FOOTBALL

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 180, 31 July 1920, Page 5

FOOTBALL

THE SEDDON SHIELD. ■ tor-. ■ DECISION O i'HJJ'.UNION". •teri i

At the special meeting of the Maryborough Rugby Union held last evening with reference to the New Zealand Union's proposal that the Seddon Shield match ! with Buller should be postponed to allow the country • tour to proceed, it was decided to despatch i. a telegram reading as follows:— ■ J.'Ve repudiate all .responsibility for the present position, which we regret. .We cannot possibly alter our programme now, and have stated our case and arguments fully. We submit that Buller is entirely to blariie. Letter following." The letter sent to the secretary of the New Zealand Union stated the case in reference to the Seddon Shield challenge, and : the South Island country tour, as follows:— . "We exceedingly regret the position in connection with the above, but we have all the time strenuously tried to avoid the present impasse. We sent you all the correspondence which passed between Buller and ourselves, and thus you will see ! where we tried to play in July with- | out success. They simply would not meet us in July, and they themselves suggested August 14th, which diite we accepted. We have not tried to keep any of our men back from 4he i North Island tour; the two who 1 declined did so only because they 1 could not spare a month away for football. We consider that the present position could have been avoided if your Union 'had given Buller to "understand that they should in common fairness to the NeAV Zealand Union\ meet' us in July. It is hardly fair to us, after suiting out dates to meet Buller's wishes, that they should prove so unsportsmanlike as to now pull their men out. The impasse is- not of our making, and we regret that matters have progressed so far that we cannot now cancel our tour of tho West Coast. Our president, Dr Noble-Adams, will be in Wellington on August 7th, and probably a meet-" ing with him will clear >up some, points."