FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 95, 23 April 1889, Page 8

FOOTBALL.

GRAFTON V. PONEKE,

A FEW minutes after two o'clock this afternoon two drags left tho Imperial Hotel, preceded by a band. These contained the members of the Grafton and Poneke football teams, who are to meet in friendly rivalry over the oval at Potter's Paddeck. Great interest is attached to tho match owing to tho fact that this is the first time a foreign club has invaded Auck-. land. Tho Ponekea flew their banner, a handsome black and red one, the colours of tho club, emblazoned with their numerous victories and ornamented with tho iigure of a player in the act of kicking tho ball. The Grafton players also displayed their handsome banner. The record of the Poneke Club is as toliows :—Matches played, 55 ; won, 45 ; lost, 7; and drawn, 3 : 35 goals and 72 tries being scored to 5 goals and 6 tries. The record of their opponents in to-day's match is as follows only going back as far as 1885 :—Grafton : matches played, 4. ; won, 32 ; drawn, 5 ; lost, 7. The Poneke*. have won the Wellington Union's Senior Cup for three years running, while it may be mentioned that Grafton have won the Auckland Union's Cup for cv/o years.

The following are the teams that play today :— PONEKE. PULL-BACK. L. Dixon. THESE-QUARTERS. P.. Sim. J. Baumber. A. Meileb. . HALVES. T. Moorhouse. C. Moore. FORWARDS. J. AsbiH, G. Beck, VV. Faulkner, H. MoIntyro, B. McMahon, A. Stuart, if. Towngend, J. Reich, S. Nicholls (captain). GRAFTON. I<'ULI_BACK. H. Kissling. THIIEE- QUART BBS. T. Ryan (captain). J. McCausland.

HALVES.

P. Mackie. J. Rudd. A. Collins.

FORWARDS,

J. Lecky, C. Marshall, P. Twiname, A Whyte, J. Firth, C. Stone, J. Sheddan, H. Donald, J. Muir.

The colours of tho Ponekos are black and red bars, while the Grafton team play in the well-known maroon jerseys. The officials of the match are -.—Umpires : Messrs J. Arneil and W. Chapman. Referee -. Mr T. Macky.

J. Muir umpired for Poneke. At tho last minute, Kissling could not geb away from business, ~o R. D. Perry took his place as full-back for Grafton. The Governor, aide-de-camp, and Lady Onslow arrived on the scene a few minutes before the match, and were given three cheers by the teams. Nicholl. won the toss for Poneke, and decided to defend the western goal, having the sun at their backs, and' a strong westerly wind in their favour. Lecky kicked off for the maroons and Moore returned, tho Grafton followed up by a combined rush, worked the bull to within a yard of the Poneke's goal-line. L. Dixon kicked into touch just in time. From the throw-in the Grafton forwards rushed the ball over tho line, and Poneke were forced down in the first two minutes of play.