AT PLAY IN NORWAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19367, 25 July 1925, Page 15

AT PLAY IN NORWAY

Throughout Norway, Sweden, and Denmark every town of tiny size at all has its Idrettsplatz, or sports ground, properly equipped for every form of [athletics, in charge of a coach well qualified to give just that sort of instruction which makes sport interesting, writes F. A. M. Webster in the Daily Mail. All these grounds are. moreover, provided with good dressing rooms and shower-baths. They are 'available all through the summer for track and field athletics, as well as national festivals and folk dances. In the autumn and spring football is play ied as long as the ground is soft [enough; when winter conies the arenas [arc flooded for its carnivals, dances, [races, fancy skating, and bandy (ice ihockey) matches. In addition, almost every large factory has its own Idrett • splatz and private coach. | One day I was taken to see a sports ground attached to a big factory outside Gothenburg. We arrived soon ( aftcr noon and were met by the proll’cssional coach, C. Gille, who won the English pole vault championship in 1913. Air. Gille showed us over the ‘grounds and dressing-rooms. At i 12.30 p.m. a bell rang loudly and out [trooped the workpeople. The majority jot the young men and boys made .straight for the dressing-rooms, from I which they emerged a few minutes [later in spiked shoes and sports kit. At I once the grounds was alive with run [tiers, hurdlers, jumpers,, and weightthrowers, all busily engaged at work under the watchful eye of their expert coach. Within three quarters of :tn hour they had all vanished again ini*the changing-rooms, where we four: ; them getting a quirk hath and a brisk rub down. Subsequently they joint'd the older men and women who had been watching the practice while they munched their luncheon in the open air. At 2 o’clock the bell rang agai’and everyone went contentedly back to work.

As we walked back to our waittin motor ear my host remarked quietly "Well, now you see, bow we keep ou workpeople healthy and contented, am how, incidentally, we avoid strikes ”