FOOTBALL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 17, 1 November 1935, Page 3

FOOTBALL

NEPIA to play league.

FEE OF £SOO FOR SIGNING ON. AUCKLAND, Oct. 31. The London League authorities have eventually met George Kepias request for a smging-on fee of £ooo and the famous Maori full-back has now contracted to sail for England bj th Akaroa on November 8.

THE ALL BLACKS.

AT TWICKENHAM ON SATURDAY

On Saturday the tourists will play London Counties, a side which will probably include several internationals from anions; the clubs and counties near London. This game will be notable. because it will oe the first appearance of the tourists at the historic headquarters at Twickenham, where they will later play England. Twickenham is among the greatest sports areas in the world, and the stands on the east and west side are almost the largest in the world. They are as high as a six-story building, and their seating accommodation is not only

enormous, but also comfortable, the seats being on the tip-up type. A third grandstand runs across one end of the ground, and in itself is larger Ilian any stand in New Zealand. There is an open stand across the southern end of the field. There is an enormous clock on the east stand, and gigantic scoreboards, which record not only the points but also the goals and tries, on the east and west stands. The English Rugby Union has its permanent headquarters in one of the stands, with elaborate offices, and the dressing room facilities, with hot showers and plunge baths not to mention refreshment rooms, are just about all that could he desired. The stands are close to the touch lines, and even the cheapest seats give an excellent view of the whole ground. Twickenham has been described as the finest football ground in the world for spectators. For the players, however, it can be disconcerting. “The huge stands give a rather “shut-inV feeling, something, as one player once remarked, like having to play in a cave, Rowe Harding, the great Welsh threequarter, said in his book that Twickenham was undoubtedly trying for a player new to international Rugby. He described the “roar of the crowd,” so much written about, as “weird and eerie, as though, the wave of sound came from the mournful wailing of thousands of lost souls hovering about the high stands.” The 1924 All Blacks did not let it bother them., however, as they heat London Counties 31-6 and England 17-11 at Twickenham,