CHINESE FOOTBALLERS.

Shannon News, 17 October 1922, Page 4

CHINESE FOOTBALLERS.

MAY TOUR DOMINION. There is a. prospect of a team of Chinese Rugby footballers from Hong Kong touring the Dominion next season The project is more or less ”in the air” at present,.but it is stated, that an emissary from'‘New Zealand is in Sydney - negotiating with the New South Wales Rugby League authorities with the object of arranging th 6 tour. Mr Clement.Ah Chee, who recently returned from a visit to China, states that he understood the arrangements for the tour were now being made. The team ,would play under League rules. The.players were mostly students and young fellows engaged in office work and associated with the Y.M.G.A. in Hong Kong. The Rugby footballer of Hong Kong, he added ,had already demonstrated his prowess on foreign fields. One team had -successfully toured California, and another had visited the Straits Settlements and played a series of matches. Both these teams had been so successful that the football authorities of Hong Kong were anxious to match their champions against the players of the British Dominions. He did not thin'k there would be much difficulty in arranging the tour. The Chinese players would, Mr Ah Chee thought, compare favourably with the New Zealand footballers in physique. Some, of the backs he had seen playing were perhaps a shade on the light side, but they were fast and tricky, and had cultivated the passing game to a high standard. Football in Hong Kong was purely on an .amateur basis, and was played as a recreation and not as a business. The young men who playec| the game were of good standing,, and belonged to an advanced school of Chinese who had assimilated the most progressive ideas of Western civilisation.