The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in. corporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1928. AN OUTDOOR SPORT

Hokitika Guardian, 22 August 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in. corporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1928. AN OUTDOOR SPORT

Anyone picking up Monday’s papers in Now Zealand would be struck with the amount of space devoted to football in all its codes. Football lias become a great winter game within the Dominion, and may' be classed as our superior field of sport. But the honor is not always to the winning team if to achieve the honors, the spirit of the occasion is overlooked. The “Lyttelton Times’’ hit the position off very well when it remarked that after all the game’s the thing. The paper went on to remark that when the teams of international status meet to try con'cjlusioiiis. keenness' to win ppssi.bly reaches such a pitch that nerves get a little on edge and tempers must he kept under iron control. The players are not merely the best exponents of tbe code that is being played, but representative sportsmehi of the country whose colours they wear, and if, as we bad occasion to remark early" in the tour of the New Zealand Rugby Union team in South Africa, the result ,of the visits is not to strengthen the ties that bind the sports lovers of both countries, then the sooner they are abandoned tbe better. The report from Dunedin of tbe Rugby League test game does not make pleasant reading, and, after making all allowances possible for the strain placed on tbe players by reason of the occasion, it will leave an unpleasant memory. Games, while they should be played with all the skill an individual or a team can command, are after all, only games, and players and public alike must not place too much importance on them. Nothing that can be regarded ns vital rests upon tbe result, a fact that South African papers have been stressing to counter the idea that defeat of the local team in tbe third best match would lie a disaster for tbe country. Tbe only tiling at issue is the outcome of a game which can well be as honourably lost as honourably won. Tbe desire to excel is natural, but if it cannot be done without loss of temper then even victory would be of little value and of credit at all. If international games of any description are going to become gladiatorial contests, then they must lie opposed in the interests of true sport. Tbe spirit in which any game is played is no unimportant tiling, and the public should lie able to look to those who have reached international rank in any game, not only, for a skilful exposition on the field of play, liut also for a display of that spirit of sportsmanship that we all like to think characterises us as a race. The spirit of the game is, to our mind, much more important than the outcome of any ■match or series of matches, , and afl occurrences on the field, such sis those reported from Dunedin, would lower the standard, it would lie better to do without these games than run any risk. Nothing probabl.v, would be gained by attempting to allocate responsibility for the ill-feeling shown in the League test, but it would lie as well if visitors and home players alike realised that there is a standard of sportsmanship to be maintained as well as a standard of skill to tie attained.