Football On The Beach

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29008, 24 September 1959, Page 17

Football On The Beach

F. this vintage year of Rugby Union, the sport, or a reasonable imitation of it, has overflowed the playing grounds on to the surf beaches. Taking the idea from Australia, Wellington teams are clashing happily in bare-footed rivalry which is expected to sweep through the Dominion’s 71 surf life-saving clubs. There has been beach football in Christchurch for some time. The Wellington interest in it has resulted from the tour of Australia last season by teams from the Maranui club, of Wellington. The Maranui men found a brisk football competition under way last summer on Sydney beaches. They were doubly surprised to discover also that, although in New South Wales and Queensland the main winter game is Rugby League, the surfers are all Union players. The beach game is not exactly union, either. The presence of soft sand underfoot, cold surf on one sideline and a windswept roadway on the other dictate their own rules. The game is played with bare feet, and there is a general prohibition on line and placekicking.

Games are played in four 10minute quarters, or 15-minute quarters in semi-finals and above. Three reserves a team are permitted, and these may be played irrespective of opposing team replacements.

The playing-field shall be 50 by 75 yards, with a dead-ball line 10 yards behind the try-line. Because of the no-kicking rule, scrums are held at the beginning of each match and at each quarter. In these the referee places the ball.

A ball out of play on the sideline is thrown into a line-out by the defending side.

Few Scrums

The penalty for forward passing is for the other side to go forward five yards and play the ball unopposed. With four teams already active in the new sport, Wellington is already thinking of interprovincial challenges, possibly to be held in the autumn as a tune-up to serious Rugby Union. The teams already playing are Lyall Bay, Titahi Bay, Island Bay, and Maranui, and others are coming in as the rules become known.

Wellington is particularly keen on challenging the Canterbury teams. A clash second only to a Ranfurly Shield match is likely to be pencilled in.