FOOTBALL

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1924, Page 12

FOOTBALL

It looks as if the Yellow Peril might, trouble professional Association footballers in England in future years. Donald McAlister, an old Alhambra forward who has revisited his team-mates in Dunedin, stated that a good deal of Soccer is played in Shanghai, in which town he has’ resided for 23 years. If trained Chinese are imported into England and the wages of professionals suffer in consequence, there will arise visions of football strikes and boycotts! These are gloomy thoughts. Football contests in the future should be magnificent affairs. Sir Armstrong Jones, an eminent medico, has discovered a vaccine which will enable any person to go through all forms of exertion without fatigue. Football, we suppose, is really a form of exertion. This vaccine recalls the story of an Australian doctor who discovered an aboriginal and his lior«e stuck on a wayback station. The horse refused to move, so the doctor pulled out his hypodermic syringe and gave the animal an injection* of heart stimulant. Immediately the horse kicked up its heels and disappeared over the horizon. “How much did that stuff cost?” inquired’ the abo. “About sixpence,” replied the doctor. “Put a shilling’s worth into me,” demanded the abo. “I’ve got to catch that horse.” For the second season T. Lawton, a Queensland Rhodes scholar, is the most discussed Rugby player in England. Since the season began, there has been considerable controversy regarding the respective merits of Lawton and Kittermaster for the five-eighth position in the Oxford University, team which is the outstanding side in the United Kingdom. Critics are unanimous in giving the palm to Lawton, who is described as the Victor Trumpet of Rugby. Nevertheless, it was cabled recently that it was practically certain that Kittermaster would play five-eighth in the inter-’Varsity match, while Lawton would be found a place as wing-forward. Perhaps the most surprising thing of all, though, is the intention to play a wing-forward unless by wing-forward is means th® stapd«off half. The wing-

forward has hitherto been regarded with horror in English Rugby circles, and 1 here in New Zealand we had been prepared to be apologetic over the fact that the All Black side to visit England presumably will play a man at the side of the scrum (aays the Christchurch Sunj»