Basketball DISPUTE ABOUT ENTRY

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 9

Basketball DISPUTE ABOUT ENTRY

Tauranga Barred From National Tourney

(New Zealand Press Association) TAURANGA, June 20.

The Tauranga Basketball Association has been prohibited by the New Zealand association from taking part in this year’s national championships at Wellington in August because its entry has gone astray. The Tauranga association is adamant that its entry was posted early in April, but the national secretary in Christchurch says it had not been received by June 8 when entries closed, and is still unsighted.

The president of the Tauranga association (Mrs W. J. Denniston) said this morning: "All members of our executive are convinced that the entry form was sent. We have complete'faith that our secretary (Miss G. Nattrass) posted it in April. “The national executive says that if we can find the entry and prove the Post Office was negligent, we can be fitted in the draw. We say that if it is possible for us to be included then we should be, as we have established that we genuinely intended to be entrants.

“They have no proof that the entry was not received, any more than we have any definite proof that it was posted. There is an element of doubt and we think we should be given the benefit of that doubt.”