FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3, 3 January 1903, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOOTBALL.

M. D. Gray, the suburbs centrehalf, leaves for Wellington next week, he having been transferred to the office of the A.M.P. Society in that city.

The London "Sportsman," of November 11th says: "We have the best authority for stating that a combination of the Corinthian Football Club will visit South Africa during the summer of 1903, and probably subsequently proceed to New Zealand" New Zealanders will be glad if this news is true.

The Mayor of Shrewsbury, Mr. S. Messon Morris, in a recent speech, denounced professional football and footballers for all he was worth. He was sorry to have to confess, to his great unhappiness, that he was one of the promoters of the Shropshire Challenge Cup. _ He was "a young man then," and did not appreciate the iniquity of his conduct, but maturer years had evidently given him the light and intelligence to do so. Then he proceeded: "For twenty years he never went to a football match, and then he went to see one and came away disgusted. The spirit which used to animate them when he was young was entirely gone. He saw pure professionalism, played well if paid-well, and badly if paid badly. He saw even worse. All round the field betting was taking place. That was the great chansre that had taken place for the worse in football, and he thought it would be better for football to cease to exist than to be associated with gambling, as it undoubtedly was." These attacks on professional footballers (remarks an English paper), the great majority of whom are as honest as this "worshipful" person, the Mayor of Shrewsbury, were naturally loudly cheered" by his equally charitable a tr e om e ;he Westport "News" of last Saturday:-"If the members of the Kawatiri Bowing Club, and we believe there are 70 of them, have any esnrit de corps, which should engender a desire to see their representative champion team sent away to Wanganui in a form fit to successfully compete for the honour of their club, they will immediately alter their tactics There is a certain amount* ot attention in the form of rubbing down, etc., which the men absolutely require promptly administered when returning to the shed after a hard pull up and down the river. It is well known that the men cannot do this themselves, and the least the members can do is to take turns in supplying the attention. The boathouse is full of members when the crew co out but empty when they return. This is not as it should be, and we believe the captain of the club has used every effort to rectify matters without avail. It would be a thousand pities should the splendid team of men we are fortunate enough to have in our midst get disgusted to the extent that they should fail to compete in the New Zealand Champion Fours. It must be remembered that they at present hold the championship, that they have improved since last contest, are willing to do everything in their power to keep the supremacy they have won, and expert judges unhesitatingly assert that they are able to do so. Therefore, members of the Kawatiri Cl\ib, wake up, and do your duty to assist the best four-oared team in New Zealand to hold on to the championship. Wβ have spoken. ,.