SPORTING GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Issue 123, 24 May 1919, Page 18

SPORTING GOSSIP.

(By ACTAEOX.)

FOOTBALL. RUGBY. The "amended rulee" are being given a trial this season in Southland football. L. Tancred, who played lor Wellington last year, was out among the League players at Wellington last Saturday.

Messrs. Darrow, Delamore, and Crawford have been appointed eelectore for the Thames Union. Auckland will send a team to Thames to play the Golafields reps, on July 5. The executive of the Canterbury Union recently held a conference with delegates from the sub-unione of the •province to discuss methods of improving the game and stimulating interest in the country districts. No definite arrangement was made, but it was decided to encourage home-and-home matches between town and country teams wherever the necessary financial could be made. *

Footballers throughout Wairarapa will be glad to see the genial Ted McKenzie back in hie old position as secretary of the Wair&rapa Rugby Union (says a Masterton scribe). The Wairarapa Rugby Union without Ted in some official capacity is like a ship without a rudder. Wairarapa football owes much to Ted for the yeoman service he has done for the game over a long period of years. Lovers of the game hope to see him occupying the position of secretary for many years to come, for the union and the game can ill afford to lose one who has done co much for the winter pastime.

In an address at.Leicester recently the Rev. Yeomans Wright, V.V., a. padre, who wae taken prisoner with General Townshend's force in Kut, told a most amusing story. One of the first (hinge the British soldiers did was to start football playing, and in duo course a Rugby match was arranged, and was watched by the Turkish officers and men. The Turkish commander was greatly struck by the game, and when his opinion of the spectacle was a«ked he replied: "It is the first piece of real fighting I have seen during the campaign."

Dealing with the question, 'The Greatest Game 1 Ever Saw," "W.L.S." writes ac follows in the "Athletic News": "The New Zealand battles at Inverlcith ami j Cardiff Arms Park were most memorable, ; and of the two the latter match probably must be given the palm for creation of downright enthusiasm and keen if not j high-claw play. The atmosphere was I overcharged with electricity that day, and onlookers and players were affected by it. Wales hung on to their bare lead despite all the claims and protestations of the late R. G. Deans that he had crossed the rubienn. I never have agreed that in the engagement with Wales New Zealand showed the beet form that was in them- Yet I think I must concede that the match was the moet exciting from start to finish that I have ever seen." NORTHERN tTHIOH, A notable addition to Sydenham team this rear, says a Christchurch critic, is IL. Wilson, late of the Glebe Club, Sydney, who was a decided acquisition to the threequartcr line. Wilson is a finished player, nippy in his movements, and possessed of a good turn of speed. Also, he is a very fair place-kick. Hp has not played regularly eince things broke loose in Europe nearly five year; ago, but he shows that he learnt his league in a gooc! school; and if he continues as he has begun he should be heard of beyond Sydenham. Five senior teams are being played in Wellington—Petone A and B, Athletic, Xewtown, and Suburbs. The selection of Wellington players to be nominated for j the Xew Zealand team was to have been nude after the games last Saturday. ASSOCIATION. "Non Player" replies as follows to "Disgusted's" remarks of last week on the action of the A.F.A.: "Nine teams offered, eight were accepted, in the senior grade, and the new club, Queen's Park, refused a place on account of thus making a bye. All players I have spoken to about this say it was a wiae procedure, a bye being unthinkable, with only 17 available playing days for the championship round. 'Disgusted' says Queen's Park, on patriotic ground, had a claim on account of havin« eight returned soldiers in the club. Well, one other club lias ten returned soldiers, another just as many as Queen's Park, and another almost equal; hence they cannot claim all the consideration on this head. Further, the A.F.A. did not 'promptly place, or even 'compel,' them to affiliate with the second grade. They had to pay their affiliation fee, and it was of their own free choice. If they feel that the second graders arc blanks, and they have already won the grade championship, and their influence in second grade is going to be detrimental to the game, let them pull out at once and give the teams a fair chance for second honours. Their trouble is their own making. Had they kept their original name they would have been in the senior grade to-day. They began with Caledonian, adopted Thistle, grew into a Wild Rose, and developed into Queen's Park Rangers."

Mr. A. E. Gibbs, the N.Z.F.A. representative in London, replying to a request by the New Zealand body for referees' charts to be forwarded, stated that none ■liad boon printed since the war began. The council did not. perhaps, appreciate the'position with regard to football in England; there bad been no meeting of the council of the Football Association 6ince 1915. and the staff of the Association had been reduced to the secretary (Mr. F. J. Wall).

Ono anxiety with regard to professional Soccer is the scarcity of firstclass players, says a London writer. It is doubtful whether there will be sufficient men to go round next September, for during the past four years no attempt has been made to develop junior talent. At the present time representatives of the League clubs nre searchins all the by-Avaya of football for possible candidates for their teams. A favourite hunting ground is the historic Hackney Marshes, wlicre every Sunday morning tliere are hundreds of players engaged in "unofficial" matches. The Football Association refuse to recognise Sunday play—in fact, they go one further, and say that a man who takes part in it will not be allowed to join an affiliated club. Rut these matches on Hackney Marshes are winked at. and a big percentage of the players in the forefront of the gnnio to-day have at one time or another been smuggled out of this iiurecry.