FOOTBALL MATCHES.

Evening Star, Issue 22443, 14 September 1936, Page 11

FOOTBALL MATCHES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—At Carisbrook last Saturday afternoon for an extra shilling one could obtain a seat inside the rad next to the grass. Being one who thought two shillings was enough to pay to see any football match, I managed to get a good position, as I thought, next to the rail, but on the outsi’o. When the big match started e cry time there was any spectacular play the people inside the rail all stood up, with the t result that the people outside the rail, including myself, could not see the game._ I hope in future that the Rugby Union will see that this obstruction is eliminated. , . . I have been told that in Great Britain the only time 1 God Save the King * is played at football matches is' when the King or one of his representatives is present. lam not disloyal, but 1 think that men should have the privilege of keeping their hats on while the above tune is being played. Ido not think it is a fair thing to expect a person to remove his hat in a cold wind such as one often experiences at Carisbrook. Ministers of the Gospel at burial services often tell relatives of the deceased not to remove their hats on account of the cold wind, so surely if we can respect the dead by leaving our hats on it would not bo out of place to respect the King with our hats on at Carisbrook under the same conditions. Last Saturday there was also quite a lot of booing going on, and on looking round I noticed several small boys and also adults indulging in this despicable habit. I believe at the community “ sing ” on Friday, 4th September, while a visiting team were there, some of the audience indulged in booing. I think it would be a good plan for school teachers to lecture the children on this unmanly principle before it becomes a habit. As to the adults, I think ,they are hopeless. Psychologists tell us that son: 3 adults have only the intelligence of a child of 12. I think it would be an insult to a child of 12 to compare them with some of the adults I heard last Saturday at football. An American writer says; “ The civili: 1 races of the world are biologically plunging downhill.” and he quotes as evidence of this the fact that the army mental tests have shown that there arc many people with no sense. Dean Inge, in the ‘ Edinburgh Review,’ ouotes the same facts as evidence for mental degeneration in civilised countries, I am of the same opinion after hearing some of the adults last Saturday afternoon.—l am, etc., Ci.::a.\ Scout. September 14.