RUGBY VETERANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26497, 26 June 1947, Page 2

RUGBY VETERANS

Mr Clem Beck, the sole survivor of the Otago team which defeated Southland by a goal and three tries (6 points) to 0 in the first match of the historic series, at Dunedin in 1887, hopes to be present at the forthcoming Ranfurly Shield match in Invercargill on August 2. He informed Observer that he had already made arrangements to travel by air to Invercargill for the game. According to old-time accounts. Clem Beck was an outstanding forward in his day, and represented Otago on 10 occasions, in 1885-87-88. including the match against A. E. Stoddart’s English team in 1888. He plaved first for the now defunct Montecillo Club, and later for the Dunedin Club, with which he still has a link, as his nephew, Mr A. C. Haynes, is the club’s patron, after being president for 16 or 17 years. The latter represented Otago in 1915. Clem Beck was also an Otago representative cricketer.

So far as is known, there are two survivors of the first Southland team —Mr Isaac Jenkins, now living in Queenstown, and Mr Arthur Morgan, who lives in the north, and was captain of Southland’s first representative‘side. Mr Jenkins, who played for the famous Star Club, represented Southland from 1887 until 1908 without a break—22 years in all—while Mr Morgan; a member of the Invercargill Club, played for his province only in the 1887 season.

TRAINING ALTERNATIVES The power shortage and the conseauent prohibition of the use of floodlights for football training have not deterred city Rugby clubs, and various means of overcoming the difficulty have been devised. Some clubs are now doing their training in daylight hours, including Sunday mornings, while others have found alternative lighting. The lights of cars directed on to the field in use have proved a fairly satisfactory substitute for floodlighting, although the shadows cast are inclined to be darker. As an added help, practice balls have been painted white, and this has done a good deal to obviate the difficulties at first apparent.