RANDOM AT LARGE

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32077, 27 August 1969, Page 18

RANDOM AT LARGE

PROPERTY SALES

We were saying something yesterday about the frenzied enthusiasm of the British for soccer and only today the realisation is forced on us that we had only an inkling of the fervour for football; for now we have seen the Sunday papers after the first league matches and the full fury of the affair is clear. There are enormous headlines, enormous pictures, enormous reports and one can read everything from the whizzbang accounts of matches, blow by blow, to erudite essays on the structure and future of the game. The item which really appealed, however, was the one recording the sale of pieces of Wembley turf at five shillings a time. It was at Wembley, of course, that England won the World Cup in 1966 Now the ground is being re-turfed, and they are flogging off the old bits for charity; a physically handicapped children’s

society should benefit by about £20,000, which is a very good thing indeed. Soccer fans have been queuing outside a London hotel to purchase their bits of mud and grass. An officer of the society, Mr Richard Ellis, put the whole tiring in perspective whet he said “some of the most sacred pieces, like the penalty spot, are being auctioned." And on these “most sacred pieces” famous footballers, including the World Cup team, are being asked to put their boot marks. No doubt fantastic prices will be paid for them. One of the purchasers of a five bob bit said he intended to put his piece in Iris lawn, to bow to it every morning, and to put a little fence around it to keep his dog away. While one may have doubts as to whether the bootmarks of Bobby Charlton will vary much from those of Geoff Hurst, the auction idea appeals. When the time comes for some of the main New

Zealand grounds t» b« relaid, the sale of turf should not be forgotten. What loyal Rugby man would not treasure the spot where AU Black Butch Gallaway bit Springbok Zeffie Ziffer who, in his sgbny, released the ball and thus began a movement in which every All Black player handled the ball, or something, three times before the winning try was scored? There could be a fair bit of business from penalty spots, too; Don Clarke’s ones. That accounts for about half of Carisbrook. But let’s hope the Welsh don’t try selling us the spot where Deans did or didn’t score his try. New Zealanders still troop to Cardiff Arms Park to view the place. But a leading Welsh Rugby historian told us in Cardiff a few days ago that since 1905 the park has been shifted, and the famous spot is now to be found in the third cubicle from the left in the gentlemen’s toilets.