SUNDAY GAMES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 169, 11 April 1919, Page 6

SUNDAY GAMES

.INNOVATION FAVOURED BY DEMOBILISED MEN. One legacy which the war is likely to leave us is a much wider indulgence in Sunday athletics (says the London "Times"). Sunday baseball matches on public grounds became a popular feature in London when American troops began to arrive on this sido-of the Atlantic. Now we are, getting i tennis matches between Manchester and Queen's Club nlayed on Sunday. As demobilisation of the armies proceeds and more men come home fi-om France the demand for Sunday games will increase. That, at any rate, is tho belief of many officers, and it is shared by chaplains who have been at the front. Sunday has been the regular day for football matches among the troops, and English clergy have, not only refereed Ihe games, but have taken part in them as players with downright good will and enthusiasm. Thousands of men who are now coming out of the Army are finding Sunday dull at home. They have learned that attendance at clnlreh sorvico in the morning has fitted in very well with football in the afternoon, and perhaps a "mug-song" ill tho evening, and some of them are not inclined to return to a programme which might or might not include attendance'at a place of worship, but otherwise consisted of eating, sleeping, and loafing about. Sunday play, of course, lias been general in certain games for yeajs, and is on the increase. It is common knowledge that tho golf courses around London are more crowded on Sunday than on another day of the week. Tennis on private 1,-iwiis, too, is played in every suburb. About the marshes north and cast of London there is whippet, racing on Sundays. The question now being asked is whether Sunday spovts are to be put on a ,proper footing, and what attitude will the churches take towards any movement to enable the young men who wish to do so to take part in games or to watch others play them. Labour opinion favours rational recreation on Sunday if it does not involve a seven-days working week for anyone engaged in providing the recreation.