WHEN HE WAS YOUNG.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 196, 20 August 1925, Page 12

WHEN HE WAS YOUNG.

FOOTBALL WAS DIFFERENTOLD CUSTOMS HAVE GONE. WHERE ARE THE BANNERS? Strolling up Queen Street tin's morning' a "Star" reporter dropped across an old-timer who has only recently returned from England after an absence from New Zealand of nearly thirty years. The "Star" representative remembered the gentleman as one of the shining lights of the old Rugby game in the nineties, and naturally scented some "copy." You can always open up a conversation on football with an Aucklander, and tlje reporter made no mistake when he asked if the gentleman had been at the Canterbury-Auckland game on Saturday at Eden Park. "You bet," was the reply. "It was the second game I have seen here in something like thirty years, and I was greatly struck with the changes that have come over the old sport, and the general atmosphere surrounding it. What a difference to when I was a young fellow and thought nothing of walking from Ponsonby to Potters' Paddock, every Saturday, rain or fine, to see the club games. I would have walked twice as far to see a rep. match. You know those were the days. The teams' 1 remember, playing were City, Pamell, Suburbs, OrrJton.. Newton and Ponsonbv —they tell mo that there is no Parnell tenm now." The reporter remarked that wns correct in the seniors, but there were junior Parnell teams. "Of course T realise that time bringa about many chancres, but there are some things that I think could well have been left alone. For instance, on Saturday, with all others who attended the match, T rode to Eden Park. Everybody either went in a tram, motor bus, or motor car, so different to the 'nineties, when we preferred to walk rather than patronise the old horse trams. You could take all sorts • of short cuts through Tiaddocke then, but not now, because all those paddocks have been cut up and built on. T don't know how the players now reach the ground, probably in motor cars. In my day each of the senior, and many junior club teams, had a brake, and it was part of the game to see the brakes loaded with players and a large banner flying. No Brakes or Banners. "One thing I remember well. There was a gum tree on the corner opposite the old Junction Hotel—now unfortunately closed —and every Saturday from the tree- would be flying the colours of one- -of • the teams. And generally the team whose colours were flying would be'successful that day. Mind'you, Auckland was not nearly the big town then it is now, and we knew almost everybody. Imagine the position on Saturday last. I take my seat on the stand, and in the thousands present I fail to recognise a single face. To mc it was a great crowd compared to the old days, but I was distinctly disappointed when, as I

sat watching- the. gates awaiting the arrival v of the teams in brakes with banners flying, I suddenly saw some fifteen stalwarts, dressed in tho good old blue and white, emerge from somewhere beneath one of tho etands and march on to the field. The Canterbury team followed, and I then realised that the. old customs had vanished and that a different order of things prevailed. And I think it a great pity." "How did the game itself strike you?" asked, the reporter. Changes in the Game. "Well, I was greatly taken with the marked change which has taken place in the actual play, and though as an old timer I was trying to compare the Whitesides, Madigans, Elliotts, Braunda, O'Connors and other giants of the past on the football field with those of the present I must admit that as far as team work is concerned the youngsters of to-day are far in advance of what I considered possible. Individually the players of to-day may not have been up to my youthful imagination, but as you know, though we grow old, the impressions formed early have a very lasting effect. We don't appear to have the game confidence in the rising generation, but I am satisfied from my observation on Saturday that the game as played to-day is vastly superior to the long ago. The quick, short passing by forwards and backs was splendid, and I left the ground fully convinced that after all attack was the best means of defence. Still, with all its improvements,.! missed the old customs, and still think that if these prevailed to-day they would bo appreciated. "And I'll tell you one thing you can be certain of. You may have players every bit as good as we had in "tho nineties, but all your barra-ckers together are no bettor than Jim Mellono or Joo Bracelin."