AN ATTRACTIVE START FOR RUGBY LEAGUE SEASON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 27, 2 February 1939, Page 21

AN ATTRACTIVE START FOR RUGBY LEAGUE SEASON.

SYDNEY VISITORS.

THE BALMAIN TEAM.

Matches Against Auckland Arranged for Easter. The Rugby League season in Auckland will start attractively, for a visit of the Balmain Club team, one of the leading clubs of Sydney, has been finalised. In the ranks of the visitors will be three internationals and five players who have represented New South Wales. The team will arrive at Easter, which is the date already arranged for the opening of the season, and will play three matches against Auckland club thirteens. One will be played on Easter Saturday and another on Easter Monday. This arrangement was made at the meetin" of the Auckland Control Board last evening, when the offer of the visit was accepted, subject to formal approval by the' New Zealand 'Council. Correspondence between the Balmain Club and Mr. Ivan Culpan, secretary of the Auckland League, showed that Balmain proposed to leave Sydney for Auckland on April 1 and required to be back to start in the Sydney premiership by April 22. . This will be the first time in the history of the game that a club has visited New Zealand so early in a season. "As most of us realise," said the chairman Mr. Grey Campbell, "we are soon to start a very big season, because undoubtedly much interest has been stimulated 'throughout New Zealand now that a tour to. England by a Dominion team is certain." Auckland, as a largo centre in the game, was particularly interested and it behoved the Auckland' League to do its part in helping to make the tour a success, he added. The Netf Zealand Council and its committees had been handling the tour

project energetically and thoroughly and everything augured well for the tour. Mr. Campbell said lie thought the council could be assured of the league's co-opera-tion in every way. Annual Meeting Date. It was decided to hold the annual meeting of the Auckland League on March S and recommendations for the annual meetings of other executive bodies and the clubs were adopted. Prior to taking the agenda, the chairman referred to the loss to the game by the death of Mr. \V. J. Liversidge, who had held prominent executive positions almost since the inception of the code in Auckland. Mr. Liversidge was a progressive administrator of ability and for many years had served the game well, giving keen support, to the Auckland League as well as to the national management. On the motion of the speaker a resolution of sympathy to the Liversidge family and also to the relatives of the late Mr. Tony Anisy, of West Coast, a prominent West Coast official and generous supporter who was well known in Auckland, was passed.