FOOTBALL AT DARWIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24244, 9 April 1942, Page 4

FOOTBALL AT DARWIN

TEAMS IN BATTLE DRESS Darwin still plays footbalj—air-raids or no air-raids, states an Australian paper. It is real wartime football, however —grim, yet not without its amusing side and its entertainment value. It reflects the great spirit of the fighting forces, and at the same time emphasises their everlasting love for football that, in spite of what might have happened to Darwin, or is likely to happen, football must go on. ' So it was that last month teams and snnporters from the Anti-Tank Battery, A.1.F., and 'ha Navy foregathered at a jungle clearing to decide a football argument under Australian rules. The teams played in full battle dress. The arena was ringed with the troops wearing their "Battle Bowlers" as they call the steel holmets. Every man carried his full equipment and was armed to the teeth. The players handed their rifles to their cobbers. The goal umpires borrowed rifles from the men next to them. If it was a goal they waved two rifles and if a brhind one rifle. It was all in the npproved football fashion, but grim, very grim. So realistic was it that they signalled the end of the cfuarters with a blast from a Lewis gun. Behind the troons the grass grew to Bft. When a kick carried the ball well over the boundary line the troops began an immediate search, pushing the high grass aside with the points of tneir rifles. i ,f ■ . i ■ k J