Gilligan’s Team

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XV, Issue 202, 25 November 1925, Page 5

Gilligan’s Team

PLAYED THE GAME. INTEMPERANCE DENIED. London, Nov. 23. The English team which visited Australia are indignant at statements made by the football manager Lewis, who is a prohibitionist, to the effect that ho had heard while in Australia that the cricketers might have done better had they been teetotallers. Hearne declares that he saw nothing wrong while in Australia, nor anything likely to be detrimental to cricket form. They were keenest at putting up the best show to regain the ashes. There was no intemperance, cither on the steamer <>r in Australia. Fender declined to treat the allegation seriously. Anyone could say the same sort of thing. If a man had a touch of liquor a prohibitionist immediately said it was drink. Douglas, in an indignant denial, declared that the allegation was scurrilous and a wicked shame. The team were extraordinarily steady and played the game both on and off the field, Strudwick and Hobbs wore the only teetotallers. Lewis owed the entire team an apology. Gilligan said: “I regard Lewis’s statement as a slur on Toone- and myself. If there had been drinking it would have been our duty to deal stonily with the offenders. The statement is grossly wrong. It is the first indication ever received of any complaints. Such nonsense makes me angry.’’ Hobbs joins in the condemnation. He asks: ‘Why should Tate and Sutcliffe, who are not teetotallers, have performed better than ho. who is a teetotaller?”—(A. and N.Z.)