FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 129, 1 June 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOOTBALL.

City continued on their victorious career on Saturday, and if they continue at this rate they will certainly put up a record aggregate of points for the season. Of the game there is little to be said. The City backs, barring a slight tendency to run across the field, which should be nipped in the bud, showed the same excellent combination which characterised their play in the Ponsonby match. The forwards, however, by no means overexerted themselves.

Poor Suburbs! Every year it is the same thing—a strong team on paper, and a weak one on the field. As Gordon has it: "He wins? Yes, he wins \tpon paper, but he hasn't yet won on, !the turf." I looked in to the blacks' dressing-room just before time on Saturday, and I saw a whole array of downcast countenances. The blacks were three or four men short, and they hardly knew where to turn for substitutes. However, Mr Somerfield, the energetic secretary, managed to rake up a team, which, though beaten badly, was not disgraced, for they played up pluckily right through. So badly off were the blacks that Waterman, who was just about again after an attack of influenza, was pressed into the service. The big forward played a rattling good game, in spite of his indisposition, but one spell was enough for him, and I don't wonder. The Suburbs' absentees would do well to consider what a great inconvenience it is to their comrades when they do not notify the secretary in reasonable time of their inability to play. It is a pity that H. Smith could not have been induced to play full-back, for Suburbs on Saturday, and it is to be hoped that he has not retired from the game. The Suburbs' pack are a willing lot, but they are sadly deficient in tactics. One fault with them on Saturday was kicking hard in their own 25, thereby giving the ball to the fast City backs, who made good use of their opportunities. The line kicking on both sides was not so good as usual. Absolum was plainly "gTeen" on Saturday, and did next to nothing. I think I am right in saying that he had no preparation at all for the match. Granted that he got very few chances, I am nevertheless sure that if he had been in form he would have done a great deal more than he did. A player of Absoluin's experience should surely know better than to come on to the football field without training. I have seldom seen a football match played in such a thoroughly friendly spirit as was this one. There was not the slightest suspicion of rough play, and from start to finish there was not a man "laid out," even by a trifling

injury. For Suburbs Sutherland was the mainstay of the back division, while Gray, behind the scrum, did a lot of stopping and found the line smartly. At the last meeting of the Otago Rugby Union an inquiry was held into the case of King (Zingari-RiehmondJ, reported by Mr J. L. Jamieson (a spectator) for striking Morrison (Kaikorai) in the Zing^ri - Richmond v. Kaikorai match. The committee found that King was guilty of unnecessarily rough play, and decided to suspend him for a week! The exclamntion mark is mine. In the name of humanity, I implore the Otago Rugby Union not to be so severe in its penalties.

Fred. Laws, the well-known threequarter, who^ has represented Wellington and Auckland, and who played for Parnell some seasons ago, is back in Wellington from Australia, and is playing for Melrose. Mclntyre, who represented Taranald last season, is now playing wing threequarter with Wellington F.C., and is spoken of as a decided acquisition to Wellington football. He is- a fine kick, and has good defensive and attacking abilities.

Burr is the most dangerous man in Wellington at the present time, says the "Free Lance" scribe. With a fair chance of getting under weigh, it needs a Billy Warbrick to stop him scoring the try. He has great pace, and he finishes up his run with a "bump" that generally lays his tackier low. Burr hails from Wanganui, and at the present time holds an appointment under the Defence Department. He has only lately returned from fighting the battles of the Empire, as a member of the First Contingent. F. L. Row, who captained the first Australian team that played against the Rev. Mullineaux's English team, in 1898, is now playing centre threequarter for Wellington F.G. He is showing great form. The district scheme is slowly but surely gaining ground. The Queensland Rugby Union has instituted district competitions, and has passed a rule which provides that players must be residents of the districts for which they intend playing for at least three

months before the start of competition snatches. This rule will knock the system of importing players from the other colonies on the head. In the past it had an injurious effect in Northern Queensland, for the stronger clubs generally secured the players with "reputations." At a recent meeting of the Canterbury Rugby Union the question of the disturbance by the spectators on May 11 at Lyttelton was discussed. Evidence was given by the referee, Mr 11. E. Hiddlestone, the touch judges, and the two captains, and the following resolutions were carried: —"The committee, after hearing the evidence of those taking part in last Saturday's match at Lyttelton, are convinced that the referee was the recipient of foul and abusive language from the spectators, and, while reluctant to punish the Lyttelton Clnb, feel it their duty to administer a severe caution to the"officials of the club, and to state that, should any further complaint be made, the ground will be absolutely disqualified. At the same time, the committee view with favour the expressed intention of the L.F.C. to organise a vigilance committee of leading citizens to control the ground. That the L.F.C. be called upon to apologise to the referee for the treatment he received at the hands of the spectators in the match Albion v. Lyttelton on Saturday last, 11th inst."

The "Athletic News" of March 18 seized on the match between Wales and Ireland as a peg on which to hang a disquisition on the value of combined as against individual play, in the course of which it said: —We cannot get away from the fact that Welsh football has resolved itself into ma-chine-like methods. The men form a system, which, while it serves to bring out the best of each man in combination, has the disadvantage of destroying the individuality of the player. This has been demonstrated most convincingly this season by the difference between the Scotch and Welsh backs. It was again demonstrated, especially as to its disadvantage, on Saturday by the inability of the Welshmen to do anything of a, personal character. The machinery was out of gear at the beginning, but it improved in the second portion, and the display was a bit more like what one is accustomed to see the Welsh team do. But even in its improved state it was not to be mentioned in the same breath as some other exhibitions one remembers.

