1949-06-25 — Page 10

10

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. | SATURDAY,

NEW OFFSIDE RULE MAY ALTER FOOTBALL

By PETER DITTON

In the little Scottish town of Pitlochry last week, a decision was taken which may alter the whole game of football. Four hundred miles to the South, in the garrison town of Aldershot, Billy Mc Cracken, the manager of the local football team must be smiling to himself. For Billy is the man indirectly responsible for the decision.

Just over twenty years ago McCracken, one of the best full-backs in the game and an Irish International, played for Newcastle. In those days the off- side rule said that a player receiving the ball with less than three opponent's in front of the opposing" goal should be off-side.

.....

McCracken used his brains. With his teammates he worked out the ideal scheme for proventing the opposition from scoring.". The Irishman "used to play well up-flold and when an opposition rald appeared likely to develop, he just moved up another couple of yards and threw the opposing forwards, off-side.

It was as a result of the_h-be able to score to their hearts Renulty of players like Me- content. Cracken that the new

off-sido

the hands

Mannion or a Steel can contro the ball while this present mad speed rush is oftende dagpen So once again the initiative

If the now idea becomes law rule was introduced in 1923-20. whereby a player would not be has been taken from the quick football managers may as well whistled up if there were two thinking defender and passed give up the idea of trying to of the slow teach their men to play footbal opponents between him and the into

thinking but tast-moving for and concentrate on producing Opposing goal.

there Lo 100 sprint champions. At least that That rule has worked reason-ward. Already

speed and not enough might be useful for the next nbly well but offxide play by much

in the game. Only Olympic Games of 1952. defenders is now an integral science

Slow footballing Kenius

London Express Servics) part of the Kamo.

olit- thinking forwards witled me after time by fast! moving full-backo

pre

Ilko

a

and in an JOHN_MACADAM'S COLUMN

effort to restore the balance the International Football Board at: their meeting in Scotland last the werkt decided to sonction try-out of a new offside rule,

Pitches are to be divided into three equal parts and a player in can only be ruled off-side that part nearest his oppononi's under this i goul. Trial gamea new rule are to take place be- fore the opening of the next English football season,

THE EFFECT

Can you imagine what effect this new rule will have If it becomes law. It will probably banish for all time the attacking centre-half game. Goal-hanging and wing men centre-forwards

and 'the will be encouraged whole system of the game up-

BRITISH THE

ARE

FANS WORLD'S BEST

All this business of Arsenal's so-called mis- adventure in Brazil brings into sharp relief the con- dact of sports fans everywhere, and it appears to this simple-minded department that the British body sportic is probably the best in the world.

There have been occasions when referecs have been cat-called and, in fact, there have been occasions when such dangerous missiles as orange peel have been thrown on the pitch at Soccer matches, to the chagrin of not only players, but also referces.

of three men in the centre sec to either the

the re-referees. tion of the field and mainder of the team concentra- ling

on defence.

But more likely to feel the effect of this new rule than the English players tinentals who

Net so abroad.

There was the time when Herr Doktor Bauwens, the referee in a Ber- in Olympic Soccer match, was

and

you

don't

can't

MUCH

TALKED

HEEL

Joe DiMaggio, New York Yankees star outfielder and hitter, exninines The Yankeo his injured heel on a bed at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. Clipper, Impatient about the injury's failure to respond, to treatment and irked by the constant swarm of reporters and photographers, recently let go a blast at the press for the fuss being made over him. But whole sporting world now wonders if he'll ever play again.

་

Television Brings A Boom To The Roller Derby

By STEVE SNIDER

A comparatively new and fantastic sport, now the rage of the television airways, is threatening to bust its but ons' and go big time.

They call this hot little item the Roller Derby and it kicked around for nearly-14-years-with scarcely a nod from the customers until television came

along.

have some

ALAN HOBY'S COLUMN

Our Best Tennis Hope

For Years-So Give Him A Chance

A cloud momentarily darkened the soaring graph of British sport the week before laai. - It contred round the dark_head of the most-disenised, bally» hooed, and bewildered young attdete in the country,

He is John Horn-cricketer, footballer, squash player, table-tennis, badminton, snooker, and billiards export.

He is also, of course, England's junior lawą tennis.. champion.....

