SATURDAY'S GAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 182, 3 August 1926, Page 11

SATURDAY'S GAMES.

PONSONBY'S REST-FUL DAY. Given a good club combination, as against fifteen players drawn indiscriminately from half a dozen other clubs, and it is generally long odds on the former. In a nutshell (this sums up the Ponsonby-Rest game on Saturday. The

"Ponies' " well-known team play functioned like a smooth-running machine from Referee W. J. Meredith's opening tootle, and with the exception of intervals in the second spell, they never looked like losing the mastery of the play.

Cammick was like a flash of quicksilver in his meteoric dashes from the second five-eighths position; Lucas as brilliant as ever; and Hook clever, elusive and solid by turns. Righton was at his best; he was like an infuriated tornado at times, and when he chased Bradanovitch in a fruitless effort to stop the Rest's last try, he uncoiled a burst of speed that would have done credit to "Jock" Richardson at his best. Webber and Palmer were very good, but the former was inclined to kick too hard when the ball was on the ground. Knox, at winsr for-

ward, played a firstclass game. Noakes seemed to have difficulty in holding the Rest's scrum together. It

— . , was rather surprislammick. ing to find that he had 'been given the lock position, in view of the fact that in his own club they found Lawn a better man. Finlayson was going great guns from start to finish, and Batty was—Batty at his best. In the backs, Loft had an off day, and it was left for Freeman to link the disjointed threads of combination together again. Bradanovitch showed promise, but kicked far too much. Worse still, he did not judge his kick, so as to get on to it again. Both Loft and Bradanovitch are better players than Saturday's game suggested. Butler was like a brick wall at full-back, but seemingly has temporarily mislaid his goalkicking boot these days.