Bookings are Heavy For Southland Invasion

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26780, 25 May 1948, Page 6

Bookings are Heavy For Southland Invasion

The prelude to the annual “ invasion ” of Southlanders for the Otago-Southland Rugby match has begun. Hotels in the city have already accepted a large number of bookings for the Ranfurly Shield match on July 31. The Daily Times was told yesterday that tentative bookings were made some months ago by enthusiasts from the south who waited only for the date to be fixed for the game before confirming their earlier approaches for accommodation.

Few requests for accommodation can now be tnet by any of the hotels in the city, and inquiries made in Invercargill over the weekend showed that a similar position obtained in respect to bookings for the combined return match and All Black trial at Invercargill on August 7. Large numbers of bookings from Dunedin have already been confirmed, and on each of the Saturdays on which games are to be played it is certain that a vacant hotel room will be extremely difficult to find.

An official of the Railways Department told the Daily Times that it was extremely unlikely that special trains would be run between Dunedin and Invercargill for either the Ranfurly Shield game or the return match. As usual, however, there is certain to be a great deal of motor traffic on the main south road. Some motorists are already economising in their use of petrol in order to have enough for the occasion.