INDOOR BASKETBALL LEAGUE

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22661, 16 March 1939, Page 2

INDOOR BASKETBALL LEAGUE

OPENING OF SEASON TWENTY-SIX TEAMS FOR COMPETITION Two hundred registered players of the local branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association National Indoor Basketball Association assembled for a march past on Tuesday evening at the Young Men’s Christian Association gymnasium, to open the 1939 season. After the ceremony the patron (Mr J. L. Hay) declared the season open, and wished the leagues a most successful season. He commented on the rapid growth of tire game in New Zealand in the last five years. Seventeen men's and nine women’s teams, each in their own game, would participate in the 1939 competition. Friendly games were played, each team participating. The new season’s , games will begin on Tuesday, March 21. The following teams, entered in the competition, are representative of many business houses and other bodies in the city:— Men’s League—Dee Jay A and B (Drayton and Jones), Gym (Young Men's Christian Association gymnasium), Y.M.D. (Younger Men's Department of Young Men’s Christian Association), Hay's (Hay’s, Ltd.), Dunstable (Ballantyne and Company), Pacific (Lane, Walker, Rudkin), P. and T. (Post and Telegraph), Matchless (Duckworth Turner), . Residents (Young Men’s Christian Association Hostel), Old Boys (old gymnasium members), Rovers (Rover Scouts), Bings (Bing, Harris, Ltd.), Giants (Gordon and Gotch), Mormons (Latter Day Saints). Buntings (Buntings, Ltd,), Victoria (T. Cocks and Sons). Women’s League—Dee Jay A and B (Drayton and Jones), Dunstable (J. Ballantyne and Company). Gym. (women's gymnasium class). .Weeks, Ltd. (Weeks, Ltd.), Ernest Adams (Ernest Adams. Ltd.), Hovers (Rovers Ladies’ Baseball Club). Gordon and Gotch (Gordon and Gotch), Nugget (Nugget Polish Company). These represent a total of 26 teams with 220 playersFor several weeks the men s teams have been receiving special coaching at the hands of three American players, in the technique and skill of th? game. Tha classes have been well attended and results will be shown in the matches from the opening of the season this year. The competitions will extend over a period of about five months, 20 weeks being necessary for the league matches, after which a final knock-out tournament will be held; Trophies will be competed for in each section. The second annual national championship in both men’s and women's games will be held in Wellington at the King’s Birthday week-end. The . Christchurch men’s teams were runners-up for the 1939 championship, and should prove no mean opponents this year.