With regard to the Grafton-North Shore game, there is little to add to what has already appeared. The general impression was that Grafton, although too good for the Shore, would have to play a better game if they wanted to put City down. It should be noted, of course, that the black and whites were not seen at their best, and disorganisation was manifest in their back division.

"Dug" Hay was out for the first time this season on Saturday, and as centre-threequarter for Grafton put in some good work, now and then showing glimpses of his best form. McKenzie was tried at five-eighths, but not with conspicuous success, the position being evidently one he was unused to. His kicking, usually so good, was very much off on Saturday. The Ponsonby Football Club will hold a smoke concert in their new training hall, Dignan-street, next Monday evening, to celebrate the opening of the building.

Football is booming at the Golden Cross mine, writes our Paeroa correspondent, no less than three teams being in existence. The well-known athlete, Mr. Tuohey, is secretary, and he is an enthusiast. The Cross team recently played the Thames Club, and were defeated by three points, whilst last Saturday they put down the \Vaihi West Club by 8 points to 7. ' At' a meeting of the Hawke's Bay Rugby : Union it was unanimously resolved to'! write to the New Zealand Rugby Union asking it to include HaHvke's Bay in the New South Wales tour, and also to the Marlborough Union to play at Napier on the tour North. Auckland and Gisborne are also to be written to, asking for the probable dates of their visits to Napier. -

GREAT FOOTBALL MATCH. Writes our London correspondent: — The strong hold that Association foot- I

ball has on the masses in England was well demonstrated last Saturday, when, to see the Tottenham Hotspurs contest the "final tie" for the Assoeia* tion Cup with the Sheffield United, a mob of 115$Q0 people crowded round the Crystal Palace football ground. Final ties seldom, if ever, furnish the spectator with . a finished, scientific exposition of the game, and the match between Sheffield United and Tottenham Hotspur was no exception to the rule. The enormous crowd saw a keen determined struggle; but connoisseurs must have looked back regretfully to the really great days of the game— the days of twenty years since, when a few thousands of spectators, a mere handful comparatively, would assemble at Kennington Oval to watch the finest football possible, as played by the best amateur side of the year against the best professional —by the old Etonians, let us say, and Blackburn Rovers. But times have changed. The present is the heyday of the paid player. For years no amateur side has thought it worth While to enter for a competition which is to all intents and purposes a business affair; so that we have now to be content in these cUp contests to watch the efforts of professional against professional, .with practically no local or other sentimental interest to arouse one's enthusiasm. Popular feeling in favour of "soccer," however, has advanced with giant strides during the past few years; and Saturday's amazing record of attendance (it beat by 40,000 Or so all previous records of the kind) shows clearly enough that what was once the recreation of the few is now the craze of the many. This year, of course, the "final tie" appealed with

special force to Londoners, since, for the first time for eighteen years, a Metropolitan team was figuring therein. But what is Tottenham Hotspur, this so-called London team? It Is composed of eleven athletic young men hailing from Scotland, from Wales, from the North, from the Midlands— from everywhere, in fact, save from London itself. But what did the vast crowd care? It was a keen fight under conditions that were ideal for all save the players—the sun shone with high summer brilliance —and all thoroughly enjoyed themselves, the London contingent perhaps less than the country cousins, for it was only by a grievous blunder of the referee that Sheffield United succeeded in making the game a draw of "2 all." The teams probably didn't care much about the fact that the game was a draw. They will have to play again, and that means another big "gate" to split up. And the professional playeE is "out for money," not fun.

The "gate" amounted to £4383. Adding to this the total of the semifinal gates, £8800, and deducting the expenses of the Association, about £5300 is left for division, of which West Bromwich Albion will get £520, Aston Villa £GBO, Tottenham Hotspur £1980, and Sheffield United £2140. With another fine day and another big crowd next Saturday, the "Spurs" and the "Blades" will cut up another nice little sum between them.

The "record" crowd had a record digestion, and fairly came down like wolves on the fold of Lyons, the Palace caterers. Here are a few figures as to the gigantic gorge. The crowd consumed 2500 sandwich loaves, from each of which thirty-six sandwiches were made, 17,000 batons, 26,000 rolls, 40,000 pats of butter, 120,000 slices of bread and butter, 71,000 slices of cake, 22,000 buns, 23,000 patties, 24,000 scones, besides 2000 sponge cakes and shortbreads, 2000 smoked sausages, GOOO pork pies, 200 rumps of beef, 250 chines of mutton, 150 best ends of mutton, sixty fore-ribs of beef, forty lambs, 300 quarts of whitebait, 500 pounds of solevS, 22,400 pounds of potatoes, 2000 cabbages and cauliflowers, 400 fowls, and half as many ducks, 120,000 bottles of mineral waters were washed down, and yet the thirst of the throng not quenched. A brigade of men did nothing else all day but uncork bottles, and the staff employed to serve out this gigantic meal was 11,000.