ALLEGED THREAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 6

ALLEGED THREAT

BOYS AND LEAGUE A HEADMASTER'S DENIAL : (I!y Telegraph—Press Association.) ; CHRISTCHURCH, June 23. An emphatic denial that boys attending the WaJlham School had been threatened with punishment if they played Rugby League on Saturdays was mode by the headmaster, Mr. D. C. Brown, this morning. Mr. Brown was referring to a letter read at the Canterbury Rugby League executive meeting last night and which was •sent to the Canterbury Education Board. The letter dealt with complaints received from the coach of schoolboy players attending the Waltham School. Tt'was stated that Mr. Brown had told the boys that he would not tolerate their playing League and if they persisted he would debar them playing for the school and impose a further penalty. The letter added that the chairman of the schoolboys' board, Mr. A. Clark, had interviewed the headmaster and been told that boys would be penalised if they played League. "This is a surprise to me," said Mr. Brown. "I say definitely that neither myself nor my sports master has made any threat of punishment." Some weeks ago, continued Mr. Brown, his sports master told him that a number of the boys were flaying in the League competitions on Saturday. They were suffering injuries and contracting colds and as a result the I school Rugby teams were being depleted. The boys were, therefore, strongly advised not to play League on Saturdays, not because of any partiality towards one particular code but because it was considered that two Rugby Union practice games a week and one competition game on Friday were enough for them. The weights of the players in the various 'Eugby Union competitions in which the school participated were restricted, continued Mr. Brown, but there were apparently not the same conditions in League matches. The staff had no control over what games the boys played during the weekend but they had been advised against playing football because it was not considered to be in their best interests.

The reported statement by Mr. Clark that he had been told boys would be punished if they played League was contrary to fact, said Mr. Brown.