Sports drinking ‘only in season’

Press, 28 August 1980, Page 22

Sports drinking ‘only in season’

PA Wellington Rugby players do not have the right to use their club’s drinking facilities during the cricket season, according to the Licensing Control Commission. In a decision, the commission spells out its attitude to sports clubs which obtain ancillary licences covering winter and summer sports. It says that in the case of sports clubs which have premises where more than one sport is involved it has authorised hours for both sports.

“By way of example, we say that if a club plays both rugby and cricket with mutually exclusive seasons, the fact that we

authorise hours for cricket does not mean that rugby players belonging to the club are automatically entitled to full liquor supply during the cricket season,” says the decision. “To make the position clear, as we see it, a member of a rugby club who is not an active member of the cricket teams’ playing under the club’s name, cannot have access to the drinking facilities of the club unless he is an invited guest. “We consider that the number of ‘invited guests’ is not intended to embrace the whole of a club’s membership and its supporters.”