ASSAULT ON A REFEREE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 121, 24 May 1922, Page 5

ASSAULT ON A REFEREE.

m - THE SHANNON CASE. JUNIOR TEAM SUSPENDED. (By Telegrapfo.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Horovrhenua Rugby Union, as a result of Saturday's assault on the referee, last night suspended the Shannon junior team and disqualified the Shannon ground pending the hearing of the charges of assault and obscene languag ■ against four members of the Shannon team at the Magistrate's Court.

It is stated that as the game was drawing to a close the referee. Mr. Claridgc. had occasion to penalise a Shannon player. The latter is said to have immediately applied a foul epithet to the referee, and the latter ordered the player off the field. As he was going off it i s alleged another Shannon player called out to him, "Come back and hit him, if you do six montfiß for it." Then followed a general assault on the referee, while the most abominable language was being used. The spectators crowded round, and the scene presented the appearanc of n riot. The referee collapsed under the brutal treatment he -was subjected to. and lay unconscious on the ground. A Levin player who went to his assistance when the melee was at its height wa s roughly handled, and was struck on the face and head. The referee had to bo assisted to a car on his recovery, and ■was taken to his home at Levin, where medical investigation showed he was suf fering from a compound fracture of the