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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 9, No. 8 July, 3, 1946

Sportsmanship Questioned

Sportsmanship Questioned

Dear Sir,—As an interested member of VUC and its sporting activities I, like many others, was disagreeably shocked at not only the results of VUC's sporting attainments, but also at the controlling body's lack of sportsmanship for which there is no excuse. I am referring to what I shall call the Tracey Incident.

Des. Tracey, last year's NZU Cup winner and NZ Blue, was prohibited from participating in the last Easter tournament at 10 o'clock the night before the sports as the result of a meeting called by the VUC delegates, who claimed that Tracey was not a "bona-fide" member of VUC Athletic Club. These grounds were that he had not competed for them in an outside competition. When an Otago delegate objected, having seen Tracey run in a Victoria singlet, their only reply was that Tracey admittedly ran in their colours, but as an individual. What a ridiculous answer from those with whom he trained at Kelburn Park! Even though VUC did not need Tracey, and it seems as though they could have done with his services, they had it in their power to let him compete for Otago. It was truly a "dog in the manger" attitude.

It must be incidents like this that accounted for our disgraceful results. Surely with 2,000 students available we could obtain more than points. The inefficiency must be in our executive. Even if we can't win, let us be sportsmen.

—Yours,

Fair Play.