NO MORE “SPREES”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20784, 20 July 1937, Page 12

NO MORE “SPREES”

AFTER FOREIGN MATCHES UNION MAKES RULE There are to be no more "sprees’’ after the match for South Canterbury representative footballers. The players will be allowed to attend any official dinners which may be tendered to them by the Sub-Unions or Unions they visit, but after that it will be a case of "straight home.” At a meeting last night the Management Committee of the Rugby Union issued a direction to the managers of its travelling teams that the players must leave for Timaru not later than half an hour after the conclusion of the official dinner. The chairman (Mr J. H. Harley) said there was no need for the players to hang about all night and arrive home about 12 o’clock. The manager of the team should say what time the bus was to leave, and if any player were not there at that time he should be left behind. Voices: Hear, hear.

Mr Harley said a majority of the players wanted to get home as soon as possible, and there was no reason why they should have to wait about for those who did not. When a team went to a place like Oamaru they should leave between 8.30 and 9 o’clock. "Why should a manager have to ‘kid’ to the players to get into the bus?" he asked. He added that one of these days the bus drivers would put in claims for overtime through being kept waiting all night, and the Union would be liable. Not For Amusement "After all, they go down for a game of football, not for amusement,” said Mr C. L. Cutler, who asked what action a manager should take if a player were..not at the bus when It was time to leave for home.

The chairman said the player should be left to get home as best he could. Mr D. Hepburn suggested that some grace should be allowed. The Union should make a rule and not leave it to the manager, said Mr A. S. Aitken. If half of the team wanted to stay on after the time fixed by the manager for departure he would be most unpopular. Mr M. J. Angland said the team should obey the manager. On such trips the manager was too far away to get rulings from the Union, t would be casting a slur on the players, he said, if a definite ruling was made. If they were told the Union’s wishes, he was sure the players would respond. “Some of them would not,” said the chairman.

“When I went to Waimate I said I would leave at 8 o’clock and I did. I left one man behind,” said Mr Cutler. It was agreed that It be an instruction to managers that the teams leave for Timaru not later than half an hour after the official dinner tendered them.