SPORTS AND THE WAR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 22 May 1915, Page 6

SPORTS AND THE WAR.

A Sydney cable message says that sis hundred and eighty Kugby. Union players, and over one thousand Rugby League players, have enlisted for the front.

In eulogising the manner in which Rugby footbahers throughout the Empire had responded to the call in the present crisis, Mr F. T. Evans,, president of the Canterbury Rugby Union, at the presentation last week to the late president, Mr G. H. Mason, said that no other sport had done so much for volunteering as Rugby football. Mr Mason should be proud of the tact that he had been so long associated with such a sport. Some people regarded Rugby tootball as a, game that no decent man would take on, but after the present crisis was over he feit sure there would be a radical change in their opinion. One thing Rugby did was to make men of the players, and bring out those best qualities which they must put in practice on the.field of battle. Athletics were the saving of the nation. Had the British nation not been so athlete be did not know where they would be. As an example Lord Kitchener had been able to place an army of trained athletes 'in the field within a few months. The Germans had to be trained from their boyhood. No fewer than ten names were forwarded to the recruiting officer on Monday week from Akaroa as volunteers for the Expeditionary Forces. Of this number eight are active members of the Akaroa Football Club, which has, in past and present players, supplied some twenty-six volunteers to the various contingents—a fine record tor a club of forty members. * -

KILLED IN .THE WAR

Lieutenant D. H. Beatty (East Surrey Regiment), who when^at Hertford College, Oxford, was captain• of the college Rugby XV., and also a member or the hockey team. —Ca-ptain M. A. Girdlestoae, who, when at Magdalen College, Oxford, was a prominent rowing man. He was a brother to' a still more famous rower in H. Girdlestone, who was stroke in the dark blue crews of 1885 .and 1886.—Second Lieutenant S. P. Cockerell, who in 1898 rowed in the Eton boat which won.the Ladies' Plate at Henley Regatta, and when at Cambridge University rowed "bow" m the light-blue boat, which beat Oxford in the then record time of 18min 4csee, whicli figure was, however, reduced to 18min 29sec, when the darkbkies defeated Cambridge in 1911 — Second Lieutenant Ahm H. Wilson (Rifle Brigade), who when at Cambridge University earned his Rugby football "blue" in 1911 and played in the annual match against Oxford for three seasons.—Mr Maurice Capland, who enlisted in the sth Roval Surrey Keijiment at the outbreak 'of hostilities, was an excellent golfer, and took part m the amateur golf championship several times, without, however coming out on top.—Lieutenant ft S Barrmgton (Irish Rifles), an Australian by birth, who when at Worcester College, Oxiord, represented his college in the Association footbajl eleven and also qn the river.

At a committee meeting of the St Albans Cricket Club, held on May ,12 the resignation of the lion, secretary Mr V M. Edgar, who has joined the j Force for the front was accepted with regret, the committee placing on record their high appreciation or the very valuable services rendered by Mr Edgar during a lengthy term of office. The committee congratulated him on his determination to ri^nt for his country, and wished I"hi God speed and a safe ,return It was resolved to send a letter of "condolence to Mr p. Wilding, K.C., on the death of his sou, Cautain A F i]amg Avho was killed in action. ' Jhe bportsman's Battalion in the Old Country is a great success. One ?- + i / Icrse Guards' Parade on March l/,h to watch the 2nd Sportsman's hattnhon go oit. fer training in camp at Hare Hall, Romford. Their h7£l ci-er, who A ras wearing a bunch of

* prbfctt he <was to* haw iM2a in/hifr'bii-v, -tgade;' and" he^1 wtumly.-, Cunliffe Owen (wifeCof ;th^well : knowi|: cricketer) "forl thj&,,patriotic jror£ «he; has done, i* Tftising. t^^twif Sfiortifrt man's Battalions. '^The '2nd .coiitain&s some noted sportsmpiu He saw, for instance. . r in the yanks Charlie' McGahey, the famous '.: cricketer* whoused- tos captain Essex, and once on the Old Trafford TGround knocked vp1 14* (not out) in a "fourth; innings, and so won the match for his side. . The wonderful wprk performed 'by the thousands of British - sportsmen who have answered ih&veair &E/ duty, has become the subject of universal comment, says jsjx exchange.. -Take, for instance, the deed of the famous Scottish International three-quarter, Huggan. This is how it is told in an English paper: • ' Foo£bjul-lover.s all over.the country will remember Huggan —Huggan the dashing three-quarter, Huggan the xJedburgh-born Scottish International, who played for Scotland in 1914, and when tne war-cloud broke went over to, France to play for Britain in a greater fame. Now from the maze of the war comes a story, a story of | individual heroism that will serve for ever the name of fhia famous Rugby International.

• In a partly-shattered, barn a batch of some sixty wounded Germans had been carried,* to find there' but scafcty protection, for it lay between the British and the German lines, and the Germans with their accustomed callousness for their wounded, were shelling this frail shelter, so that, beneath the welter of bombardment, it soon burst into flame. The terrible predicament of these suffering soldiers was sensed by the British. It was more than one of them could stand —on^i of them, Huggan, whdj as he had ra,llipd. the Scottish teanjrm the old days, 1 called now for volunteers tp save these poor, maimed/" creatures. Hu'ggari's call was not in vain; soon he was at the head of /»n intrepid band, rushing through thfc haifr of shot and shell towards th,#" d6omed building. A miracle aided them, a miracle allowed ahem to1 get, to their objective unscathed, and aided them in getting the Germans from the shell-swept zone. One by one, under the cheering direction 1 of'Huggan, they were saved from a terribleydeath; one by one they were carried or helped back through the river of steel to the British lines.

Huggan, who had won his cap by virtue of many a stirring run, had never scored so great a try, had never played for so great an object, had never won so great an honor. E. H. D. Sewell, who chronicles this act of extreme' heroism, quotes a letter from another Rugby International Captain E. D. Caddellj who remarks how cruel was the climax to his brother-foot-baller's great deed. "In moving his woi^nded men to a quarry in the rear of the British position Huggan was killed, at the close of one of the bravest actions yet recorded from the front. They buried the hero where he fell. Far away from the land for which he had played two great games lie lies sleeping, in the garden of La Cour de Soupir Farm, 'somewhere in France.' "