Horn-full name John Alfred Thomas le being " halled as a probable world-beater, a potential Ferry. ** This pale, silent, 17-year-old, he said to me, in a sudden burst star has also been praised or of youthful enndour: Wloried-it all depends on the| "Honestly, I hate all this puban paint of view t

Helty. In any case, It was hot. (a) · For turning up an hour} my fault I was interes and a half late for an important That was qulio a speech for singles

'För Inadvertently causing Ę;much although he thinks a lot,

As a prospective world cham- a small storm by having to play |

through the qualifying journa plon, he knows he is still very much on the wrong side of the ment at Wimbledon,

pose he thinks he's a hill "I suppo

big shot

was

the acid comment of one foreign star.

STUPID REMARK

CALIFORNIA PLAN

John is a most unassuming it.

It was a stupid remark, Hom fellow" says his headmaster, Meine

still only

a schoolboy-not G. Miller. vet full-grown.

"Before his match with Mulloy, "If I inke. two He is so quiet and modest you he told me: would never notice him in games of him I'll be lucky."."" - crowd.

As Mulloy Is a Davis Cup

You would certainly never spotted him in the Becken- ham competitors' stand.

For on his arrival with his mother this became as jammed with people as Piccadilly-cireus at the rush-hour.

doubles ator, young John did well to do just that,

Now Mr Muler has given John teave to play in Wimbledon's quality'ng, tournament.

Mr Hom sen., a businessman an who lives at Woodford, Essex, 1*11 may send John to California forer

"Ever since he had, his first coaching lesson when ho: WDE

In any case, how many people realise what really happened six months... before young Horn inet U.S. aco Gardnar Mulloy?

I'll tell you. First, he had toning he has taken to tennis like: report at Wimbledon for an a duck to water. hour-and-a-quarter practice set- sion with Fred Perry.

Then he had to tear across London from Wimbledon to Beckenham by train to meet -Mulloy

"It's a gamble, but I have full- confidence in John, and I want....... to give the boy every chance."

Who knows? Maybe these words are symbolie.

WINNING REVIVAL

Two months back I wrote "For a change. lot's wla some- thing at sport."!

The call did not go unheard or unheeded.

Fred Perry's father once sak: "Young men at Oxford SOMEONE BUNGLED But there had never been in thing, necording to a magazine

Cambridge have such oppor-/ we have been reading

Then, while big time sponsors. Selzer and his aids report the a foe into the seats to permit

When at inst ha got to Becken-tunities. Why not my son?” set. Combined forward move-our 20-odd years' experience article

sort of a boom has the sprinter to pass.

ham he was rushed into the to kick of big-time sport in this coun- recently, the spectators

They will give way ments

really menacing use is a Browning automatic. were gnashing their teeth won- same

wild and dressing-room and hustled into and rush stuff with perhaps two try anything

players or the American sporting

authorities dering what "Video" would do to blossomed wherever television's are getting worried about it, football, baseball and prizeught coaxial cable can reach out woolly off irs and "villain" like his team's kit.

Without even a cup of tea he box-office, promoter Leo Selzer along the network. That means Marge (Tuffie) Broshun of the

(cam,

and Card

was hurried on to the Centre or Chicago put his Rutler Derby new and fertile areas to put on "Brcollyn" apparently, wonder.

Monta Jean Payne of "Chicago" Court for what had been billed before the cameros and the a Roller Derby but

knocking down

and cakey old slicksters like as the test of his career. crowds begon BOTTLE-THROWERS

Billy Bogash

of "New York" the gates to get in. baseball gamė at the

They cound't believe what

in make a pretty fat living. Yankee Stadium (where Louis fought Farr, umpire Cal Hab they saw on television. But it's even dizzler in the flesh and if bombarded with

the Eastern boom is any baro- missiica, including a beer bot-

meter the Roller Derby is apt to tic. for an unpopular decision child's play com-

And a place on the calendar of on all and such missiles have become big time events. what gocI

ko popular with the crowds ir the United States

only Brooklyn that drinks are ser. where the

ved only out of paper cups.

bard

was

In a are the Con-menaced by a guy sporting a have perfected revolver, and, of course, there the attacking centre-half game was the litle man who threw centre-halves the umbrella at Frank Swift At the moment,

can usually on the Continent bo rolled upon to score goals. the If they attempt it under new rule they will find they are leaving. Buch large gaps that opposing centre-forwards will

at Lisbon last summer.

