School Sport

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22141, 10 July 1937, Page 14

School Sport

A correspondent wrote recently to " The Press " complaining that a certain inter-school football match was being played on a Friday instead of a Saturday. The correspondent's argument was that such games should be played on days when working men could see them. As an old boy of one of the schools, the writer probably felt a grievance in not being able to see the team of his former school in action, but the general plea that these matches should be exhibitions for the public is another matter. It is true that secondary school football provides

some of the cleanest and most spectacular games that are seen in the season's play and that they are a delight for the interested spectator, but it is at least questionable whether these games should be made gladiatorial contests for the entertainment of the public. The competitive spirit already enters . too deeply into adult matches. In the schools, fortunately, the emphasis is still on playing the game for the game's sake, though at least one headmaster believes that already too much emphasis is placed on winning. Dr. F. W. Hart, of the University of California, recently spoke in Auckland of the ill effects of highly competitive matches among the American university colleges. The same tendency is noticeable in Australia, where in Sydney and Melbourne particularly, far too much publicity is given to inter-secondary school events, notably the head-of-the-river races about which there is as much publicity as is given to horse-racing—and in much the same style. All of this must have an unsettling and generally deleterious effect on the boys, who begin to place an undue importance on the purely athletic side of school life and are in serious danger of having their heads turned in the glare of the limelight. In New Zealand, fortunately, school games have been kept relatively in the background, and they are played in a spirit that entirely lacks any taint of the exhibitionism that is almost inseparable from matches played in a highly competitive atmosphere. It is to be hoped that they will continue to be played in this spirit, which is in the best interests of the boys themselves and of the game.