Urgent Need For A Saner Outlook In British Sport

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1935, Page 4

Urgent Need For A Saner Outlook In British Sport

INDICTMENT OF LATTER-DAY SPIRIT, BY “DAILY MAIL” WRITER

' [Some weeks ago reference was made in the news cabled from London to an article written by J. H. Freeman, sports editor of the “Daily Mail,” on the prevailing spirit in a great deal of British sport to-day. The full text of the article is reprinted here.] IF the months -immediately ahead do not see a return to a saner outlook in British sport the historian of thcfuture will be able to write with truth that 1935 heard the death-knell of all that was best in the arts and craftsmanship of our national games and the most honourable of our sporting traditions. His most merciless indictment will be that the men of our time were people without vision; that they could not read or did not heed the lessons of the previous five years; that when the smoke of controversy of 1932 and 1933 became tinged with the lurid flames of bitterness, and even malice, in 1934 the danger was either ignored or fresh fuel added to the fire. . There was not a field _ of international rivalry in sport in the last 12 months which did not provide instances where British representatives had lost sight of the one vital principle that should dominate all their actions — that the game is greater than the player. For 50 years and more the basic rules of our national outdoor sports remained unchallenged and almost _ unchanged. The spirit behind the written word spoke in a voice that could be heard down the ages. The men who made the laws, some of them happily still with us, had builded on a rock; they thought of the game and not of the individual. If you go back to the. original laws of cricket and Association football, of the Rugby Union game and of golf, you will be struck by their comparative simplicity and their stark honesty. It may take interminable legal battles to decide the meaning of an Act of Parliament that affects the lives of 40,000,000 people, but it is grievous to me to think that in sport there should be any necessity to legislate afresh to define the spirit of a law. Here are outstanding facts that throw a depressing light on the modern attitude to what should be the games of a ' nation. , , The Football Association has acceded to a demand to give a trial to two referees (plus the usual two linesmen) in, a representative match. A few days ago the Rugby Union issued a strong denunciation of the increasing infringements of the scrummage law. In the last inter-varsity Rugby match there were no fewer than 23 penalty kicks. Between 1871 and 1919 all the inter-varsity matches played produced only one penalty goal. The M.C.C. has been compelled, to define what is meant by an unfair attack on a batsman. « Taken together—-and all have hanjiened in the space of three months —they constitute the most crushing, the most overwhelming charge against British sportsmanship and love Of fair play that has ever been presented. If

it had come from outside the country, instead of from within the position would have been humiliating in. the extreme. - ■ Put into plain words the charge is of cheating .on a wholesale scale—cheating at play. The truth is, of course, that we have forgotten that sport is play. Anything is good enough if you can “get away with it.” x The present age, of sport is as tne age of jazz. There is no romance in the music of the modern ballroom; there is no glamour, no beauty, no lasting thrill or pleasant memory in a game where skill and physical prowess are subordinated to the sharp practice born of mental cunning. Did not the immortal Brigadier Etienne Gerard, in his magnificent innocence, slay a fox with his sword. We are committing equally heinous offences every day—deliberately and with pur eyes open-. '. In the heat of the moment we raised, angry cries against Italy’s football team for breaking our laws on the field at Highbury. . ..... Every League match played in this country every week will see English nlayers riding roughshod over the same laws —in the hope that the referee .will not notice. And in practically every boardroom the offences will be winked at or spoken of with a laugh and a shrug of the shoulders. The spirit of the laws is the same as when they were originally framed. It is the interpretation that is different. The increasingly noticeable absence of the real' spirit'of sportsmanship is bringing attendant evils.in.its train. It is leading to panic legislation and more scheming to defeat ; it. The vicious circle goes on rotating at ever-growing speed. All the time the artistry of our batsmen, the brilliant footwork of our footballers;- is suffering. Whereas., before, we could turn away for a space from, the problems of international politics or domestic economy to the. calm and peace of our- playing fields, we are, now .confronted with bickerings' and quarrellings whether we look at home or abroad. ' ' ' The nation that taught the world to play is fast losing its sense of the joyousness- and gaiety ■ and- supreme honesty of true sport. ■ . ‘ • Inside -the nation we need to take a firmer, stand against the incessant attacks of the commercial spirit in sport.! It is imperative .that, we .should oppose, with equal firmness those who would add new and ill-considered interpretations to laws that stood the test of time, when sportsmanship was an ideal ana not a matter of "the policeman round the corner”—be he referee or.umpire or the governing body behind him. And internationally we need a, broader vision and a wider sympathy with those whose environment and upbringing and opportunity have been less favourable and less steeped in tradition than our own.

In every other phase of our national life the cry may be “Forward!” In sport we need to get back- to the spirit of bur fathers.