All this is pared with the time in. of America,

ARCHIE QUICK'S COLUMN

Three Days Not Enough

For A Test Match

The impression is hardening rapidly that the three-day match system is hopelessly out-moded for our-Test Matches and leads too often to drawn games.- It is going to need something unusual in the way of n wicket to clinch any of the matches between New Zealand and England. In this summer's series, Len Hutton, Dennis Compton and their colleagues are not going to be put out twice in three days, unless unexpectedly dramatic circumstances arise, and with captain Bill Hadles defensively packing his team with batsmen, there is little hope of definite results.

England's first innings' at Leeds was a two-man affair for both sides, Compton and Hulton making centuries and Cowie and Burtt getting five wickets' aplece. As I indicated three weeks ago, Cowie is not 100 percent at and he again pulled a leg muscle. If he should break down, New Zealand will be fri real trouble. He has taken more wickets than the rest of New Zealand's Test bowlers put together.

Seat cushions are easy, and any time a baseball umpir gets on the wrong side of the crowd he can' expect to be belted with hundreds of them.

that

'Local Boy'

Comes Home

"We can't get enough new skaters to meet the demand," Selzer Fald. "We came into New York with two teams and added including Chicago two more,

::

we're

and

Is this the way to bring out the best in the Perrys and Austins of the future?

Hom himself never uttered a word of complaint. He is not that sort.

In my opinion, however, some- body bungled.

Since then fighting Sam Mc- Cready has led a great British renaleshace movement in ama- tour golf.

Charlie Elott saatelied the Derby from France du Nimbus

thrashed Oxford University

the New Zealanders Oxford, am told, are the best flelding boy That Blab of chocolato per Hornfection,

"Wint, quarter-mi Bolen, at the White City..

Little Bunty Stephens scored.

Arthur

Bugash was the first skater Setzer signed when he dreamed when it clicked. Now

up this banked track madness adding a fifth to our league.!!

in 1935 and at 33 Billy still i the best in the business. STILL NOT ENOUGH

Even if they never achieve In ray opinion, too, the whole recognition as a big time sport, Horn case has been over-done side, in the country. Süll It lea't enough

the folks in the the whizzing roller hounds It is not all fun being Selzer hopes

haveing. It's a fot of prodigy, and whether 100 fun on hinterlands won't mind

and ever wackler plays at Wimbledon or not, I America's crack much for the moment if some of

at trackside where we've seen Bay, "Icave him alone." the players who represented sellout crowds in such

Ho is dazed by all this glare *"Brooklyn," "New York,"

frenzy that conversation was of spotlights.

dur- "Chicago" on television shows

to from the East, turn up as stars out of the question except

oring the brief time it takes City" Oklahoma

between perlods change over

skaters to the cals or vice versa.

from

"Minneapolis" when the show from the non A Champion

goes on the road,

According to Adio Suehsdorf, who has made a considerable rex orch Into the matter and writes this indictment cannot be paralleled

in even Little Johnny Longden,

It still is more or less in the the most partisan of British Soccer nurseries, this hooliga son of a Yorkshire coalminer exhibition stage, although mem- competing team nism starts with enthusiastic and now America's crack bers of each rooting, moves into

ultra fockey, is going back to skate for a winner's money shares each night of the series. partisan sneering at the other England in September.—

And-the-Derby-smacks of old. dise vaudeville which will have to be straightened out before criminating fans will regard it any more seriously than wrest- ling.

side.

and Anishes rank-bad brutality.

with up

Rules of the game are fatry. hos 10 regular players-five men and Ave gais two Johnny's and each game is divided into Western eight 15-minute racing periods.

