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Easter Tournament

During the war years we have passed by an important anniversary—the fortieth anniversary of the original Easter Tournament which took place, largely as a result of suggestions from V.U.C., at Christchurch in 1902. The Tournament is thus only three years younger than the V.U.C. Students' Association, and antedates by thirty years the N.Z. University Students' Association. It may be noted that although there have been changes in the sports included, it has always been at Easter, and has always been organised by the same committee of eight, two delegates from each College.

Unfortunately the two world wars meant that there has twice been a gap of three years in the sequence. Because of the complexity involved in the organisation of a meeting of this size, and since over the years many of the brightest features of a Tournament are the smaller events incidental to the main sporting fixtures, which have become traditional, it was of the highest importance that Tournament should be resurrected without letting another year go past, so that there would be enough students left who could remember the old Tournaments and who could help keep Tournament going along the lines on which it has developed. It was also important that our returned men should be able to come back to what many of them remember as the outstanding feature of University life.

There was therefore only one decision open to V.U.C. when A.U.C. suggested two and a half weeks before Easter, that in view of the travel difficulties it would be better to have a hurriedly organised Tournament at V.U.C. than miss out altogether on a Tournament at Auckland (through lack of transport). While we are sorry we failed to make the trip to Auckland, it has undoubtedly given student life an impetus for the year, and it was certainly a pleasure to be hosts at the first Tournament for years. Of course there were defects resulting from the fact that some things simply cannot be done unless you know about them well in advance (e.g., billets at hotels, booking the Basin Reserve, obtaining the Town Hall on Easter Saturday). These defects were counterbalanced by the fortunate circumstance that there was a higher percentage of older students in and about V.U.C. who could remember earlier Tournaments than at any other College. Without their aid we could not have done the job, and it is not presumption on our part to say that their assistance will undoubtedly have a beneficial effect on Tournament as a whole. As an indication of the work involved, the records and correspondence by the delegates for the 1945 Tournament completely filled a butter-box.

Tournament Committee this year made a number of important policy decisions:—

• First. The old system of the automatic award of the possible number of Blues has been abandoned, and a winner of an event no longer receives a Blue if he is not up to the desired standard.
• Second. At the request of the Basketball Council, it was agreed that Women's Basketball should remain in Easter Tournament, and not be transferred to Winter Tournament.
• Third. Adequate rules for the conduct of the Horn Trophy contest were added to the Tournament Constitution. Experienced observers have noted in the past thatpage 52
• the spirit which surrounds this gathering has sometimes tended to confuse the minds of both the spectators and the officials, and there is no doubt that a sound Constitution will be of great assistance to all concerned.
• Fourth. Towards the end of last year, when preliminary arrangements were under discussion, the question of organising a Winter Tournament arose. V.U.C. had taken an active part in seeing that a small scale Winter Tournament—the combination of Men's and Women's Hockey with Harriers—took place in 1944. Tournament Committee agreed that the whole matter should be discussed in detail at Easter, on the basis of preliminary proposals circulated amongst the Tournament delegates during the early part of 1945. At Easter dates, numbers, sports and organisation were all tentatively agreed upon, but, unknown to the delegates, N.Z.U.S.A. had also given the matter thought. This resulted in a certain amount of confusion later in the year, which was finally overcome, but Winter Tournament has had a most successful beginning and will probably eclipse, in size at any rate, Easter Tournament within a few years. It is to be hoped that two Tournaments a year will not prove too much for those concerned.
• Fifth. Miniature Rifle Shooting has been introduced and will be in Winter Tournament in future, when the full scale Haslam Shield .303 contests are held again at Easter.
• Sixth. We can look forward to seeing women taking a limited part in Athletics.

The performance of the V.U.C. team was not, at first sight, of the best. However, the delegates felt that on the whole we entered good teams who performed well, but that the visitors brought better teams and deserved their wins. Still, with the certainty of a Tournament at Christchurch next Easter, we must make sure that we rid ourselves of the wooden spoons and, if possible, repeat our 1938 success. This means solid training right from the time November examinations are over. Easter comes two weeks before the end of the first term, so there will be ample time to test out would-be competitors who are out of Wellington during the summer.

Remember, eilgibility for Easter Tournament 1946, is based on your attending two-thirds of a course of three lectures a week during 1945, and that the competition to be a member of next year's team is going to be fierce.

Reviewing Easter Tournament as a whole, the delegates feel that Victoria can well be pleased with its efforts in turning on a Tournament at short notice, after a lapse of three years, and that quite enough has been said about our performance on the field.

In any case, the shields and trophies are not the true reasons for holding Tournament. The expenditure of all that time, money and energy could not be justified merely to decide who has the best athletes, swimmers, boxers or tennis players. We meet really for the free exchange of ideas and personalities, and to iron out the barriers of provincialism. We meet to unite the constituent Colleges into something that can be truly a New Zealand University, and because of the good fellowship which surrounds University sporting events. The New Zealand Universities Tournament remains, after forty years, the most important non-academic institution connected with University life.

R. M. Daniell,

I. C. McDowall,

Tournament Delegates.

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