Switch To Saturday Was A Progressive Move

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 11

Switch To Saturday Was A Progressive Move

showcase of men’s basketball In Christchurch—the A grade interclub competition—recently completed its first season of play on Saturday afternoons, a move which had a fairly mixed reception when it was first suggested. A prominent official in one of Christchurch’s largest clubs was most disturbed when he first heard the news of the switch from Tuesday evenings, a night which had almost become traditional for the A grade. “This will mean, the end of the club,” he commented.

Now, more than six months later after a trial season of Saturday play, his club is still very much in existence and is probably stronger than it has ever been.

The success of the move is very evident, although teething troubles are by no means over yet. Because of the reluctance of some leading players to give up their Saturdays to basketball, some of the senior clubs had a difficult time reaching a competitive standard. When the season first opened the margin between the top and bottom clubs was enormous. However, by the end of the season the bottom clubs had put in a lot of work on young, often inexperienced players and great progress had been made. Had the competition gone the full three rounds there could well have been one or two upsets. Both Rex and Y-Boys showed great, improvement and could easily be a threat to leading teams next season. The switch from Tuesdays to Saturdays was largely designed to help pro-

mote the game as a major sport and eliminate players from the top grade who were using it as a means of getting fit for other activities. If it did nothing else, the move cleaned out some of the dead wood from the grade and all clubs, with the possible exception of Burnham, appear to have a bright future ahead of them. University A and Y.M.C.A. were as strong as they had ever been and their standard of play was often deceivingly high. Y.M.C.A.

suffered through the temporary loss through injury of the American, M. Busch, and loss of players through representative commitments at a vital stage cost it any chance of winning the competition. This was one of the biggest problems faced by the strongest sides. The representative team drew off their best, players and they had to carry on in the club competition with what was left as best they could. This

caused a number of upsets, although no-one could deny that University A deserved the title. On occasions Y.M.C.A. was without four of its top five, R. Entwistle, P. Ross, C. Walton and Busch. University A also lost players to representative teams but it was more fortunate in that it had greater strength down below. C. Morris, a member of this side, became Canterbury’s first national representative for a number of years when he was chosen to play against the American San Jose side in three tests. His absence was always noticeable.

It now seems certain that the top grade will remain on Saturdays in future and so clubs likely to lose players to representative teams will just have to ensure that they train young players up ready to step into the breach when required. A separate competition for the days when the representative team is playing has been suggested but the system used last season had much to commend it. It encouraged clubs to try out young players who would normally never have had a

chance and it helped even up the competition. One could never be sure of the outcome.

One of the drawbacks of Saturday play was the number of times the stadium was needed for other sports. The national women’s B

grade tournament and the New Zealand table tennis championships forced the executive to end the season rather prematurely in the middle of August. This caused a number of players and club officials to grumble. August, for many winter sports the middle of the season, was far too early to finish. There was, however, little alternative, and clubs at least had the opportunity to arrange friendly games with out of town teams. Y-Boys, for example, arranged four friendly games after the official season had ended and its season did not finish until a

month later. Lighting was another problem. Natural lighting in Cowles Stadium is not good and at times play suffered because of this. The lights were only turned on when it became impossible to play without them. The expenses of hiring the stadium are high and the hourly charge doubles when the lights are used. Not being a wealthy body, the men’s basketball association was understandably reluctant to use them when they were not absolutely necessary.

Y-Boys was undoubtedly the club which made the most progress during the season, but then, it had

more room for improvement than any other. After suffering morale shattering defeats for two-thirds of the competition it finally broke

through and ended the season with several good wins. Indications are that it will be even stronger next year.

Players such as N. Vincent and K. Ewings, with little experience behind them, improved considerably. A late arrival from the West Coast, T. Reece, also showed much potential.

Rex was another club which gained in strength as the season progressed. The acquisition of two Australians, T. Buckingham and G. Cowler, and the Canterbury representative, M. McKay, made it a very competitive unit.

The Burnham club seems most likely to be hard hit next season. It has already lost its main driving force, C. P. Dysc, and will possibly lose one of Its other key players, G. Costello, as well.

High School Old Boys played Impressively in their second season in the A grade to finish third. G. Orchard, A. Hounsell and K. Milligan all played very sound basketball. New blood will strengthen it even fur ther when some very fine young players in the Christchurch Boys’ High School team leave school at the end of the year.