FOOTBALL IN BATHTUB AT FIFTY YARDS

Chronicle (Levin), 15 July 1947, Page 6

FOOTBALL IN BATHTUB AT FIFTY YARDS

(Special Correspondent).

AUSTRALIANS CAN'T; LET SCOTT TRY IT !'• " '

Received Monday, -.7 p.m. SYDNEY, July 14. ' Is there football player in Australia or New Zealand who can guarantee to land a Rugby ball in a bathtub from a distance of 50 yards? This question has been exercising the minds and boots of enthusiasts in Victoria and New South Wales ever since the early matches of the recent All Black tour. In doing so it has helped to enrieh several deserving charities. Three codes of football flourish in Australia using the Rugby ball. Of these Union fills a comparatively minor role, being eonfmed praetically to NeW South "Wales and Queensland. League has a larger and wider following. The enthusiasm of the Victorian jjublic, however, has been captured by the ingcnious and spectacular invention kno.wn as "Australian rules. ' ' This game places the emphasis on kicking for control and distance and fabulous stories are told by devotees concerning the exploits of their favourite teams. Oue of the best of these fables reached the dignity of print when columnite "Don Wittington, ' ' himself an Australian Rules follower, attended the first match between New South Wafes and the All Blacks. In a light hearted artiele in which he compared Union favourably with Australian Rules, he stated that there were quite a few players in Melbourne who could land a ball on sixpence at 60 yards. . In the uproar that followed Whitington found it necessary to claim literary licence, shorten the distance to 50 yards and enlarge the sixpence to a bathtub' measuring three f eet in diameter. Even then the conditions had to be amended before Australian Rules players would take up the gambit. After much seeret practice im Melbourne it was decided that once out of four shots would do, that the tub would be fastened six feet high on a goal post j with the opening f acing the kicker, and that in these circumstances the ball merely had to hit the bottom of the tub. At a series of charity earnivals in Victoria and New South Wales, the eream of Australian Rules talent tried its boot. In Melbourne 25,000. people watched seven aspirants score a complete blank. They blamed tfee gusty wind and greasy ball but it was significant that the much touted Bsed Fanning who had agreed to earry the Whitington colours, failed to turn out. At Broken Hill, J. Gillespie was the only one to score. At Trumper Park, Sydney, yesterday 25 Australian Rules players entered a similar eontest. Of them Wines alone hit the bottom of the tub. The relative accuracy of Australian Rules and Rugby Union players is still unknown as Union men prudently lcepl out of the eontest. Union supporters consider, however, that the resuTUKas brought a merciful death to the legencl of the 'superior accuracy of Australian Rules men. It is probable that this opinion is shared by the majority oi thousands of Anstralians who witnessed Bob Scott's precision bombing of , tlw area above the Australian crossbar.