CORRESPONDENCE

LET'S RETURN TO SOCCER!

Do you enjoy a game of soccer? If so, I'm afraid you will find very little opportunity of developing any skill at it in this School. Once, it is true, soccer was played, but from this year rugby will be the game in both winter terms. It is already too late to alter this unpleasant fact since rugby fixtures have already been arranged for this year. Before rugby becomes established as the official school game, however, I feel a few objections should be raised against the exclusion of soccer.

I do not deny that rugby is a fine game. I do not deny that there is a large following for it in the School, though I doubt if it exceeds soccer in popularity. Under the old arrangement one term of each code was played and this seems to me to be the fairest system, for it satisfies the followers of both codes. The argument against this, I know, is that one term is not long enough in which to develop a strong winning side, but surely it is enjoyment and not success which is the essence of amateur sport. Any keen soccer player would rather play on a losing soccer side than in a winning rugby team, and I am sure the reverse applies.

I know that some people hold the opposite view. They feel that success is the important thing in sport, and they therefore feel that only one winter game should be played. Even so, why is rugby singled out as the favoured sport? This was once a soccer school. Why uproot old traditions? Is it because rugby is believed to be played by a higher class of school? Is soccer now beneath our dignity?

The only sensible suggestion 1 have heard for the total abolition of soccer is that there is increasing difficulty in obtaining enough fixtures. Surely though, enough opponents could be found to fill out the shorter spring term.

Therefore I say, let's go back to having one term of soccer. That is fair to everyone.

MICHAEL J. DENNER.

An official reply to Denner's letter is printed below.

Whilst we completely sympathise with those for whom Denner has so ably written, perhaps we may be permitted to make a few comments. Most will, we think, admit that whichever code is played, it thrives on outside competition (not, incidentally, "winning" or "losing", but just good honest competition). We should be living in the past or indulging in wishful thinking to continue the soccer. The hard (and to Denner, unpleasant) fact remains that we cannot get enough inter-school matches, even for the short spring term. So we have to be realists and live in the present.