Sporting Hope is Rebuffed
Budget disappoints Rushden promoters
Football and boxing promoters at Rushden are keenly disappointed at the absence of Entertainment Tax relief from the 1953 Budget, and the resumption of boxing in the town is declared to be “hopeless.”

Rushden Town F.C. whose finances have caused anxiety of late, may have to adjust admission prices next season.

Mr. Kenneth Ambridge (hon. secretary) said yesterday:-
“I don’t think it is a bad Budget, but there has been too much discrimination between professional football and professional cricket. One is just as professional as the other.

“It is quite fair to take Entertainment Tax off all amateur sport, but why differentiate between the two professional games?

“The people whose circumstances allow them to attend cricket matches from Mondays to Fridays are probably people who can better afford to pay a few coppers in tax than can the average bloke whose chief entertainment is his Saturday afternoon football.

“We were very much hoping that the Chancellor was going to knock it down a bit, and I think the retention of tax is certainly going to hit the smaller football clubs.

“We did not pass the last increase of tax on to our patrons, and it has been rather crippling to us. It seems likely that we shall now have to pass it on.”

Rushden chief boxing promoter, Mr. W. S. Furness, had hoped to run a show at the Windmill Hall during Coronation week but the Budget has killed all that. Mr. Furness was hoping for at least a ten per cent reduction in the tax figure, for all his shows cost more than £200. “It would be hopeless to try under present conditions,” he said.

Because it was feared that losses would occur on the present basis there has been no boxing at the Windmill Hall during the winter of 1952-53.