ETON’S WALL GAME;

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20584, 6 December 1928, Page 11

ETON’S WALL GAME;

A correspondent in the Eton. College Chronicle refers'in condemnatory terms to the famous "wall game," and it will, be interesting to see what effect his letter « T r e on Eton °P ini on. He writesI feel very strongly that itf is high time the censure of Etonian opinion was directed on that anachronous barbarity that goes by the optimistic, name of the wall game. Now, a game, as all sensible people will agree, is an opportunity for the enjoyment of healthy exercises- in frinedly rivalry. The wall game cannot by any extension of meaning come into the limits of this definition. <- ,""° First, has anyone ever really enjoyed a wall game? Take off the rose-tinted spectacles through which you are accustomed to view the .past, yon hoary veterans, and you will be bound to see that the discomfort pain, dirt, and general unpleasantness far outweighed the animal pleasnre of injuring your, fellow-man. . Secondly, as to exercise, sis players out of 22 cannot hope to have morfc S tone kick every five minutes, which exercise, though, no doubt, extremely salutary could be taken in about a the time and far more beneficially in a gymnasium The other 16 players 7 spend the most unnatural positions, where muscular strength can at best only pr e ! vent a sprain or fracture. • "Thirdly, it is. admitted by all who have any experience of the game that one cannot play it really well without losing i one s temper, and it is indeed well nigh impossible to play the game at all without doing so. in this respect the wall game is only rivalled by the Field ill-fealin an reHed ° n always t 0 Produce "No, sir. This so-called game is a relic oi the past contemporary with washlne m cold water at the pump, and, as such ht only for those hoary veterans of the bpartan past whose joy in life is the com posing of fantasies on the theme 'ln mv •day, sir.' ' - "The abolition of this game calls for some courage hi the face of the tradition that now supports it, but I am convinced that such a step would'in the end lead, not to the softness of modern youth prophesied and censured so often, but to physical improvement in more useful games that do not run counter to the spirit of real euportsmanship. "Were this game given, up, the raison detre of that most dismal of Eton Unctions, St. Andrew's Day, would also disappear, and no. longer would misguided seekers for the unique and picturesque descend to this haunt- of mists and yellow frightfulnesß or fog to look sliiveringly at the backs of the college dignitaries and through the gaps at> an amorphous mass of indistinguishable humanity whose only object seems to be to cover themselves and each other with gory mud. "I hope that the keepers of the Wall will not be scornful enough to let tTus challenge pass unheeded, but will provide t-omc reason besides the shackles of tradition for the continued indulgence in this barbarous and antiquated sport."