PRIDE OF CZECH SOCCER AT ENGLISH PARK

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31521, 8 November 1967, Page 19

PRIDE OF CZECH SOCCER AT ENGLISH PARK

ALTHOUGH the CzechoSlovakian soccer club, Sparta Praha, which is due to play Canterbury at English Park under floodlights on December 4, may not have the glamorous name of Manchester United, its record compares more than favourably with the last professional soccer team to visit Christchurch. Spara Praha, however, is far more than a soccer team it is a complex sporting organisation comprising 15 different sports, including Rugby, its senior fifteen playing in the European championship. And its athletics team is famous throughout Europe, having won the Czech championship 25 times. But it is the soccer team by which Sparta Praha is principally known, with eight current players having represented Czechoslovakia, the club national champion 13 times and a huge supporters club with branches in 120 towns and villages. Its support is the largest of any dub in Czechoslovakia, which says a tremendous amount in a country which for very many years has been one of the leading sporting nations in Europe. The soccer team's 13 national championships is the best record of any club in the country. It won the Central European Cup in 1938 and four years previously, in the World Cup in Italy, supplied eight of the Czech team which finished run-ners-up. Sparta Praha was equally

well represented tn the Czech national side that finished second in the World Cup in Chile in 1962 and in the Olympic side that won the silver medal in Tokyo in 1966. Apart from soccer, Rugby and athletics, the club also caters for archery, basketball, canoeing, golf, handball, hockey, ice hockey skittles, speed skating, swimming, tennis and softball. The most capped player in the present team is the 34-year-old wing-half, J. Kadahra, who played in the World Cup team in Chile and has represented his country 17 times. The rightback, J. Lala, aged 29, also played in Chile, and was selected for the European all stars team that played against Jugoslavia in an anniversary festival match. The other members of the Sparta Praha team to tour New Zealand (it will also play a second match, against Auckland) are: J. Beran (right-half) aged 29; J. Hildebrandt (centrehalf), 34. team captain, played eight times for Czedh B; K. Knesl (left-back), 25. Olympic silver medallist and senior international; J. Ledesky (goal-keeper), 25, junior and B international: J. Morav.ek (centreforward), 22, four-times youth and fivetimes lion cubs representative: K. Negomusky (left-half), 28, Olympic silver medallist; J. Pisa (in-side-left), 30, 10 times youth and 5-times Olympic representative: B. Smolik (left-

back), 24. youth and senior international; F. Sindelar (centre-forward), Czech B team; B. Tesar (half-back), 28, four-times youth representative; F. Uldrych (leftwing), 28, capped for youth team; F. Vesely (right-wing) 23, five-times junior representative. now member of senior team; J. Vosta (goalkeeper), 23; and M. Ziegler (left-wing); 24. The club trainer, F. Ipsek. is unlikely to be overawed by the many caps held by the players under his charge he has represented Czechoslovakia 12 times. Brothers In England The former Canterbury junior steeplechase champion, Hubert Neeson, and his twin brother, Alan, are still pursuing their athletic activities in England. In 1966 Hubert won the Kent 3000 metres steeplechase championship and the same season he was third in the South of England champion-| ship. In the season just ended I he did not have such sue- [ cess, but Is working hard this winter in an effort to reach his peak for next season. In a recent letter to the Canterbury athletics personality, C. C. Gordon, Alan said he had returned to sprinting and would have his first serious season next summer. Hubert's Canterbury junior steeplechase record of 9min 21.8 sec, set In 1965, still stands.