MID-WEEK SPORT IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25134, 15 March 1947, Page 9

MID-WEEK SPORT IN BRITAIN

EFFECT OF REQUEST BY GOVERNMENT

ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL AND RACING

[From E. G. WEBBER. Special Correspondent, N.Z.PA.] (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 13. The Government’s request to sports bodies that mid-week sport should be curtailed as far as possible during the present emergency creates a number of very complex problems for British sport administrators. Association football, racing, and later cricket are likely to be most seriously hit, but as discrimination in favour of any one sport will obviously be fiercely resented by the remainder, it is evident that any general curtailments must apply to all forms of mid-week sport likely to distract the workers from industry. It has been made plain that the Government request is in no sense a directive but merely an effort to enlist the willing co-operation of sports bodies. If this is not forthcoming, however, plain hints have been given that the Government is prepared to take the necessary measures to enforce its wishes. Obviously the Government will be unwilling to regiment sport if it can be avoided for, as several newspapers have already pointed out, restriction of football and racing particularly will be most unfavourably received by the public which already feels that the shadow of austerity hangs too oppressively over it. Sports leaders, from the general tone of their comments upon their meeting with the Home Secretary (Mr Chuter Ede) plainly realise that they must be prepared to make sacrifices, and the majority of them already are conferring upon the best means of carrying out the Government recommendation.

164 Postponed Matches Association football authorities, as the controllers of Britain’s jnost popular national winter sport, are in a particularly difficult situation. The unprecedented spell of bad weather which, after *seven weeks is only now fighting a rearguard battle with the reluctant thaw, has already caused an accumulation of 164 postponed matches in the English Football League competitions. The season has already been extended by one week, and recently the Football League rejected proposals to extend it further to May 17. The objection to the extension is that if Association football continues during May it will seriously interfere with the cricket season, particularly with the South African cricket tour which is due to begin at Worcester on April 30.

The general attitude of the Football League authorities is that the competitions cannot possibly be decided on an abbreviated programme at short notice, and that if all games cannot be played they will be forced to cancel the competition and possibly award the Lbague championship to the club with the clearest margin of points. This will prove a very big disappointment both to the clubs and the public.

Next to Association football racing will be the most seriously affected of national sports, and the administrators will confront very difficult problems. The winter racing season already has been disrupted by the weather, and it is feared that if mid-week meetings are eliminated the spring and summer racing programmes will be similarly dislocated. Racing Revisions It is expected that the date of the Epsom Derby will be changed from Wednesday, June 4. to Saturday, June 7, and that the date of the Newmarket Two Thousand Guineas will be altered. The whole programme for the flat racing season will have to be drastically revised. Although the cricket authorities have not yet been called into consultation, they will also be asked to cooperate. It is admitted that if midweek cricket is eliminated there will be the greatest difficulty in conducting the county competitions and major matches which cannot possibly be played during the week will also be affected.

Sports such as Rugby and Rugby League, tennis, and golf, do not attract such heavy seasonal attendances as Association football, cricket, and racing, but they also will have to make concessions and revise their programmes.

The only active demonstration against the Government’s measures so far made has come from supporters of greyhound racing. A small group of these staged a protest meeting outside the Home Office during Mr Chuter Ede’s conference as a remonstrance against the continued closure of the greyhound tracks imposed at the beginning of the fuel cuts. Greyhound racing, however, is conducted mainly at night and js therefore unlikely to be as seriously affected by the midweek restrictions as other sports.