WAR AND FOOTBALL

NZ Truth, 29 April 1916, Page 8

WAR AND FOOTBALL

Scrams and Struggles m Egypt Where Wellington Defeated ' Auckland An Inducement to Enlist If the shirker Is shirking on the ground that if he goes to war he will "do" the football season, "Truth" would like to assure htm that if he does not go to the war he will "do" the season. This requires some explanation. Owing to the fact that football teams have been depleted due to the toeballers having listed, rugby, during the course of the war, will be a lost art — m New Zealand. Rugby operations have been removed from the temperate zone of New Zealand to the torrid deserts of Egypt, and it sounds a somewhat peculiar thing to learn that already, under a blazing hot African sun, Wellington has .won the provincial championship, and, presumably has retained the Ranfurly Shield. Anyhow, "Truth" has before it an. interesting letter from one "of the boys" which is more football than war, and cheerful reading it is: We have a Battalion Football, Championship here and matches are played .every Wednesday and Sunday. , As there area large mmber of well-known footballers m this (Moascar, Ismailia) Camp, the play is usually of a very good standard and just about up to the usual provincial standard. At present (24/2A6) the only unbeaten team is Wellington, who m their games have . beaten Otago 15 — 3, Canterbury 28 — 3, and Auckland 14 — 0. The meeting: of Wellington and Auckland (yesterday) was a great affair and the ground was crowded long before the match started. Between 8000 and 4000 spectators ware present and the sight and names brought up memories of the "old, never-to-be-for-gotten provincial matches. The teams that represented the Battalions would have shaken up any average provincial team. Of course, the grounds round here are all sand, and under a blazing sun you would not expect a team to last very long as regards condition, but Wellington, ably captained by E. Roberts, played a splendid game and ran out winners by 14— 0^ a converted try by E. Roberta and three tries by W. Wilson.. So the annual match between Wellington and Auckland has been decided under a strange sky and witnessed by the hardiest, healthiest, and most attentive crowd that ever has watched football. It made a splen- " did picture— all those rows of sunburnt, well-built men round a tiny square, whereon was played the match. War has very, little terror after all, but what an inducement to enlist. No fight, no football. The Recruiting .Board ought to gag feusy.