AMONGST THE JUNIORS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10042, 21 May 1898, Page 3

AMONGST THE JUNIORS.

[Bγ True BlceJ The Christchurch Second still continue on their victorious career. On Saturday they met and defeated the Linwocd Second (who made such a good fight of it with the Merivale Second the Saturday previously) by 20 points to 7 points. The Reds should not be far out when the competition for 1898 is decided. H ln the game under notice the Christchurch forwards had all the best of it, and th-s Reds will take some beating in this department. Niven is a fine forward, with plenty of weight, as is also C. Cooke. Cotton, Prenderville, and Waiters also vlav well, and are especially prominent in dribbling rushes, though they are at times inclined to overrun the ball. Amongst the backs Lynskey is a smart little half; in fact, a little too smart, as he has a bad habit of picking the ball out of the scrum, for which his side were penalised a number of times. Pope, at five-eighths, has the makings of a good man in that position. He passes well to those behind him. Smith, at wing three-quarter, is a smart dodgy runner, and should be heard of later on. He scored a clever try, besides being very d.uigerous several times. Blunden, in the centre, played fairly, but hangs to the ball a lot too much. Garsia is a good wing three-quarter. He is an excellent kick, both in kicking into touch and also placing goals. Niven', at full-back, is very* slow, but he kicks well. On the Linwood side Brunsden was the best forward, though McNamara played an excellent game all through. The former is a good man on the line out and in dribbling rushes. Ross and Adams were the best of the other forwards. Gerard, at half, is very safe, and stops rushes in rare style for so small a player. His collaring is also very certain. D. McNamara did not have a great deal to do, which is a pity, as he is a most dangerous scoring man. This player is neglected Saturday after Saturday. McLenahan, at centre tliree-quarter, continues to improve, and on Saturday played one of his best games, which is saying a good deal. Gaw and Whittle, the wing three-quarters, both put in good work, but the latter should, however, learn to find the touch-line more, instead of kicking the ball over his opponents' goal line, and forcing them down. E. O'Brien, the full-back for Linwood, was in good form, his kicking being especially good, though his tackling did not seem so sure as usual. 1 mentioned last week that I thought that the Kaiapoi Flag team would be capable of giving Merivale a good game on Saturday, and so it proved, as the country team won by a try to nothing. It is'only fair to state, however, that Merivale were not represented by their full strength, but nevertheless the team that did battle for the town club was a good one, ar.d the win of the Kaiapoi men was meritorious. This is only the third game that the Merivale Flag team have lost in three seasons. Mahaki scored the try for Kaiapoi. Richmond's Flag team is not showing near the form that it was expected it would at the beginning of the season, and they again lost on Satmday, Albion beating them by a try to nothing." The game was very even though, throughout. Lack of dash is the great fault in the Richmond team. The two Cup teams of the Sydenham Club met on Sydenham Park on Saturday. The game created no small interest amongst the juniors, and the B team eventually M'on by 10 points to 3. Light, Birch, Brown, O'Brien, Bishop, Donnelly, and McPhail, were foremost for the winners, and Osborne, Gasson, Love, and Sherwood were most conspicuous for the As. The game between Christchurch Third and Sumner President's Cup teams, played at Woolston, was won by the latter by 20 points to 3. For the winners E. McConnell, as wing three-quarter, scored two tries and played a. very good game. Walsh, at centre threequarter, also played well, as did Lawson and Pratt at fire-eighths and half respectively. The forwards, a'heavy lot, showed good combination, the most prominent being Milne, Kinnick, Senior, Commons, and Moon. The losers full-back, Dudley, handled the greasy ball well, and stopped some ugly rushes in good style. The three-quarters all played well, the piece of play between Barnes" and C. R.Williams, which resulted in the latter scoring, deserving special mention. Crawshaw, at half, played his usual good game. W. Thomas, Denham, Harper, and Threlkeld were the pick of the forwards. Merivale A met? and defeated Albion B on Saturday by 9 points (three tries) to nil. The game was confined chiefly to the forwards in which department Merivale were the stronger. Albion were kept busy defending for the greater part of the game, and their opponents should undoubtedly have scored more heavily. Burrell (2) and Mathieson scored for the winners. Garrard, at full-back for Merivale, played well, his kicking being especially good. Berry, in the centre, performed very creditably, the wings also doing well. Webster and" Burrell, at five-eighths and half respectively, did fairly, but the former does not seem to rid himself of the ball soon enough. Of the forwards, Mason (who usually plays centre three-quarter), Gill and Willis were the best of a very even lot. For Albion, Turtle, at full-back, played really well, saving his side on several occasions. The three-quarters, Button, Woods and Hunter, put in a lot of good defensive work, though they had very little chance of showing their attacking capabilities. Gray, at five-eighths, was also of great assistance to his side. Of the ionvards, Wilson, Schwartz and Waters were most prominent. The Merivale B—Kaiapoi match was a very even go right through, Merivale having a bit the best of it. The winners' forwards beat the opposing forwards, who are a much heavier lot, both in the scrum and on the line-out. McLaren, full-back for the winners, had very little to do. The three-quarters seemed right off. Fraser, at five-eighths, played well, his collaring being good. Woods, at half, played the best back game on the ground, handling the greasy ball really well. Of the forwards, Knight, Kallaway and Marriner were the best. Fairclough, full-back for the losers, was safe. Of the three-quarters, Collins and Brocklebank played well. The latter is the making of a real good man. Lynsky and Green, at five-eighths and half, both played well. The forwards seemed a very even lot, Martin and Barneg being the pick.. Talking seems with some of the teams playing in the President's Cup the chief feature of the game. It was especially noticeable in the Merivale A—Albion B and Kaiapoi— ; Merivale B matches, the latter team in each instance being the worst offenders. It would be a lot better for each team to krow that the captains are the ones to appeal and not every player. If the referees were more strict they would find it would be a great deal better for the game and less trouble to themselves to stop all the teams from talking at ouce. The referee had to caution several players in the Kaiapoi—Merivale match. I hear that the Schools' tournament starts almost immediately.