The Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1923. A CIVIC “MASTER OF GAMES.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17182, 27 October 1923, Page 8

The Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1923. A CIVIC “ MASTER OF GAMES.”

The opening of the summer sports season in Christchurch recalls the suggestion made in England at the I beginning of the summer there that London, with its many parks and its thousands of sportsmen and sportswomen, ‘ ought to have its own Games Master, who, with a staff of | coaches, would supervise the various sports and assist j promising players out of the rut of obscurity. The ' suggestion is not quite applicable to a small city like Christchurch, but some modification of it might easily be i evolved to suit the less congested conditions, or at all events the various sports might appoint sectional Games Mastei-s. London, of course, is in a class by itself, hut its very vastness, and the class distinctions that have been imported into the best games, make the task of finding champions difficult. For instance, nearly 40,000 games ■ I were played in London parks on Sundays alone during the first twelve months of the Sunday sport regime, and this was a remarkable indication of the extraordinary popularity of the parks games system among the people of poor I and of moderate means. The suggestion was made that this vast mass of potential champions might be weaned away from “pat-ball” in tennis to hard vigorous hitting, and that the same might be done by coaching, at a small fee, in j other branches of the sport. The suggestion is worthy of consideration even in Christchurch. Last night the president of the New Zealand Cricket Council appealed to affiliated associations and the Cricket Council to foster the game in the cities and provide for its extension in the hack-blocks. The matter is largely one of coaching young players, and providing for constant practice under supervision. The game must he played for its own sake, hut every man must prepare himself before the actual contest if he is to do himself or his side justice. The coaching of boys and young players has been undertaken in Christchurch, but it would be no credit to the whole body of cricket if a financial statement could he prepared showing how the greater part of the expense has had to be borne by a very few individuals. In the other great branch of sport, lawn tennis, the lack of coaching lias been even more marked, but it seems quite likely that if the Lawn Tennis Association comes safely through the big collecting § campaign for the building of Wilding Park, a professional 1 coach will be almost an absolute necessity in conjunction with the new and extensive courts there. Of course sport is too well organised in New Zealand to demand the appointment of a city Games Master, but the idea of definite coaching by professionals must be faced unless sport is to become a haphazard business, in which the production of champions will be more or less fortuitous. In cricket and lawn tennis there is no reason why New Zealand should not worthily fill the international place 1 now allotted to her, yet cricket is not in a very flourishing 1 position, and while lawn tennis is enjoying a boom it is | questionable whether the standard of play is being main--1 i tained. It is all very true that games ought to he played j for the exercise, but the best games will slump and become ! uninteresting to players and the public alike unless there is I the keenest competition between the units. The moral, ! therefore, is that coaching must be insisted on to lift any i game out of the ruck, and New Zealand sports bodies i should pay much more attention to this important aspect I of the case. ■