NOVEL IDEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 843, 11 December 1929, Page 18

NOVEL IDEA

Getting Girls to Big Cricket THOUSANDS IN FREE? Mr. E. C. Beale, vice-president of the Auckland Criicket Association, member of the management committee of the same body, and one of Auckland’s three representative selectors, is an administrator of the game famed for his novel ideas. T3ERIODICALLY he brings forward •'*" some suggestion or other for the advancement of cricket, but he made one of his best at the weekly meeting of the management committee of the Auckland Cricket Association last evening. His suggestion, in effect, and in a nutshell, was that several thousands of Auckland’s girls be invited free to the first day’s play of the Auckland-Otago Plunket Shield match at Eden Park at Christmas! Mr. Beale was seeking some way to further advertise the game, and he hit upon this as a likely one, as the attendance on a first day at a big game is seldom a large one. “We want to get the other sex interested in cricket,” Mr. Beale said. (The management committee, it need hardly be pointed out, consists entirely of men.) “And when we get the other sex interested, we get more of our own I sex interested in it. too." he added.TREASURER EMPHATIC Mr. Beale then suggeetsd that the girls of the primary schools, in charge of their masters, the girls of the Auckland Teachers’ Training College (many of whom, Mr. Beale reminded the committee, play cricket), the members of the Auckland Girls’ Cricket Association,, the girls of the secondary schools of Auckland, and the Girl Guides of tl\e city, be admitted to Eden Park free of charge. WTien the significance of this suggested munificence dawned upon the treasurer, Mr. J. H. Watts, his face almost turned to stone. The numbers eligible to attend would run into thousands, possibly nearly ten thousand! Even in a day when much is being heard about the modern miss at cricket, this was to much for the members of the committee. But Mr. Beale stuck to his point. “I think it would be a good policy,” he said. Mr. "Watts: “We have got to treat our matches as a business proposition. I’m not keen on the suggestion. If they come along why not get sixpence off them?” Mr. Snedden then jocularly remarked that the Scottish instinct should be applied, and the innovation made in the test with the M.C.C. (when the New Zealand Cricket Council would have to foot any loss). Mr. Watts: “I am not agreeable to letting anyone in free when we can get anything out of them.” But then, all treasurers are hard men. FEMALE ADULTS Some time later the question of gate charges for women was introduced. Mr. Watts presumed that the charge for male adults would apply for female adults. Mr. W. Harwood: “Actually. of course, it costs them nothing.” Mr. E. E. Nalder (chairman) then suggested that all under the age of 16 should be admitted for 6d. but Mr* Beale raised the objection that the gatekeepers would have to go to the trouble to “inspect the teeth” of doubtful cases. Eventually it .was decided to admit all primary and secondary school children for 6d.