SPORT IN BRITAIN IN FULL SWING AGAIN

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 3, 4 January 1940, Page 2

SPORT IN BRITAIN IN FULL SWING AGAIN

Well, we’re off again. After a sudden stop and then time out for readjustment, following the impact of war, British sport of various kinds has been put into gear once more. So this department can offer anew the old frequent excursion into British athletic fields. Which, though altered from their peace-time aspect, are scenes of animation that increases all the while as the country settles down to live as normally as it can in the abnormal conditions of the present day. When hostilities broke out, the obvious course for sports folks, amateur and professional, was to hold everything. Or. more literally, not to hold anything, except committee meetings, until the nation had outlined its demands on the individual and some estimate could be made of the place, if any, to be occupied by organised civilian sport in the war-time scheme of things. In other words, it was a case of following the policy recommended on_a certain historic occasion by that famous English statesman, the late Mr. H. H. Asquith, when he said: “Wait and See.” What of 1940? For the summer sport people this was not such a difficult course to follow. The track and field athletes, archers, baseball players, bowlers, cricketers, cyclists, croquet players, golfers, lawn tennis players, motorists, motor-cyclists, pony polo players, quoit throwers, riflemen, swimmers and yachtsmen had all reached, or very nearly reached, the end of their serious 1939 activities, and this question was, still is, What of 1940? Nobody knows the answer to that one. But the strange progress, or rather lack of it, in the first two months of “delayed action” war, led to a good deal of optimistic forecasting, and there is talk—for example—of firstclass county cricket taking place next summer. Winter sports devotees, on the other hand, were confronted with a more pressing problem. Because the bombshell dropped on the threshold of the 1939-40 season of the three sorts of football—Soccer, Rugby and Rugby League —badminton, billiards and snooker, field hockey, lacrosse, boxing, jrosS-country running, fencing, ice hockey, rackets, squash rackets, real tennis, table tennis, weight-lifting and wr** t,s ng. Co-operative Basis. At first, the club organising these activities figured that they would not be able to carry on—owing to anticipated air raids, absence of members, loss of revenue, appropriation of grounds and club-houses for State purposes, difficulties of transport, “control” of various kinds, and the nightly “black-out.” But things did not work out as restrictively as people in general expected—up to the time of writing, air raids on Britain had been almost a negligible factor—and, one by one, threads that had been dropped were picked up, and clubs, with war-time resources of men and money assessed, set about doing their best, on lerative basis, to carry on the sporting Tuie of the country for the greatest good of the greatest number.) The competitive aspect faded into the background, behind the slogan “sport .'or sporty sake.” To" cope with the redistribution of che population that was caused by the demands of national service and the evacuation of business houses from the cities, clubs welcomed into temporary membership, or were happy f O receive as guests, athletes who nappened to be in the neighbourhood. And in this way both the clubs and the individuals were able to take up tneir sport again, except in cases vvlure clubs had had to surrender their he idquarters or were so short of personnel ■that they could not pay their way. “Shamleeks.” Some clubs joined forces, in order to solve their problems the more easily —as witness the fusion of the London Irish and London Welsh Rugby Football Clubs into an organisation known as the “Shamleeks,” a name subequently shortened to “Sheiks,” which s much easier to shout —but surprisrgly few found it necessary to sus2nd activities altogether “for the \ration.” To-day, activity prevails again on .11 three sectors of the British football front. Meaning Association Foot-

ON ALL THREE “FRONTS' RUGBY UNION, SOCCER AND RUGBY LEAGUE

ball, Rugby Union Football and the Rugby League game. All three have enthusiastic followings in Britain, where they originated, but far and away the most popular, either as an amateur game to play or a professional game to watch, is the Association variety, commonly known as Soccer, a title given to it by Oxford and Cambridge undergraduates in its early days for the same good reason that they call breakfast “Brekker,” Rugby “Rugger” and one of Rugby Football’s greatest ornaments, W. W. Wakefield, “Makers.” Whatever that reason may be. Rugby Union Is Amateun Soccer and Rugby League are pla. - ed by both professionals and with the limelight overwhelmingly on the former, but Rugby Union is a rigidly amateur affair, with more players than watchers, though big crowds are attracted to the rousing spectacle offered by international ana other outstanding games. Rugby Union is a nationwide diversion; Rugby League a pastime popular to Britain only in the North of England. In Soccer, the proper complement of a team is 11 men, and it is a breach of the rules for any one of them except the goalkeeper to touch the ball intentionally with his_ hands during play. In both sorts of Rugger however, the ball is handled as well as kicked, though it must not be thrown forward, and teams are made up of either 15 or 13 men, the former for Rugby Union, the latter for Rugby League. That, then, is the disposition on the British football front. And to show; the normal situation in perspective £ would add that while the English Rugby Union has a thousand clubs in membership and while Rugby League is a localised interest in only half a dozen or so of England’s forty counties, the Football Association, governing Soccer, has affiliated to it no fewer than 43,000 clubs, representing at least 750,000 unpaid players, 88 Clubs This host of amateur Soccer players is completely put in the shade, so far as publicity and public interest are concerned, by a small body of professionals —not more than 5000—whose most spectacular operations are associated with the 88 major clubs in the four divisions of the English League. League and cup matches in which these clubs engage are such a highly appreciated form of public entertainment here that in ordinary times the seasonal attendance at them reaches the astronomical figure of 25,000,000. Well, after the war clouds broke, all three varieties of British football came to a standstill, and the people concerned with them were left free to answer the country’s call to national service. Though as a matter of fact, a great number had done so already and were members of the territorial army, the special constabulary or Air Raid Precaution units. “Regional” Play Then followed a pause to consider the position, to see what part civilian football had to play in the life ot a nation at war. It was found to be a considerable part. And all three game, got under way again, the Soccer anc. Rugby League authorities devising “regional” competitions as substitutes for their ordinary league competitions —this was done to minimise the need for travel and to overcome difficulties inherent in such wartime measures acrowd restrictions and the “black ou. —and the Rugger folk doing their best, quite “unofficially,” to give opportunities for play to those who needed them. By “unofficially” I mean without the assistance of the Rugby Union. It was the clubs, not the Union, that set Rugger going again. In spite of the fact that they lost so many members owing to the war, club officials found that a considerable number of people still wanted to play—men in j “reserved” occupations, men waiting J to be called to the colours, men too young to be conscripted yet, men on i leave from the services—and, by linkj ing up the available players and availJ able facilities, it was found possible to , arrange more and more fixtures. So that now there is an extensive pro- | gramme again every Saturday afternoon in the Rugby Union field, just as there is in the realms of Rugby ! League and Soccer.