RUGBY DEADLOCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 34, 10 February 1937, Page 5

RUGBY DEADLOCK.

THE LEAGUE GAME. POSITION IN LONDON. "DEAD, Birr CAN'T LIE DOWN." (Special.—By Air Mall.) LONDON, January 15. Rugby League football, in London — and that means the South, these days— is dead, but it won't lie down: Or it can't lie down, declares a writer in the London "Daily Herald." I am still unable to make up my mind about this. It is probably the most curious position that has ever arisen in any sport. The demise of the Streatham and Mitcliani Rugby League Club has been cold news for some weeks now. We have all known that the club officials had decided to pack up, but we had all been assured that this season's fixtures would definitely be fulfilled. That, in itself, is an awkward sort of position, to say t'ne least, and it is one that has been exercising the minds of all those clubs in the North on whose future fixture lists appears the name »of the Streatham and Miteliam Club.

There is a little matter of expenses, mixed up with the whole business. The Northern clubs are asking why they should have to travel all the way down to London to fulfil fixtures with a club that is dead from the ankles upwards, so far as the current Rugby League competition is concerned. They point out that nobody is going to pay money to follow the fortunes of a club already definitely booked for extinction, and that anything they themselves have to pay out in the way of expenses for such matches is literally money thrown down the drain. Why, tliev ask, prolong the farce until the end of the season? Streatham's View. Streatham's obvious retort is that "If we fail to fulfil our fixtures, we shall be liable to a certain amount of compensation. due to clubs who should have received us at their headquarters. It will be cheaper for us to carry on in the way we have been going, and that is what we intend to do." You see the deadlock. It is a pretty hopeless sort of position, calculated only to lower the standing of a game in the eyes of the public. Streatham have, now transferred practically all their saleable players. They are carrying on with men who have not played regularly this season, but who, in the last few games at least, have been able to put tip a reasonably good show. But nothing like the show that could have been expected from the original Streatham team, with its Australian and New Zealand stars.

I fee] that the grousers in the North have something to grouse about. I also feel that Streatham have a legitimate angle on which to argue. It is a kind of position which simply shrieks for the intervention of a third party. And the third party, of course, should be the Rugby League itself. The Rugby League cannot go on merely ignoring the present situation. Something will have to be done. It may be that pressure from the other clubs will result in some action soon. Cup Proposal. Mr. Ivor Halstead, who is looking after the interests of the Streatham and Miteham Club, told me yesterday that the Bradford Northern Club had applied to the Rugby Lea«ue for permission to transfer the first-round cup-tie, which came "out of the hat," Streatham and Miteham v. Bradford Northern, at Streatham, to Bradford. This is likely to open up the whole question of Streatham's future, and it may be that an agreement will be arrived at which would not necessitate Streatham from carrying on in the present unsatisfactory circumstances. There is one other possibility. The recently-formed Newcastle Club is in a bad way, and there are indications that the club will close down shortly. If this happens, then it is thought that some way will be found for the Streatham Club to accompany Newcastle in dropping more or less gracefully out of the picture, because some sort of balance in the League table would be easier to arrive nt with two teams retiring.