TV Ban “Nonsensical”

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 1

TV Ban “Nonsensical”

“Nonsensical,” and “a head in the sand attitude” were two of the comments made by members of the management committee of the Canterbury Rugby Union last evening on the New Zealand union’s refusal to sanction a live telecast of the annual match between Christ’s College and Christchurch Boys’ High School, at St raven Road today.

The national body’s executive turned down a proposal to televise the game because of a, clash with the North Otago- South Canterbury match at Oamaru this afternoon. Oamaru is deemed to be in the CHTV3 viewing area as w'ell as in that of DNTV2. The union’s policy is not to allow the televising of an inter-school match if there is a representative game in the viewing area being played at the same time. A similar situation arose last year, when a game was played at Oamaru on the same afternoon of the SchoolCollege match. The headmaster of Boys’ High School (Mr C. F. S. Caldwell) has protested to the New Zealand union about its decision, and last evening the Canterbury management committee decided to throw its weight behind Mr Caldwell. Mr Caldwell, in his lettei, said it was ridiculous for the New Zealand body to hold I

that the School-College game conflicted with a game in Oamaru. A big number of old boys of both schools was interested in the game, but would be unable to attend. Mr Caldwell made a formal request for the union to reconsider its ruling. Although it was probably too late to do anything about this year’s game, it was hoped that the decision would be reversed In 1971.

Mr C. H. J. Rhodes asked if it was possible for the schools to arrange the game on a different day of the week, such as a Tuesday or a Thursday. “There has been a terrific

amount of complaints about this, and a lot of people are of the opinion that the Canterbury union, as well as the New Zealand union, is in favour of not having the game televised,” Mr M. R. Barnett said.

Mr B. J. Drake recalled that the Canterbury union had suggested the New Zealand body should set a specific radius as the “viewing area.” The School-College match was a classic inter-school fixture in the country, and there were many factors in favour of its being televised. “I think we should peg away until we get somewhere,” he said.