SOCCER MATCH SCENES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21359, 7 December 1932, Page 17

SOCCER MATCH SCENES

WHISKY TO KEEP OUT COLD RUBBER PITCH EXPERIMENT Scenes like those in tlio football matches in the mud at Blackpool, Eng. land, in October, when Chelsea finished with six men, and at Blackburn, where Sheffield Unitod finished with eight players, will be less likely if a revolution:ivy scheme for rubber pitches Ijcinjr tried by the Arsenal Lootball Club is successful. Mr. Herbert Chapman, the Arsenal manager, said to a reporter:— "We are trying fo discover a substitute for turf and I think we may find it in a dead rubber substance which will give a proper bounce to the ball. As an experiment and as a first move in this development, we intend to put down a rubber strip under the goal bar where the goalkeeper stands and moves. He. at least, it entitled to a secure foothold." Conditions were so bad at Blackburn that at one period when torrential rain fell, the whole of the Sheffield United team and nine Blackburn Hovers players scampered to the dressing-rooms. The referee was left on the field with two Blackburn players and the linesmen. Later, during a prolonged interval, the referee collapsed.

Mr. S. Atkin, a director of Sheffield United, said: "During play whisky was continually being given to the men, and when our players retired lo the dressingroom their shirts find knickers* were frozen to them and had to be ripped off."