STRENUOUS FOOTBALL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 31, 13 March 1914, Page 2

STRENUOUS FOOTBALL.

SOME ENGLISH INSTANCES. Football is . played very strenuously in England (says the London correspondent of the Sydney ''Sun.") If our Australian grounds were the scene of so many rough incidents every week there would be a public outcry which would probably induce the police to intervene. Never a day passes on which important matches are played without one or more of the players being seriously injured, if not incapacitated for years. The speeial committee which mismanaged the Olympic Fund had daily evidence of the vigorous nature of English football in the person of their,secretary, Lieutenant Blair. A strongerbuilt, better-proportioned man never entered a football field. Yet in an International he was found lying on the ground after a hard scrum, and to-day is a eripple, whose legs refuse to support him, and who has to hobble about with strong sticks. A professional who : is paid £3 10/- a week in and out of season is not receiving princely rei numeration when you remember the risks that he runs. -

A case came into the Courts a few days ago, in which Frost, a member of the Millwall team, who sustained an injury to his knee in January last year, claimed"under the Workmen's Compensation Act that he was entitled to support from the club.. It was admitted that' he" had received the injury while in the club's service, but it was contended that being 32 years of age he had passed his prime as a footballer, and must, in the ordinary course of things, be regarded as a "has-been." Evidence was tendered that riot one man in a thousand is able to play in first-class football in England after reaching 30 years of age.. Competition is becoming keener, and clubs are demanding younger men. At the last moment the club repented its disposition to cut Frost adrift, and generously agreed to pay him £1 a week until his knee is sound again, and he can obtain other employment. ', ■■