SPORTS EQUIPMENT

Grey River Argus, 19 November 1946, Page 6

SPORTS EQUIPMENT

Tennis and Rifle Shortage

“There is no doubt that there will be a shortage of tennis balls as the season goes' on,” said an official of the sports department at Ashby Eergh’s Ltd., when interviewed yesterday on supplies of sports equipment. This was mainly because Australia was not able to fulfil her New Zealand contracts, he added. There were, however, small numbers of balls coming at intervals from England, and this would help to relieve the position to some extent. The demand for tennis equipment this season was greater than it had' been for years, but the position was very unsatisfactory because supplies were not coming through in the quantities required to meet that demand. Especially short at the moment was the supply of cat-gut, but Greymouth was better off in this respect thany any other centre in New Zealand. Many sports depots were refusing to restring this season because of the acute shortage of gut, and it had only been through careful foresight that the Greymouth firm had been able to carry on with restringing this season. There was only one firm which manufactured gut in New Zealand, and did not meet the requirements of the sporting world by a long margin. In addition to that, supplies of gut from Australia were not sufficient to meet the balance of demand. The Australian gut, though dearer than that manufactured in New Zealand, was at least 500 per cent, superior to the local product. “If those supplies were made available in the quantities for which there is' definitely a demand,” said the official, ‘‘this tennis season would be the best that the Dominion has seen.”

Commenting ,'on shortages generally, he said that there were no prospects of obtaining some types of sporting rifles and accessories. A few .22 rifles had been made available, and there was a possibility of more coming to hand early in 1947, but as far as heavy calibre rifles and shotguns were concerned, the future looked very black. However, the sporting public of Greymouth had not felt the pinch as other centres had done, and even yet, shortages in the North Island were far more serious than they had even been at Greymouth. The demand locally for sports equipment was definitely ahead of the war years, but this was to be expected with more and more men being released and many clubs getting back into action with reasonable memberships. It was to be fully expected that there would be a boom for a few years after the inactivity of the war years in the field of sport.