NO CROWDS WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 77, 28 September 1939, Page 13

NO CROWDS WANTED

WAR STOPS SPORT

CLOSING OF THEATRES

DOG TRACKS ALSO

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, September 6. It is estimated that the abandonment of the New Zealand Rugby League tour will mean a loss of £8000. The team has played only one match. Mr. John Wilson, Rugby La ague secretary, visited them at Harrogate to help them.

1.. "I don't know when it will be posI sible for them, to leave," he said. "I am in touch with the steamship company and a travel agency to expedite !the arrangements."

For the time being all forms of sport are at a standstill, but if the 1914 precedent is followed, racing and football will eventually be resumed on a modified basis. There are now, on the other hand, more imperative reasons against the gathering of crowds than in the last war.

A certain number of race meetings may be possible at Newmarket, where substitute races for the Derby, the Oaks, and the St. Leger were run in 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918. . The Jockey Club and the National Hunt Committee are meeting later in the week, when plans for the continuance of racing on a restricted scale will, no doubt, be discussed.. In the meanwhile, the majority of trainers intend to keep their horses in training. Some horses may be sold to Irish owners. Brood mares and fillies will be retained1 wherever possible.

The position of professional footballers was explained by Mr. W. C. Cuff, president of the Football League. Until the League management committee has considered the position, he said, clubs should instruct their players to stand by. BIG GOLF ABANDONMENTS. The Ryder Cup match between Great Britain and America, which was to have been played in Florida in November, has been cancelled. Among other important professional fixtures cancelled are the £1250 match-play championship fixed for next week at St. George's Hill, Weybridge, and the £500 Dunlop-Metropolitan tournament at Wentworth. The English women's championship and the county finals at Gantoh, Yorks, which were to have been played fromi September 29 to October 6, will not take place. | Club competitions have automatically j come to an end, and in the case of many London clubs a part, or whole, of the premises and some parts of the ! course have been occupied in the national interests. At other courses, the ! clubhouses will be closed, but the j links will be kept in order. "Sporting Life" is to be issued only once a week instead of daily. BERNARD SHAW PROTESTS. A protest against the closing of theatres and cinemas has been made by Mr. Bernard Shaw. He calls it "a masterstroke .of unimaginative stupidity." "During the last war," he adds, "we had 80,000 soldiers on leave to amuse j every night. There were not enough theatres for them, and theatre, rents rose to fabulous figures. Are there to ;be no theatres for them this time? We have hundreds. of thousands of evacuated children to be kept out of mischief and traffic dangers. Are there to be no pictures for them?"

The authorities, now all-powerful,, should at once set to work to provide new theatres and picture-houses where these are lacking.

Shaw concludes: "All actors, variety artists, musicians, and entertainers of all sorts should be exempted from every form of service except their own all-important professional one."

Greyhound racing has been suspended on 63 tracks, including 13 London stadiums. Greyhounds have been evacuated either to kennels or the care of their owners.