FOOTBALL IN JERUSALEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 144, 15 July 1909, Page 4

FOOTBALL IN JERUSALEM.

DIFFICULTIES OF TEACHING GOOD SPORTSiIAXSUIP. » The Turkish revolution in July of last year has made England and everything English very popular in Jerusalem. Cricket and football share this popu ; larity to the full. Ottomans have no national outdoor games. They prefer spending their spare time in the public cafes drinking sherbet, smoking juargilhehs, and playing cards. A few years ago, however, the British .schools in Jerusalem introduced their national games, and the native schoolboys took to them as ducks take io water. A great many lessons had to be learnt before a good game could be played. The idea of a captain had to be inculcated. Boys in the East do not easily submit to the authority of fellow-boys. One Saturday a captain ordered a player to take up a certain position on the football field.. The .boy simply refused to go, saying that another position of bis own choice was more suitable to bim. The captain stood helpless. Charging at football was always taken «s an act of spite and malice, and always resulted in a fight. Cases' of loss of tcmpe r by boys for failing to catch a I ball, or for being outdone by their opi ponents, were of daily occurrence. A I victory usually occasioned a quarral, ! and a loss utter dejection and diseour- ! agement, Boys would withdraw from | a game because their captain bantered ! tliein about a bad catch or a miss at goal. A spirit of malice existed be- : tween rival teams. All these defects j have more or less disappeared. Theuc | are three boys' schools in Jerusalem ■ which play football and cricket matches | against each other. From October to i April football is practised, then cricket j *s played till July, when the boys go on ! their summer vacation.

One of the most "interesting things one observes is the use of English words, such as "goal," "boundary/' "not out," "well caught," and "well plaved" by boys who arc totally ignorant" of English.