What Readers Think Letters to the Editor

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21850, 31 December 1940, Page 4

What Readers Think Letters to the Editor

BOROUGH COUNCIL AND CRICKET Sir,—ln your issue of December 17, there appeared a paragraph in the Local and General News bearing the heading “Rent Not Paid,” which because of inaccuracy has created the impression that the South Canterbury Cricket Association has defaulted to the Timaru Borough Council for rent of grounds payable in 1938. It is true, and we make the confession publicly, that we now admit an indebtedness of £3 to the Timaru Borough Council! But this is certain*y not overdue rent. It was thought at the time this liability was incurred that the Mayor and Councillors had opened their hearts with a contribution for the encouragement of cricket in Timaru, in the form of the labour used in the rolling of the rough outfield in one of the cricket grounds, in preparation for a match with an overseas team. This rolling was done once and once only, and was wholly ineffective because of the lack of weight in the roller used. The Association was mistaken in anticipating the generosity of the Council. The Council had no such good intentions, and the charge has found its way on to the books of the Timaru Borough Council, and now the Cricket Association is faced with an ultimatum that unless this amount of £3, together with rents in advance for any grounds the Association may or may not use during the 1940-41 season, is paid within seven days, the Timaru Borough Council will withdraw the privileges granted to the cricketers who use the municipal reserves for their game. It is worthy of mention that the rolling of the cricket ground involved in the disputed amount was done by the Council and charged for at a high rate at a time when the municipal authorities in Timaru were using tens of thousands of pounds of money provided for the unemployed, and this money was being spent on the preparation of grounds for recreation, etc., and yet not even the small amount of £3 could be allocated for the improvement of cricket grounds. Moreover, some idea of the lack of civic appreciation in Timaru of the difficulties confronting such bodies as the controllers of cricket in these days, can be seen in the unreasonaole demand addressed to the South Canterbury Cricket Association by the Timaru Borough Council for the payment of rent in advance, under penalty of the loss of privileges accorded by the Timaru municipality to cricketers. It will therefore be seen that not a penny is overdue for rent by the Cricket Association. The Council on its part has assumed that in these uncertain times the activities of the Cricket Association will be carried on as though nothing had happened to disturb the ordinary peace-time games of the younger members of the community. It is true that the South Canterbury Cricket Association applied for permission to prepare wickets on three grounds, but it is surely unreasonable for the Timaru Borough Council to charge up and demand payment m advance, under threat of ejection, for the whole of the season 1940-41, regardless of the likelihood, amounting almost to a certainty, that the activities of the Cricket Association will have to be substantially curtailed, involving the use of fewer wickets and one or two grounds, if the present rate of recruitment continues. Already South Canterbury cricket has been so heavily hit by the call to military service that the playing teams have been reduced from 26 to 12, and the call is still being made. More than 100 South Canterbury cricketers are in the fighting services. Even in teams now playing, a large and increasing number of veteran cricketers is coming back into the active play in the hope of keeping the game going until the men return. * It may interest the community to learn something of the privileges, socalled, that the Timaru municipality grants to cricketers —privileges now under the threat of cancellation. These privileges do not consist of rental for the use of cricket grounds, because there are no cricket grounds, as cricketers‘know them, under the control of the Timaru Borough Council. On the contrary, all the privileges the South Canterbury Cricket Association receives from the Borough Council is the . right to prepare the wickets used by the cricketers on three grounds under the control of the Borough authorities. That is to say, there would be no areas suitable for cricket at all in the borough parks and reserves without the hard regular work put into the weekly preparation by the playing members of clubs using certain Borough reserves set aside for recreational purposes. All the rolling, cutting and watering of the wickets is done by the cricketers.

The South Canterbury Cricket Association prepares and provides, without making any charge whatever, the wickets used by the primary school teams in Timaru. Hence the ultimatum of the Timaru Borough Council means that the whole of the season’s rent must be paid in advance, otherwise the cricketers will not be permitted to go on preparing wickets on Borough reserves set aside for recreational purposes for the use of the players who used those grounds, and for further use by the boys of the primary schools who play cricket each week in season. More than that, the South Canterbury Cricket Association, as experience has shown, has no exclusive use of the wickets its members prepare, nor protection against misuse by all and sundry who care to use the grounds f the Borough every day of the week except Saturday afternoon. Only three wickets on municipal reserves are used by cricketers. This is the sum total of the municipal contribution to the game of cricket. All other wickets used are provided elsewhere. The South Canterbury Cricket Association has only the friendliest feelings towards other sports bodies, but we feel bound to say that the attitude of the Council gives emphatic proof that the favours of the muncipal authorities in Timaru in the provision and care of playing grounds are certainly not reserved for the cricketers.— We are, etc., For the South Canterbury Cricket Association. A. E. LAWRENCE. President. M. J. ANGLAND, Hon. Secretary. Timaru, December 28.