MILES OF GOAL POSTS

Southland Times, Issue 25023, 8 April 1943, Page 4

MILES OF GOAL POSTS

RUGBY FOOTBALL IN THE DESERT

Writing in January in the desert within 50 miles of Tripoli, Lieutenant R. S. Brown, formerly cable sub-editor on the staff of The Southland Times, gives a graphic account of the devotion of the men in his brigade to Rugby football and how they keep the game going despite all obstacles. Having mentioned that the G.O.C. had made it known weeks before that he would invite the Army Commander to kick. off in the final of the New Zealand Divisional championship on Mussolini’s famous Sporto Palazzo in Tripoli, Lieutenant Brown continues: —

“You may wonder how it is that a divisional Rugby championship can be played out during such a campaign as this; but if you could see any one of our stopping places on the desert route —places, that is, where we’ve halted for three or four days, or longer—you would soon understand, because as far as you could see across the sand you would see goal posts. “Our concept of a good bivouac area does not, perhaps, follow the lines laid down by the War Office; all we consider essential is enough flat, sufficiently smooth desert to allow the marking out of a football field! Then, we say, we can get on with the war ... I don’t suppose any parallel exists in Rugby history with this season’s New Zealand Divisional championship, of which the final will be played, soon, more than 1000 miles from the venue of the opening rounds, and in a city that was our enemy’s great base when those first games took place. The quarter-finals were played during the Christmas period, on the shores of the Gulf of Sirte—roughly halfway along our pathof conquest. STAR FORWARD CAPTAIN

“We machine-gunners have a particular interest in tire competition as our battalion team is still in the running (it’s a ‘knock-out’ affair). By the way, A. E. Cuff, who played for Star at home, is now captain of the team, and Jim Burke, another well-known Southland forward, is in the pack. “ ‘Keep fit, and keep , cheerful’ —that is the Kiwi slogan these days. It’s a simple, sensible sort of motto, and we have no end of fun living up to it. On our trek westwards, scenes such as this were as familiar as the sound of shellfire:—

“Our brigade convoy—dozens and dozens of vehicles—comes to a halt while a reconnaissance party goes ahead. In a moment footballs are,high in the air in a hundred different places, and practically every man is off his truck and in the scramble. A few minutes later and there are signs of movement up in front, and soon the whole convoy is under way again, with scores of ‘punt-about’ enthusiasts making last-minute dashes for their trucks. I often wish some of our anxious folk at home could see all this; I’m sure it would cheer them up considerably.”