FED: 99 year old WWI veteran honoured at ANZAC football test

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2000
FED: 99 year old WWI veteran honoured at ANZAC football test

By Jim Baynes

SYDNEY, April 18 AAP - He may have been unsure if the game was League or Union.

But one of Australia's last surviving World War I veterans, 99-year-old Charles Mance
says it's honouring the ANZACS which is the most important part of the Australian Rugby
League's traditional ANZAC Test.

Meeting the Australian and and New Zealand captains today, Mr Mance told the sporting
heroes he will be cheering for "a good game" on Friday.

Wearing a slouch hat, and his medals emblazed across his chest, Mr Mance walked slowly
around the track of an empty Stadium Australia.

But he was coy about tipping a winner.

"I live in Australia and I was born here," he hinted.

Mr Mance was also quiet about his own sporting endeavours.

"My (football) reached a peak at 23," he said, but added that his cricket was more
where his skills lay.

"I had a bowling average of six-for-five," he said.

Born in Victoria, Mr Mance enlisted as an infantryman in 1917 with the famous 22nd
Battalion, serving on the Western Front.

While the Battalion played a crucial role in the Allied successes of 1918, the soldiers
themselves suffered, Mr Mance temporarily losing his sight and voice in a gas attack.

After recovering, he returned to the front only to be wounded in the chest by a shell.

Visibly humbled by the presence of the soldier, Australian Captain Brad Fittler said
he had a keen interest in World War One since he studied it in School.

"What they did back then makes us look like pups," he said.

Mr Mance told Fittler a lot had changed in Australian sport since he had played "football"

in the 1920s.

"I bet they're getting more pay now..." he said.

"It's about the same: 2 pounds 10," quipped Fittler.

ARL Chief Executive Geoff Carr said the ANZAC Test was all about honouring the sacred
traditions of the two countries.

In a unique gesture, the ARL asked Mr Mance to sign the special League whiteboard
- an honour previously bestowed only on players, Mr Carr said.

"The ANZAC Test recognises the deeply held friendship between Australia and New Zealand.

It's a friendship which in this instance demonstrates itself in fast, competitive and
hard football."

Also a guest at Friday's Test, East Timor peace-keeping commander Major General Peter
Cosgrove will be sitting and cheering alongside Mr Mance.

The ARL has also agreed to admit all returned servicemen (with medals), and Active
Service Personnel free to the test.

Mr Mance urged both captains, and sporting fans alike not to forget the price their
forefathers payed for prosperity.

"Australia is the best place in the world - just turnaround and look", he said.

AAP RTV jwb/sb/smf

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