"MUST BE TOUGH."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 120, 24 May 1938, Page 8

"MUST BE TOUGH."

LEAGUE IN ENGLAND.

AUCKLANDERS RETURN.

PLAY ON FROZEN GROUNDS.

"They're killing the game. It's the win that counts, and you have to win at any cost!" These were the comments on English League football by two former Auckland players, (J. Blacklaws and M. L. Stephens, who arrived by the Wanganella to-day on a brief visit. For four seasons they have been in Lancashire club teams, and expect to play for several seasons before they retire. They learnt the panie with the * Newton Rangers, but they found the English style of play very different.

Both have gained weight under English conditions, and Blacklaws, who is 28, is close to 16st in training, while Stephens, who is 20 and a wins-three-quarter, is 12st. They looked fit after the voyage out.

"Play is a lot harder in England," said Blacklaws. "The game is a business, and the training is very strict. In the cup ties the orders are to win at any price. The more wins a club gets the more it attracts the public, and the players are better paid. But the conditions are against spectacular footbal . If you try to open up the game you will probably lose, and as soon as you start to lose you are out. No matter how good a player's record, he must keep up his form all the time. The win counts for more than the spectacle. It is very rough and you have to be tough." Winter conditions in the North of England were severe compared with those of the Dominion, they said. After a frosty night the ground was often frozen hard, and fires had to be lit by spreading sta&w over the playing area before the start of a game. Sometimes they had played with two or three jerseys on. For Australians the contrast of climate was even woree. Often it took a whole season for a colonial to become acclimatised. After that, however, he never lost form, as the interval between one season and the beginning of training "for the next was little more than two months. Long breaks of six months as in New Zealand, were unknown in English League. "But they're killing the game with obstructions and too mneh win at all costs," declared Stephens.

"In the North they're football mad," interjected Blaclclaws. "The public idolise" footballers, «nd players are besiejrert by young urchins who go auto-graph-hunting on the streets." They mentioned fieveral Maori players, including C. Smith, Charlie Harrison and McDonald, who were doing well, and said that Trevor Hall, who wae captain of Xewton four seasons ago. was now team manager for the Rochdale Hornets, of which they were members.

(Photographs of the visitinjr footballers appear on page 10.)