INTERNATIONAL MATCHES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27642, 26 April 1955, Page 11

INTERNATIONAL MATCHES

BRITAIN STARTS FUND TO MEET EXPENSES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 22. U Which has been started to e exp ® nses of amateur internauonal gou matches is expected to give a -S£ lip « to Commonwealth tournaments - of these, in which New Zealand participated, was held in Britain last summer, and it is hoped that they will continue to be played at regular intere .°/_? he .Dominions, beginning with South Africa in 1959. The letter inaugurating the fund, and by “ e captain of the Royal and Ancient Club, Lord Bruce, has been sent out to the captains of 2000 clubs in Britain. giving details of the fund, which is designed to run Walker Cup matches. Commonwealth tournaments, and other amateur matches of an international character. The letter suggests that every club should pay annually to the fund a sum equal to one annual membership fee or any amount it feels justified in giving. • fund, which has no connexion with the Royal and Ancient Club, will be administered by trustees who have absolute discretion to use it as they think fit. The golf correspondent of the “Manehester Guardian** calls the scheme “most satisfactory, workable, and entirely commendable,** and says that it should settle once and for all the vexed question of financing British amateur International goM. “The chief financial problem has always been the Walker Cup match, played every two years alternately in Britain and the United States,” he says. “The cost of sending a British team to America is about £4OOO, and many people feel that when overseas teams visit Britain they do not receive a proportionate return of the generous hospitality which is always shown abroad. “Hitherto, much cap-in-hand begging,

which not only is humiliating and irritating, but which has meant that ultimately the financial responsibility has fallen on a few, has had to be done to raise money for these occasions.

“The start of the Commonwealth tournaments made it even more imperative that there should be some fund to take care of these events.”