By Romany
Corinthian Privileges
It is good news that the Corinthians are, once aga:n, looking for a ground of their own. England could do with a great amateur f.sothall club, but it will have to be greas in more than tradition. For too long the Corinthians have tried to live upon their history; they have bccn too insistent upon seeking çivileges instead of stirring themselves up and earning rights.
As the Corinthians stand at present, they are a thoroughly poor side, worse than the poorest of the professional sides, unequal to the Services, and not so good as th; best amateur elevens. What Reading did to them almost any team in the first round of the Cup could have done. Before the draw, weak sides wanted them because their naiae would bring a good "gate," and their weakness would ensure passage into the next round. Their tryout matches against the highly reputed professional clubs have been farcical as the professors nearly always win easily with weak reserve and experimental sides. NO ROOM FOR SNOBS The reason for their weakness urged by the Corinthians is that the public schools are going over to rugger and eliminating their recruiting grounds. They complain that the public schools in so doing are guilty of snobbishness. Snobbery may have something to do with it, but only
indirectly. It is the parents, not the schoolmasters, who are the snobs. Schoolmasters know it, and know the reason, but the parents pay the piper.
The snobbery of public schools need make no difference to the success of the Corinthians if they would realise that only two things ought to be allowed to count inian amateur footballer, that he is a good footballer and an amateur according to the accepted standards of the club. Associatios football is essentially a democratic game. There is no room for exclusiveness in any club that would reach the top in it. THE QUEENS AS A MODEL There is, relatively, as much rugby in the schools of Scotland as in those of England. L is at leas + as good as English rugby, but that does not prevent Queen's Park being an amateur soccer club that can hold its own with the best in the world. The Queens do not ask for privileges, they don't live on their traditions, they play the pros at their own game in their own way. -They face the weekly turmoil of League football; when they are beaten down they fight back. They develop stars and lose them to professional sides, and go on fighting. They keep the finest football ground in the world though it has been said that Hampden Park keeps them; and the professionals always meet them with their best because " you never know with the Queens."
The Corinthians could do a lot worse than take the Queens as their model. They might begin by buying Wembley and thus assure themselves an income. Then they could open wide the door. There would be no shortage of amateur recruits; there would never be a shortage of really good players so long as merit only was allowed to count; but if, and when, snobbery sneaks in or friends are favoured, their success will slip out again and about one more slip would mean that Corinth would slip out altogether.
ROOM FOR AMATEURS
League football is necessary to the sitecess of the Corinthians; preferably Third Division stuff or maybe, for a year or two, the burly-burly of the Southern League. They would be surprised, but they would be welcomed and, with a professional eianager and a professional coach, they hould, eventually, be successful.
There is room for an amateur team
the highest circles of English Jotball, even in the First Division f the League; but the position has s be won, and that means work. 'ou can't make a first-class footballer on Saturday afternoon. There will be a t. of hope for Corinth if we hear of iern applying for admission to the suthern League, Central and Eastern seeIns. That ought to be enough for one son. Count the Southern League teams
he Cup, round two.
Golfing Reforms
cipated, women and Men, professionals, amateurs and golfing journalists forming a side that spifiicated the strength of the combined universities of Oxford and Cambridge in foursomes, all players using an experimental ball with a thick skin and a small, loosely wrapped core.
A NEW BALL
Opinions varied as to the effect of the ball, but all agreed it cut yards off their length, turned 450 to 500-yard holes into three shatters, and made them take a spoon to get 170 yards, All of which is what is wanted, the danger being that the full-length courses of yesterday will be approach-and-putting courses to-morrow.
The general opinion expressed was that the " rabbits " won 's like it, which is funny when we consider how tittle importance is ever attached in any game to the inferior performer. As a matter of fact the long-handicap golfer will like it because, on account of its thick cover, it will last longer and " laugh " at him less easily. It is not the length, but the fact, of a ball's flight that troubles the rabbit; you have only to see the sort of ball with which he .; content to play on less cc:emonious occasions to know that.
LIKES AND DISLIKES When our other suggestion, the limitation of number and standardisation of type of clubs, comes up for consideration, the
pot-hunting tigers will tell us that the professionals and shop-keepers won't like it. Perhaps they won't. They said they were not going to like the introduction of steel shafts. It is not the likes or dislikes of any section, good or bad, that matters, it is the ame, and if long-hitting in, and physical mechanisation of, golf are making it less of a game than it was an more of an exact science then the things that conduce to deterioration must go as went the slotted-faced mashie and the Schenectady putter.
COURSE RECORDS Already the records of the past and the standards of the present have no grounds on which they are comparable. Course records mean nothing, they change with the flight of the ball and the course's capacity for stretching, but, in spite of the evidence of figures, who dare say that the golfers of to-day are better than young Tom Morris, John Ball and the triumvirate Vardon, Taylor and Braid? Yet, there was hardly, a player on the vanquished side at Addington who could not beat their best on their courses with modern equipment.
No Playing For Safety
Sunderland is making history. Better still it is making history in traditional fashion. The old-time " team of all the talents " would recognise and approve the football of their successors. There is no " safety first " about Sunderland; they do not kick into touch as a matter of principle, but only as a confession of defeat. Their forwards are an attacking force and advance in line with three half-backs to support them and two backs RS a last line of defence with the goalkeeper.
The result is that there is always something doing with Sunderland. In eighteen matches they have given away a lot of goals, but goals against do not count for much if you can score more, and Sunderland can, and do. They have conceded 28 and themselves scored more than two for every one of them.
CHAMPIONSHIP FORM
Of eighteen games, ten have been played on opponents' grounds, thirteen have been won and only three lost. They have a clear lead of five points. This looks like championship form and a lead of points like that augurs well for their chances in the Cup, in which competition their record is nothing like so impressive as it ought to be.
On present form Sunderland are far and away the best team in the country, hut, it is said, their weakness is in their reserves. You never can tell with reserves. Their first team did not look so overwhelmingly impressive before they began to do their stuff.
OVERHEARD AT A FOOTBALL MATCH Two spectators standing one behind the other eot into an areument. It is a way and an improving position. After the report and accounts had been adopted, the retiring committee was re-elected en bloc with the exception of Capt. J. Gibbons, who did not seek re-election.
The chairman stressed the need of futther support in order that the work might be extended and Mr. Harvey also appealed for more generous aid, so that the work of settling families on the land might not be hampered for lack of funds, as it is a: present.
On the motion of the chairman, messages of loyalty were sent to the Archbishop of Westminster and to the Bishop of Southwark (in whose diocese the association's farms are situated); a message to Dr. Vaughan expressing the sympathy of members in his illness and a promise of prayers for his recovery, and a letter conveying the congratulations and good wishes of members to Fr. Vincent McNabb, OP., on the attainment of his golden jubilee.