SPORTS TOPICS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 98, 6 February 1936, Page 3

SPORTS TOPICS

THE LURE OF THE BLOOD.

CALENDAR OF COMING EVENTS. (By “Flagpole”). To-morrow and Saturday. M.C.C. v. Hawke’s Bay, at Napier. Saturday. Bowling, Ashburton v. Shirley, at Shirley. „ , Allenton v. Riccarton Racecourse, at Allenton. Once the population used to yell out for bread and games. By games they used to mean shows where men killed beasts or other men; these functions were highly popular. But if anyone imagines that they have no place in the amusements of a more civilised and enlightened age he is mistaken. There is not so much emphasis on blood now, but apparentup people like to see it flowing in large quantities. If they do not, why is it that sports which entail risk of bodily hurt are among the most popular as a spectacle? Why have not football, boxing, wrestling and so on been abolished long ago for humanitarian reasons ? Two hundred and .fifty footballers killed last season in America. In the first six weeks of the present, eighteen deaths were reported. One or two were killed when playing football in New Zealand last season. This country has lost precious lives because of its national pastime, including two potentials leaders of the Maori race. Accidents are Easy.

Its so easy. Perhaps a hard tackle when you are running for your life down the wing. Or someone kicking you accidentally but forcibly when you are in the middle of the scrum. A sympathetic hand clap if you get up again and go on, or maybe just a few curious glances as you are carried oil the field for ever.

Or you can get on your motor cycle and travel round the dirt track at forty miles an hour. Inches separate your machine from that of the man racing alongside you. Suddenly his wheel wobbles: he hits you and things go upside down and then black. The man coming behind hits your wreckage before the attendants have time to drag it off the track, and the rank outsider, who has had engine trouble, wins the race at fifteen miles an hour. Crash helmets do not help any of you very much. A race meeting—the sport of kings. All the sport lovers of the district watch you as you ride out on Feather Duster in your gaily coloured jockey’s coat and cap. Feather Duster gets tired, and something goes wrong when you take the last fence. You can’t get out of the stirrup in time and Feather Duster lands on top of you and squashes you. A number of people who have backed your horse get very annoyed with you when they miss the dividend, . Boxing and Wrestling. The lure of seeing strong men knock other strong men about attracts crowds to the boxing and wrestling rings. These are the identical equivalents of the old gladiatorial shows, where man is matched with man, and strength and science win. There is plenty of blood and pain, and all the primitive emotion is demonstrated.

All those things point to the conclusion that man has not conquered his early, adventurous, ruthless character quite so much as he thought he had. He still tolerates pain and suffering being given to others for his amusement, and is even prepared to see people die. The fault is not his at all: it is just as much that of the men who play while he sits in the grandstands It is all part of human nature, and may never be, stamped out. Perhaps it is undesirable that it should be, for with the abolition of these sports there would be destroyed one of the few avenues remaining where man may indulge his inborn thirst for adventure.

An Attitude Necessary. But it is at least advisable to take up some sort of an attitude over the problem, and remove any possible hypocrisy that exists. We should be quite firm about it, and say definitely “Yes, we like blood, and we want more of it. We see no reason why there should be any attempt made to prevent it in sports. We must have some excitement for our weekly shilling." And when we do that, we nust, . f course, encourage Cricketers T o play bodyline, and if possible to maim and' hurt each other. It would improve cricket as a spectacle tremendously. Let us abolish the boxing glove. Give British crowds a taste of the Spanish bull fight. lte-introduce cock-fight-

If these is to be wholesale carnage, why confine it to motor accidmts and the battlefield? The sportsfield is the logical place to which to extend il. And the ghosts of the 250 u>ad American footballers will nod their silent approval.

Prominent N.Z. Cyclist. L. G. Thomas, a prominent road and track cyclist, who recently won the New Zealand 50-miles road championship at Dunedin, has been transferred to Auckland. Thomas has met with a considerable amount of success in both the North and the South Island. He first came to the front in 1932, when he finished second to A. E. Porter in the Waimate to Christchurch race. Since that date he has made rapid progress until to-day he is one of the outstanding men in the Dominion.

Gisela Mauermeyer, the German girl who competed at the women’s world games in London last year, is reported to have thrown the discus 145 ft 51 in. to beat the world’s aecord of 144 ft 11-Jin by J. Waysowna (Poland).

That Soccer is “international” in every sense of the word was further illustrated in Rome on May 24. In the qualifying round of the World s Cup competition, United States played Mexico, and the referee was Youssol Mahomed, of Egypt.