OTHER PEOPLE'S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 August 1940, Page 3

OTHER PEOPLE'S IDEAS

THE RUGBY FINAL

(Jo the Editor.)

Sii —I am not interested in Rugby and do not attend matches, but I was much amused by the letter appearing in your issue of Tuesday by "Old Carterton Player." as it. aroused memories, and this is not intended as a reply. Overlooking the fact that your correspondent did not even give, so I am informed. the correct scorers in this final he regales us with a little ancient history in an attempt to prove that North Wairarapa has always been hostile to the "lily-white" Carterton players. Now. the present generation have plenty of more important matters to occupy their minds, without troubling how their fathers barracked in the dim and distant past, or to assist in "shaking the dust from the bones of past giants.” But ancient history by "old players" can have a boomerang effect. Take, for instance, his statement that another club was started near Carterton to weaken the latter and provide a more even competition. If my memory serves me. it was an old Carterton player who opposed tooth ancl nail the formation of this "mushroom club." as he called it. but finished up by playing for it and helping to win the senior championship, as captain. 1 believe. Later he appeared at several meetings of the Wairarapa Rugby Union as a delegate representing this "mushroom club." And coming to the ‘'booing," one cannot help thinking that the cause of it —rough play—is also a legacy handed down by certain clubs and players through the generations. Was it not an old Carterton player who placed the fingers of both hands to the nose when he was "booed" and ordered

off for rough play in the past? And have not several other members of the same club followed this disgraceful example since. I visualise a modern

version of the old adage: "You can put in some dirt.some of the time: you can put in all dirt some of the time: but you can't put in all dirt all the time" without disgusting those who pay and players, and driving them to other pastimes. or where they are at. presentabsent from Rugby fixtures. Truly, the pastime, judged by attendances, has sunk very low in the estimation of the Wairarapa public. Time was, before and round about the notorious Ranfury Shield days, when to be connected with the management and playing of Rugby carried a certain amount of respect and support here, but now it only brings forth pity and derision. With reference to the above. I notice the expected Carterton sneer at those who have rendered past services on the Management Committee. During the past 30 years the writer remembers that some of the most successful and well-known North Wairarapa professional and business men, including even the present Mayor of Masterton, have devoted their services in an absolutely unbiased and impartial manner, in trying to improve Rugby in this district, and break down Carterton parochialism. But they failed, and in addition found themselves called upon to perform the largest amount of work at the most important end of the district, to the detriment of their own businesses. So, as "Old Carterton Player" says, they just melted away. Reading between the lines, I seem to discern the familiar Carterton boast: "We have again won the championship —more times than all other Wairarapa clubs put together." But. it may be asked, what honour is there in winning championships in a chronically bankrupt Rugby Union? But then, certain “old Carterton players" have for years coined their own dictum —"Carterton must win the championship, even if the Union sinks” by such monotonous action. I like t|ic backhanded compliment to the referee whose rulings we are told, were "impartial and sound," but "he did not have the grip of the game he should have and both sides indulged in questionable tactics, which should have been stopped early in the game.” Dear me! So there we have probably the real reason for the start of any “booing." But it was ever thus, so long as it suited the book of "old Carterton players." Anyhow, ho was perhaps not so obvious as the "old Carterton player" who. when officiating as referee, used to jump up in the air with glee when Carterton scored a try. Further, the statement that anybody ever suggested bringing the standard of play down to the weakest is all imagination

But North Wairarapa teams have for over a quarter of a century past been systematically weakened by the transfer of their players to southern teams. Indeed, some could not secure a place in the reps until after they turned over. Another weakening influence, on the management side, is the absence year after year, at the most important peried, of the executive officials on N.Z.R.U. business. Ancl it has yet to be learned that the parent body recompenses Wairarapa for the inconvenience and expense entailed upon it and clubs thereby. Finally, we again have to listen to the monotonous cry by "old Carterton"

that “the sooner Masterton fields one senior team the sooner club football will be where it used to be.” No, Sir, not under present Carterton influence. Anyhow, that subject has been discussed and disposed of. on several occasions in recent years. For the last six or eight years the question has been asked, perhaps hundreds of times:

"What’s wrong with Wairarapa Rugby?" South Wairarapa (Carterton) says: "Too many teams in North Wairarapa.” On the other hand North Wairarapa says: “Too much Carterton influence." To tost these theories, let the Carterton influence carry out its oftrepeated threat to retire (lock, stock and barrel) from the Wairarapa Rugby Union and Referees’ Association affairs, making room for younger men. Then, if the expected uplift does not eventuate, it will be time to consider an amalgamation of Masterton clubs, one of which at least numbers amongst the original founders of the Union. —1 am, etc.

ONE OF THE SNOWFLAKES Masterton, August 7.