Johnny, now a rich man-he Ice hockey games have been earns £25,000 a year-will delayed as much De half an bring his wife. hour while executives clear the

have ridden 9,300 winners U.S. ice of things that have been-more than any other thrown at the ref. And the jockey and second only to Gor- things they find. to throwdon Richards, who has ridden simple. Each of the two com- In Chiengo, It's a whisky glass about 3,500," he stated recently, | peting teams with a thick bottom that could

When he was brain a mon. In Philadelphia,

ey, Pa., It's parents took him to it's eggs, In Hershey, bors of chocolate in St Canada. There his father work- Louis, It's small bags of salted in an Alberta mine. "But I

The men players race against that melis the ice.

never seemed to grow," said Sft. each other for 16 minutes, then Johnny.

the gals take over for 15 and

until the windsur "So instead of mining, I got a alternately Job as a cattle hand, I turned Whatever scoring the gals do in added to the talks their malo partners have scored.... Jockey nt 17"

Chairs, 1 stove Ud.

pro-

grammes, ice-cream boxes, and paper rolls are common to all the American stadia and, what, with it all, referees are resign- Ing by the handful rather than Now Johnny Longden lives in When it came to the turn of Essex CCC, assistant-secretary face the barrage of abuse and California in

HOW THEY SCORE £20,000 house Leytonstone Inside-lett, New Zealand to bat, 27-year-old and

actual violence that is liable with a swimming pool and ten- Christchurch schoolmaster Frank Bailey should stay in the side to beset them any time.

TO SCOTT, nis court. He breeds horses and

a player must get What a pity Smith held up England with a for years to come.

cattle on his own ranch, and way out in front and lap as valuable 98 In this his Bretho hasn't an extra stone or

fice his own private aeroplane. many straggling opponents as n two-minute Test Match, and so

possible within 80 justified two of weight. Bedset, for all

Adio doesn't let it go at that. Hadico's policy of playing him his avoirdupola, never looked as

But he does not relax. Ha time limit. Pass one opponent, hostile as the dlm Balicy.

Ho

to instead of a howler,

wants

know

thro it's why still goes to work at the nearby It's one point; pass American spectators are such race tracks at six a.m. every three points: pass all five and bad sports. He has four

good day.

it's a grand slam Ave-pointer. reasons, and they are preity

FOUR REASONS

understand there is some Martin Donnelly, too, showed us that he is just about the best possibility now of George Mann

the world carrying on cricket and captain left-handed bat In

Ing our side in Australia the today with an immaculate 04.-

winter after next. I believe ho

have always put forward for ther Jackets with tassels and is gets help from his own team Zealand had four has been persuaded by his New

crowd wrong-mindedness in proud of the £500 diamond mates in the way of blocking, wickets down for 80 when these illustrious father to postpone this country

ring on his finger.

hair-pulling or simply knocking two came together, butt' det his business career for a time.

Ignorance of the rules of the situation being ticklish, It is good news.

most games; complexity (this

Five years ago he became a 'doesn't opply so much to naturalised American. "Why they never attempted to alt on the splice and in fact scored Leeds ha considered. Mann was Soccer, which is easy to under- Well, after all this time I do

finally, 120 rons in B0 minutes, doing a splendid job of work as stand), betting: -and alderably better rate of scoring

skipper. What is more he made the unnatural significance, that has been given 10 sport since than England's

33 very valuable runs Ho the war. Young Trevor Bailey insists on a high standard of

There, but for the gace of for ortablished himself in the Eng-fielding, and has a genius-

Providence, go land team. A Dulwich school-putting a man in the way of

-{London Express Service) Blub, catches. boy, Cambridge: Double

much the same, reasons wo He wears specially made lea-A player attempting to score

Walter Hammand told me at

Mister Conquest

WOND WHAT_COLOUR

BATHİNG_COSTUME

¡ECDIZDÍONS OR NO

elded i like it in Amèrica." · "

WHO WANTS A GOLF COURSE?.

Tailpiece: Johnny Longden still has two ambitioha: to ride.

Gus Faulkner, who bought more winners than Gordon Selsey Golf Club, near Chiches Richards; to win the Derby,

ter, about 15 months ago, now -{London Express · Service) wants to sell it.

Talking to James Goodfally? today he said: “My wild÷ZEN I have found it too much for Membership is about 240.97 have had two or three offers, but the 70 acres and clubhousa are being put up for auction next month."

When Gus took over it was planned that the course would bo a trafologyground for the Open for his tony Ryder Cup |plarer Max, whoNwEdudot at fached to a club Now Maz 'assistant to Henry

/ Cotton at Royal Mid-Burray /AVATARS

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