FOOTBALL BY FLOODLIGHT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 11 February 1933, Page 4

FOOTBALL BY FLOODLIGHT

RUGBY LEAGUE GAME LONDON, 20th December. A Rugby League match was staged at the White City last week with the aid of floodlights. Leeds and Wigan provided the exhibition for 10,000 spectators. Originally Brigadier-general Critchlev and his co-directors desired to provide an amateur Rugby match, but the Rugby Union stepped in and caused it to be known that any players belonging to clubs attached to the Rugby Union who turned out at the White City would be in danger of being suspended, and also of losing their amateur status. This killed the project of an amateur Rugger match for charity, and Leeds, and Wigan were thereupon engaged to play, for payment a game under the rules of their own code. The question now being asked is can and will the Rugby Union do anything to W. W. Wakefield, a member of their committee, who, as one of tho directors of White City Stadium, Ltd, was presumably responsible for the professional display? W. W. WAKEFIELD’S STATUS Mr'Wakefield took no part in the match (writes Mr Trevor Wignall, of the “Daily Express”), hut he was present as a spectator - , and the question that arises now is whether,- through being a director of a company that has disregarded one of the sternest rules of the Rugby Union, ho lias rendered himself liable to the fate that would probably have befallen any member of, say. tho Harlequins or Blaekheath Clubs who played or otherwise engaged himself in the White City spectacle. Mr Wakefield played 31 times for England, and he is on the committee of the Rugby Union as the appointed representative of Middlesex. It was generally agreed that the puzzle is one ot the trickiest the Rugby Union have so far been called upon to solve. It was also remembered that the King, who is a patron of the Rugby Union, recently informed Lord Derby that if the clay is fine he will attend the cup final of the Rugby League, which will be contested by two professional teams from the north, and which is set for Wembley Stadium next May. A GREAT SUCCESS The floodlight game between Leeds and Wigan was such a success that

plans have already been made for the formation of a new professional league in London and the south. All the matches to he played during the remainder of the present season will he of the exhibition or propaganda variety, but next winter it is intended to have a league that will be extended o France, Germany, and other countries on the Continent, and that will eventually bring hr Australia and New Zealand. Early next year floodlight , Association matches will also be played at the White City but it is not intended to use the Soccer code otherwise than as a change from Rugby.