the prairies for most of the 1960s as the voice of the Western League Canucks. Keep one posture for all your clubs ONE OF the more common . faults of golfers is the inabili- - ty to create the same swing : path with different clubs. . By Doug Andrews Contributing Writer Students rarely have trouble with posture when hitting the short- er clubs because they must bend more at the waist to allow the club to rest comfortably on the ground. The fault becomes more appar- ent as they begin to use longer clubs when there is a tendency to stand more upright and reach out more with the arms, causing the swing path and posture to change. If this sounds like you, here are two drills to help you. 1. To puty yourself in a good pos- ture position, take your pitching wedge, grip it and hold it out in front of you with your arms extend- ed, while standing upright. Next, simply relax your knees (slightly flexed) so that you feel springy on your feet. Finally tilt your upper body for- ward (bending at the waist) until the golf club touches the ground. Now that you have a good pos- ture position, let your arms hang naturally from your shoulders. This drill can be practiced at home with- out hitting any bails. 2. This drill should be done at a practice facility with the aid of a “DOUG ANDREWS — partner. Starting with your wedge. again follow the first drill to put yourself in a good posture position. Have your partner take the wedge out of your hand (without you moving) and place a longer club in your hand. Even though your new club is longer your body position the same. This should help you check the same swing path. Have your partner place a ball down and then swing away. Continue this dill until you have hit every club at least three times. If you repeat these drills enough, soon your posture position will become a habit. Doug Andrews is the head golf professional at the Seymour Creek Golf Centre in North Vancouver. Le THE NORTH Shore Phantoms (above) face Central Okanagan for the provincial B Cup Champlonships at 4 p.m, this Saturday (July 9) at Hugh Boyd Park In Richmond. Othar Norih Shore girls’ teams co: the under-19 West Van 1 Su) uperstars (2 p.m. ting for provincial cup honors this Saturday In Richmond Include kick-off) and the under-19 North Shore Amazons (2 p.m.). The North Shore Selects’ under-19 boys play at noon on Sunday In Richmond in the A cup final. It was another time and another station, CK WX, which preceded CKNW as the big radio sports out- let in town. In the summer he was the voice of the PCL baseball Mouaties and, in the fall, the B.C. Lions. Who was behind the mike when the Lions won their first ever Grey Cup in 1964? That guy Robson again. Has any Canadian sports broad- caster covered as wide a spectrum? I doubt it. Consider how and where he started: as a 17-year-old basket- ball broadcaster in Port Alberni in 1952. That was his first radio job after he left high school in Maple Ridge. Went there to work for apprentice wages and rose to local fame with the rise of the Alberni Athietics to the 1955 Canadian senior men’s championship. The Aiberni Valley had gone basketball-crazy. He remembers that while he was making a name for himseif during that final, one of the print reporters at the scene — on his first out-of- town assignment for the Vancouver Sun — was beginning his way up, too. A chap named Fotheringham. Robson’s work in Alberni won him promotion to WX, where he worked 14 years before NW, which had purchased the local NHL radio rights days before, hired him as a one-sport man in August 1970. The rest, as they say, is history. Well over 2,000 play-by-play NHL broadcasts and, amazingly, never any controversy; never a charge of homerism; respected alike by colleagues and the athletes he covered; the complete profes- sional, named two years ago to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The only guy who ever bad- mouthed him was the late Al Davidson. When Robson was still at WX, NW sports director Davidson always referred to him as the bush leaguer on Burrard Street. Much to the controversial Davidson’s disgust, Robson never rose to the bait. Within a year of joining Davidson’s station, Big Al was hailing him as the best in the worid, Flattery got him nowhere. Jim still insists the best-ever hockey broadcaster was Danny Gallivan. Beach creature Rose sets for Kits NORTH VANCOUVER'’S Becky Rose teamed with sandmate Monica Lueg to post an impres- sive second-place finish in the: first event of the Jose Cuervo beach volleyball series last weekend in Edmonton. By A.P. McCredie Sports Reporter And while Edmonton may not come to mind as a bastion of beach culture. this weekend's stop on the 80 spacious ove: “wered practice ste. ons Innovative target design f Floodilit for evening practice ! Fully stocked CPGA 1 Golf Shop I - Coming soon: 1 Short game practice area { Convenient hours: I 9am. - 1pm. Mon. - Fri. Sam. - 10pm. Sat. - Sun. four-city tour certainly does. Rose and Lueg, along with other professional and amateur beach volleyball players, will take over Kits beach in Vancouver on Saturday and Sunday as part of Volleyball Canada’s Beach Doubles National Tour. Once the third and fourth Jose Cuervo events are completed — in Toronto and Montreal -— the top 16 men 4nd eight women will be accredited as professional players and have guaranteed spots at the Jim Beam National Champion- ships at Spanish Banks in late August. Rose, 31, is one of the premiere volleyball players in the country, and the duo are currently consid- ered the best pro beach team in the country. And while the success on this summer's tour is important to the team, the real prize awaits in Atlanta. For the first time ever, beach volleyball will be a medal sport at the 1996 Olympic Games. ¢ Nest GOLF PRACTICE FACILITY | te lessons A6 fo eee ‘SERIES (our ssost popular lesson package) - $1 79 (save $20) Call the Golf for more info (Lessons must be purchased by July 31/94) LESSON PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS! CPGA Professionals i ® Doug Andrews (Head Pro} © Jason Paukkunen © Kevin McAllister a Private teaching area Wide variery of lesson packages Video instruction available