COUNTRY FIRST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 69, 24 June 1942, Page 8

COUNTRY FIRST

TRAVEL BAN EFFECT ON FOOTBALL IN BRITAIN One or two football clubs came in for a certain amount of criticism over the Easter holiday (writes the Star's London correspondent). It all came about over the travelling! ban Avhich was imposed 6n members of the forces during the holiday period. This meant that clubs which of necessity depend on their members being given army or air force leave on Saturday afternoons to make up their team were in some cases left stranded. Blackpool, for instance, found it necessary to scratch from both their holiday matches and had to retire altogether from the Gup Tie competition. Some managers protested that their players should have been excluded from this restriction. It was certainly hard luck in cases where teams were seriously depleted, but club managers must learn to take the rough with the smooth these days—even if there seems to be more rough than smooth —and they would do well to remember that their sport has not been nearly so hard hit as others have been and try to emulate the spirit of, say, the racehorse trainer. This travelling ban was imposed in the national interests, and that must come before the convenience of football clubs. Taken, too, from the point of view of the average soldier or airman, it would have been most unfair to have allowed a small number of men to break the ban simply because they happened to be footballers in civilian life while literally thousands of others were tied to their billets or camps.