Too Much Sport.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14238, 2 July 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

Too Much Sport.

TIME TO CRY A HALT. The lengtlis_ to wliicli school sport has been carried in Victoria, and tha degree of unrest inside the schools, ancl the bitterness between schools which the multiplication of inter-col-lege contests has created have led to a movement in the direction of a halt (reports the Melbourne correspondent of the Sydney Telegraph). It is now proposed to grapple with what some persons regard as the dangerous tendency to over-nccenuate the importance of inter-school sports contests as part of the training given in the great secondary schools. It is suggested that in order to give all the imblio schools of Victoria a chance of fully considering the situation in which public school sport now stands, there should bo a year's truce —that, in fact, for 12 months the-re should be no public schools 1 competitions. apart from friendly games between schools teams on Saturdays and holidays. Other suggestions are:—

(1) That the ago of competitors in all athletic contests between public schools be reduced from 20 to 19 . (2) That public schools should either .abolish or reduce the expenditure of money on the employment of professional coaches for particular sport; and JS) That steps should he taken 'to give greater prominence to second-and third teams' matches, in certain 'contests, so as to obviate the concentration of .attention- and excitement. on first teams' contests, which, in the oi> im'on of several public men, is not for the ceneT.il cood of the sport or far the good of the schools. Tf this saipasstfon be ntlo.nii?3 the cri <?]-•-+■ n».fl football eminence of a. school w-ill be secured bv the nvf>rr,;ro of nomtp. ohtn;«p<t through all it? ten-m®. instead of through its first team on?r. ■ - These, i>toposiT->. fwT oiJi'ers r»fc?rrmrr to n -jiniW of details of rtuMSc sch or.it are to he <3iscusse& in aTI tho Ecnoois.