Soccer Club

This is the fifth year since the Club's inauguration and it now seems firmly established with three regular teams; Senior, Second and Thirds, all functioning with reasonable success in their respective grades. New players with or without experience are always welcome. The second-grade team may be considered as the coaching ground where rough raw-material is broken from the brutal coarseness of a rugby-impregnated culture into the more precise skills necessary for expertness in Association football.

The senior team has found difficulty in regaining the combination lost by the absence of the late Roy Dickson killed in a mountaineering tragedy on the Southern Alps last Christmas. Roy had a particularly valuable strong clearing kick, and, even more important, a resolute and determined spirit which helped us out of many a tight difficulty in front of the goal mouth. In an attempt to capture something of his spirit the Club has initiated the construction of a memorial album composed of articles and photos to be sent to his parents in Scotland from whom he had been absent since 1940—a war refugee. It is no exaggeration to say that his loss has had a deadening effect on the rest of us—in some vague way the game is not the same.

The visiting South Africans provided most of us with some valuable points on how the game should be played and also threw into sharp contrast the sheer lack of professional coaching which our Club suffers. Despite this, however, we have managed to carry away Tournament honours both times since the Tournament was initiated and we have every hope of doing as well this year.