UP FOR THE CUP FINAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 103, 3 May 1937, Page 8

UP FOR THE CUP FINAL

.».—.— . The final of the English. Cup' is not only the great event of the year in' English Association Football, but also as great a national event in sport as the Derby, the Grand National, the cricket Test series, the tennis championships at Wimbledon, or the open golf. So far as the actual patronage of the public goes, the Cup Final probably surpasses all its rivals. No ground has yet been made big enough to accommodate all who would otherwise attend the meeting of the champion teams who have fought their way through the various rounds to the decisive stage. Thus on Saturday when Sunderland beat Preston, North-east England against North-west, the stadium at Wembley, just outside London, was packed with ninety-three thousand spectators, so the cable message; states, half an hour before the kickoff. This, too, when London was in the throes of a bus strike. Of that vast crowd many would come down in special trains from the far north, which Londoners still look on as a barbarous country, speaking.strange dialects, ihe homely broad tongue of Lancashire, in the familiar accents of the county folk of Gracie Fields, supporters of Preston—the old North End—and the Geordies, with their rough "burr," to inspire

Sunderland to victory. It is a spectacle such as no other national sporting event affords. To most of the people it is the one day of the year, with its "general carefree atmosphere," suggested by the cable. 'The crowd stands up to sing the traditional "Abide With Me," which gives this football occasion a curious religious aspect, wrongfully supposed to be the monopoly of New Zealanders With their Rugby. The presence of the King and Queen gives the Royal sanction to this truly national event. Then after the match London is filled with a cheerful throng of visitors before their departure homewards. This year the transport trouble added to their difficulties, but we can take it that they bore them all with the good temper and sporting spirit that have always characterised the day of the Cup Final.