BASKETBALL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23931, 5 October 1939, Page 4

BASKETBALL

By Attack

Basketball is now over for the year, and "Attack " bids adieu to all readers of the column for another season Despite the unsatisfactory weather conditions prevailing on an unusually large number of Saturday afternoons, many enjoyable games were played, and a surprisingly high standard of play was maintained CENTENNIAL TOURNAMENT The Centennial basketball tournament will be held next Easter at Wellington, and it has been reported that the annual Dominion Championship meeting will be held then instead of in August. If this is the case it will be a radical departure from the usual routine; it will be interesting to see how the standard of play so early in the season will compare with the usual August standard. The appearance of a team representing Australia, which was to have travelled to the Dominion specially for the occasion, would have been the highlight of the tournament. Now. however, it is doubtful if the team will go on tour, the consensus of opinion being that it will not leave Australia. International rules were to have been observed, so both teams would have had something to learn in this respect. Seven-a-side play is customary in Australia, and the visitors would doubtless have had an advantage on that score. Although the New Zealand team which visited Australia last year suffered some decisive defeats, this was not altogether due to bad

form, but rather from lack of experience of seven-a-side play This was the first time the New Zealand girls had played in such a formation The Australians are inclined to play boisterously, with more bodily contact and it was to the New Zealanders' credit that they were congratulated on the clean and open nature of their play POPULARITY OF GAME Basketball is probably the most popular winter sport indulged in by young girls in New Zealand and has more followers than any other national game for women. It is ■ game that demands skill, versatility and fleetness of foot and is at once a recreation and a means of physical development Girls play the game because they like it and when it is considered thai there are thousands of voune women participating in weekly competition matches throughout the Dominion it is realised that the sport has a tremendous holdIn some cities there are as many as 140 teams playing each week-end. and this is evidence enough of the attraction the sport holds for voung women of to-day MANY PHYSICAL BENEFITS In" basketball, as in all other sports, it is the experience of all who have played that the better a girl can play the game the greater the enjoyment she will derive from it. The sport is both a reason for getting fit and a means of keeping fit. Its physical benefits are manv and include allround exercise and development with an enhancing of quickness and grace Players derive a great deal of satisfaction from basketball: there is something eminently satisfactory about the sense of body and mind working' together the zest of an exciting game

well played, and the joy of united effort to a team end. The sport has made amazing strides during the last 10 years, and there seems no reason why its popularity should diminish in the slightest degree in future seasons. LACK OF SUPPORT Unfortunately, the general public does not support basketball to the extent that it should Small attendances at matches are the rule rather than the exception and this is to be deplored. In Dunedin —and the same position probably exists in other centres —there are few spectators, apart from interested parents and officials, who come to see the matches of their own accord. It is regrettable that the attendances are not bigger. Apparently the public does not realise the entertainment value of basketball, which, without a" doubt is a thrilling sport to watch. In basketball, as in all other sports, there are uninteresting displays on occasions, but for the most part the matches are productive of a good standard of play and contain much to interest spectators. The sport is played at a fast pace and. with the ball travelling rapidly from one end of the court to the other, the spectator's attention is given no opportunity to flag. Spectacular movements are many and probably no game is more exciting than a keenly-contested basketball match UNIFORMITY OF RULES When the New Zealand team visited Australia in 1938, officials of the AllAustralia Association and the New Zealand Association met in Melbourne in an effort to obtain uniformity of rules. The conference agreed upon a set of rules for trial in the two coun-

tries and decided to complete them at another conference to be held in New Zealand two years later. The ultimate aim is to form an association representative of the British Empire and it is hoped that at the 1940 meeting representatives from England, and possibly other British countries, will be present. As a seven-a-side game was played by both Australia and England, it was decided at the 1938 conference that for international matches a team should consist of seven players. Provision was made for teams to be of five, seven, or nine for other games and this has given New Zealand the opportunity to retain its own number, nine. As a result, readjustments to some of the suggested international rules have been needed for use in New Zealand only. EASY TO FOLLOW It may be that one of the reasons for the comparative lack of interest shown in the sport by the general public is that it has little knowledge of how the sport is played and as a consequence has perhaps gained the impression that the sport is a difficult one to follow. This, however, is not the case and any person can easily grasp the fundamentals of the game Each team of nine players takes the court as three attacks, three centres and three defences The objective of the play is to put the ball through the goal towards which each team plays This is effected principally bv the passing of the ball from the hands of one player to those of another. Much of the skill of the game, lies in the organising and developing of this passing The first requisite of successful basketball is the attainment of accuracy, speed anticipation and resource in passing. Whitcombes for Basketball.*