Jack Steel – All Black

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 6 October 1934, Page 8

Jack Steel - All Black

Those thing® that come under the heading of incidental considerations are, in part, clothes, laundry, masseurs, doctors, transportation, professionals’ fees. At first glimpse one is apt to feel that these items would occur in the life of anyone whether or not he played tennis. This, however, is the point:

Say our amatur player is to play in Prance, America, and Britain. In Prance the heat is apt to be unbearable or quite mild—one can never be sure which. That requires one sort of wardrobe. In Britain it will most certainly be cold and rainy paTt of the time: another sort of wardrobe. In America'during July, August, and probably September it will be extremely hot; a third sort of wardrobe. This involves a large item of expense that doesn’t come under the heading of any association allowance.

DOCTOR AND MASSEUR-. One has only to make a tennis tour once to understand the laundry item. Our player makes constant use of the masseur to obviate, if possible, the doctor. He is playing in various climates. His muscles react differently in each. He is apt to take cold without the stimulating effect of massage. If he has strained any muscles the masseur relaxes and strengthens them. Thereby' the player keeps himself in good condition. One year in Prance my doctor’s bills amounted to more than my expenses for the entire trip. I went down to the Riviera to play. In order to arrive on time and having missed the Blue Train, I was obliged to take a train on which there were no sleepers. I sat up all night in a compartment with four other people. We rode to. the Riviera during an electrical storm. The compartment wa,s cold and draughty, and I arrived in Nice in the j first stages of pleurisy and quinsy. If was foolish to do that, of course; but I was the guest of the French Federation and felt an. obligation to play. The result was one of my most unpleasant tennis experiences. I spent the entire two months of my .sojourn at Nice,. Cannes, Beaulieu, and Monte Carlo playing tennis spasmodically, and against the advice of my doctor, and watching the Riviera activities on the quay through the window from my bed the rest of the time.. If I hadn’t been going to the south of Prance to play tennis, if I had

Probably the best wing threequarter New Zealand has ever seen is Jack Steel, known to his intimates as ‘ ‘ Frosty.” He wore the All Black jersey in 1920-21-22-23-24-26, and on the tour of England played in 16 matches, including all three tests, and scored 17 tries. People who witnessed the first test against the Springboks at Dunedin in 1920, still talk of the try he scored, with the Africans chasing him in relays, one of the runners being Van Heerden, the South African sprint champion. Snapping up the ball in jiis own twentyfive, “Frosty” made for the line, and running straight, he got there, too, not stopping for man or devil. He left Van Heerden standing, and scored oh© of the most magnificent tries ever scored on the Carisbrook ground. An incident in connection with the try is worthy of recollection. The match was being filmed, and by some mischance, the incident had been missed by the camera man. The players concerned in the famous dash, were approached and asked whether they would stage the incident again. Van Heerden and his confrere agreed to do so, but“Frosty’s” reply was the equivalent to “ask your grandmother.” Reserved to the point of shyness almost, Jack was a difficult man to get close to, but once he made a friend he .kept him. Jack played most of his club and provincial football on the West Coast, but in 1927, when Canterbury lifted the Ranfurly Shield from Manawhenua, was a member of the victorious team. Jack holds the professional track record of New Zealand for 100 yards, over which distance he broke “even time.” At his best, his weight was just under 13 stone, and having one of the best fends possible, was a difficult man to stop.

afford to go to America under that arrangement, because the incidental expenses were almost as great as those more concrete ones that were taken care of by the association. When individuals are playing for tennis championships, or teams are competing in international matches, certain psychological aspects of their participation should be respected. It is impossible to expect players to do well whose lives, during the tennis weeks, are a dull routine. Players require diversion—the theatre, the movies, or whatever amusement of that nature diverts them.

One of the English girls, in speaking to me about the team allewan.ce, told me her “theatre expenses were jolly high,” but that was the only form of entertainment she enjoyed. It seems.too bad that players of promise should be prevented from making these valuable trips simply because it is necessary for. them not to make money, but to clear all expenses.

I have been asked times without number why, inasmuch as I write articles on tennis, I am not considered a professional. 'The amateur ruling states, in words to this effect, that one may write on tennis provided he does not use any title he may have or any reference to tennis on the “by-line,” and that he may not write about tournaments in Which he is competing. .My personal opinion, for what it is worth, is that an amateur should be considered one who neither plays for money nor teaches the game for money.

Unless an amateur accepts reimbursement out of all proportion to his expenses, and manages to ' receive money for using the goods of certain sporting houses without being discovered, he cannot possibly do more than clear alb his expenses; for whatever he makes is bound to go right back into the game in one way or another.

It i's the opinion of a great many people that amateur players must have great love for the game to forgo the opportunities professionalism offers. I don’t know how many of the amateurs I can speak for, but for myself I can say that the thought of never being able to feel again the intense excitement and thrill of the great tournaments at Wimbledon, Paris, and Forest Hills is enough to keep me for some time to come in the amateur ranks.