PLUNGE BATH AND TEA

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 234, 1 July 1939, Page 15

PLUNGE BATH AND TEA

Developing 1 Social Side Of

Football •

Dominion Special Service

CHRISTCHURCH, June 30.

Rugby Park, Christchurch, will offer facilities claimed to be the most up-to-date provided for footballers in Australia or New Zealand when the new stand la opened tomorrow. The most modern of the many amenities offered is a large plunge bath, in which footballers may plunge .and swim after their game.

The plunge bath is in fact a miniature swimming pool, and will be heated. It measures 17 feet by 10 feet and is six feet deep. The water will be supplied frotn a 700-galldn tank with an automatic stoker and a device to ensure controlled heat.

Explaining the new facilities, Mr. J. K. Moloney, president of the Canterbury Rugby Football Union, said that Rugby Park could claim to provide the most up-to-date amenities for players to be found anywhere in New Zealand or Australia. In addition to the bath there would, of course, be hot and cold show’ers, changing rooms, aud a referees’ room. Mr. Moloney said it was felt that football was taken too grimly nowadays, and that some of the harshness of encounters on the football field could be happily removed if players got to know one another better. It was, therefore, proposed to develop the social side of football, To this end afternoon tea would be provided for players. In this way it was hoped to make for “more friendly football.”