RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 18

RANDOM SHOTS

iZAMIIO?

_\s Auckland is having a good deal of footlxill juMi now in various ways, it may I". , worth while lo iuaki> :i remark about one side of the game that seems to be coining into unpleasant promineiK'i" just now. This Ls the practice of "plitvinjj the ma instead of playing the baJl -in tit her wonts, the deliberate and f>yetnmnli<' ntti'nrpt to put your opponent "out' - instead of ■lxrcttirar him 'by Miporinr agility and skill. So far as I win make out, the Rugby panic is cleaner in this ri\~pwt than it has "been for some tinw he.re —certainly there wasn't much to complain of about the spirit in which the last two big matches Wellrnjrton and TnranaJd —wore played.

Rut brail accounts the 'Northern I nion pimo affords an unusual amount of -cope fur '"Ixiot" 11 rid "stou.'li" if the referee doe-nt happen to -be looking, ami the match Auckland v. Xevr Zenith Wales seems to have l>e<>n rafcher unpleasantly maHkcil toy such eccentricities. 1 may say frankly that I didn't see tin , -match, anil 1 am going solely on the rrmvspa-pcr reports anil the itesbiinorry of credible onlookers. But by all account, several mon ought in ha-vp Ivwn ordered off in the second spell; and the jrencral opinion seems to 'be that the Australian.-, if they -were not the only sinners, certainly started the trouble by what is euphemistically termed "mixinp it." I needn't po into details, and anyhow. it is a. thankless duty to criticise visitors, -who are at the same time remarkably fine athlete*. But it seems io mc that the time has come- -for the general public to tuke up its parable agnin-t this sort of thing. The vast majority of ilio many thousands who pny their money to see foot'baJl tmatebes dn'n"t want to be disgusted by ruffianism and delFberate brutality. The men who ;ire habitually guilty of that sort of thins; should be kept permanently out of the «rsme. and the teams from foreign parts who prefer to take that view of football oufrht to lie informed, with due formality and solemnity, thnt we don't ■vvanit to see them again. Of course, it isn't pleasant to hurt the feelings of quests and strangers, but the game "itself is more important than they are, and we ought to keep it up to-& high standard of decency and fair play, -whether they Ifke it or not.

Tile "t'vdncy Morning Herald" has Taist'd a "question just lately that has often perturbed my soul when i have reflected upon it— curiously unpleas- >»; distinctions that are drawn in the Jii'ld of sport at Home -between professionals and amateurs. AVe. have all s-ec-n n little of that x>rt of thing out ■here when English louring teams ha-ve honoured us with a vaJl: and the stories ■that are still repeated in cricket circles hpre in connection with tile xisit o' Vv" tinier* i earn might supply material for a very interesting discussion on social ru;nc".p!e-i. However, let mc give you the ■S.vilr.ey Morning Herald's' , text:— A convolution which its correspondent overheard at Lord's between an AustraJi.ii) liny an. his father: "That's .Mr. Fry in tin; <■:"'!. i-n't it. dad. and Mr AYoollev this end!" "Woolley's a pro-, ■fi><vjniiiil,'' -ai.l 'hi* father: "they don't call (hem mister." After a few minutes c:n".' the bora voice: "That was a good stroke of Mr. Wooltey's, wasn't it dad? I mean Woolley's." And the Australinn paper man who listened to these remarks very naturally came away wonrirrinsr whether it was good for the boy to he instructed in these delicate distinctions, and to be informed that a profpssi<ina4 should be kept in a ela/as by himself by refusing 'him the courtesy of a title extended to most oilier men."

Of course, that sort of thing to a colonial always leanres a bad taste/ in the mouth, so to speak, and I hope that it al-ways •will. One of Wie.Tery/besfc things aboirt s±Meti?R as we ,kno-w thsm is that they level everybody down to the same plane. Fancy the amazement of the average colonial yricketer of 'he were effled upon to address another member of tie tesjfl ac ■"Mister"! Yet tiere ar*-enairy people at Home who seriously eigv??.- that tbie sort of arbitrary dis-itinrt-ion shtrald. be kepi up in the? ■Sntereste; of €he iprofesskmab themselves — csaKp tbey~**onM be co far table if they -were foiled into close, association you* see.

& 11113.1111* '_£nss«ss«ihß«sort of -thing they tell us-*Th»-»nH±enrß>'~n» a •cricknfc .team, form, far a time, a small social circle with iGrermsetroe, mafcing their- own. conversation, enjoying tibeir trwn stories, with ilmir-interests, upbringing, and ideas, almost entirely in. common, whilst the '-pro./ whose Ideas are assumed to be '(and sometimes, naturally, are) differ- " eat, Teoidd 'break the ehaTmed circle, as

ii iwerei" 3iaw4thia is -very likely <rue: bnt it only lanMonis to an admission of whs* I am complaining'—that the "genrQe-men" deliberately try to seclude themselves:from, the professionals -by setting up these social barriers against .'•them. No -doubt it is pleasant enough '." -for the anKrtp.nrsbirt what I would like to understand is Tvbetber it isnt

ianmßa&og to the other men, ami also ■whether it doesn't introdnce an ignoble and. degrading element into athletic life. .Wmm y-oa read this, sort 01 thing in the English, papers—"Mr Noble lit Barnes hard to>a*rPoster, -wio Tetomed the ball gmartly to Lilley,"' and so on—you cease ■to -wun6cr at the Wtternese that ridiculous social distinctions of this sort have encouraged in certain circles at Home.

i££i-££±4*i What a worJd wo livo in! Not long a™o 41 celebrated London • doctor announced to n bewildered country that In- hail Just dwoverpd that il is most diingCTou* Hi wnsli our bodies too often. And now. before we have had time to get over iiiis slioi-k.au equally celebrated Kreurli ilnctor informs us that it is at least equally danfreroue to wash our i-ii)'ilies—or, what comes to much the Millie thing, to lift our clothes washed for us by someone eLse. You fee., jietirly e> frvbiidv spuds clothe.* to public laaini rift? iiuwailavs, and that is viipre the i!.in;;.'i- Millie in. .Somebody else has had tuberculoids or sump similarly infections liitf'iVif. ami if your clotlie.s >jo tlirough i)ie laundry al the s:ini« time^—well, 1 liotvln' , . l rf-ii: the matter h:icteriolopicsilly. Th(! oiJy rpini'dy is to insist om Itirr sU'i'' dieinfce(ii(j! boxes for all public irjurirles. to be supervised by experts in disea«ea —also rubber gloves to lie w'nrn by all the assistants and employee*. Again 1 repeat, what a world •we' Jive in; and. what v .a. wonder it is that any of us have over managed to grow up at all! I