NOTEBOOK OF SPORT... Glimpses of Play and Players.

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21806, 11 June 1936, Page 18

NOTEBOOK OF SPORT... Glimpses of Play and Players.

SENIOR RUGBY The draw for next Saturday’s senior Rugby matches is as follows: —Christchurch v. Merivale. Lancaster Park oval; Albion v. Old Boys. Rugby Park; University v. Linwood, Lancaster Park south; Athletic v. Sydenham, Show Grounds; Sunnyside a bye. The following round will complete the first series of the competition. The matches will be between Christchurch and Athletic, University and Sydenham. Old Boys and Linwood, and Sunnyside and Merivale. Albion having the bye. INCONSISTENCY The reputation for ability which the young and very light Linwood team was beginning to build is changing to ecie tor inconsistency. After playing Indifferent Rugby in the early part of the season the team upset calculations in the competition by brilliantly beat- . tog Christchurch, then »among the teams favoured for the season’s supremacy. and followed this win with a decisive victory over Sydenham. Then came the game last Saturday against Athletic. Linwood showed an utter reversal of form and was beaten by 90 points to 3. LISTLESS FORWARDS Although Linwood seemed to be somewhat disorganised through the early loss of Field, the half-back, who usually plays aggressively and soundly, the real reason for its defeat on Saturday seemed to be the more or leas listless play of the forwards. There was little of the fpthnaiaon and vigour which had disfelgniahed the pack in earlier matches and practically no combination. Athletic was definitely the better team all round on the day. although that is • really not saying very much, since the . 1 * of the football was low for ~ • ffbc grade match. The Athletic . Jmwords were more active than those - El Linwood and the backs generally - made f» better use of their oppor-

CANTERBURY’S SCRUM Canterbury Rugby representatives will pack a 3-2-3 scrum this season, according to the selector (Mr W. J. Whitham), who on Tuesday announced his preliminary selection of 23 players for the first interprovincial match of the season. The pack will be exceptionally heavy and fast, and its scrummaging should be solid, compact, and efficient. In recent years Canterbury has favoured the 3-4-1 formation. PROMINENT VISITOR J. G. Barnes, who is a member of the Dunedin Civil Service team for the Kennett Cup steeplechase on Saturday. has been one of the stalwarts of amateur athletics in Otago for many seasons. He will be remembered for his brilliant run at Cashmere in 1932, when he beat the Aucklander, N. F. Cooner. in a hard-fought battle for the national cross-country title. Up to the end of the last cross-country season Barnes still had a large percentage of wins in his total number of starts. After disappointing race in the New Zealand championships at Wellington last year, he announced his retirement, but be no sooner got back to Otago than he changed his mind. PROMISING HALF-BACK In C. Fairman the Linwood Rugby League Club seems to have the best half-back in the competition. He was the pivot of the attack for his team last Saturday, setting his backs off from almost any position throughout the game. A display such as his could have been nothing else but an inspiration to the rest of the players. STEERE TRANSFERRED The transfer of E. G. R. (Dick) Steere. the former All Black lock, from Wanganui to Lower Hutt, robs the Wanganui team of an enterprising and able coach. Steere first played for the All Blacks while the main team was away in South Africa in 1928, and until 1933 he was capped each year. He is also a prominent athlete and has won several shot-putting titles.

HOPfes FOR OLIVER Official Rugby circles in Canterbury are still hopeful that C. J. Oliver, the New Zealand vice-captain, will be able to take the field again later in the season, but Oliver himself says he has no reason for optimism. He is keen to play again, but the leg injury he suffered early in the tour of Great Britain, and which was aggravated by constant play in later matches, is responding very slowly to treatment. The Canterbury selector (Mr W. J. Whitham) has had to fill several gaps in the back line, and there is no doubt that if Oliver were available his task would be a very much easier one than it is.

LONG CAREER A prominent Hornby League forward this season is W. Woodgate, who has been playing since 1920. In his first year, Woodgate played in the third grade, and received the Canterbury Rugky League’s medal for the most improved player. In 1921 he was in the senior team, and has hardly missed a match since. In 1922 he was in the Canterbury team, and held his place till 1929. He represented the South Island in 1927 and 1928, and was chosen for a New Zealand team against Queensland in Wellington, but did not play, starting in the Timaru to Christchurch cycle road race instead. Woodgate has been hooker most of the time, but this year is on the side of the front row. He > has been Hornby club captain since 1930. TALK ON THE FIELD An unnecessary feature of the game between University and Albion on Saturday was the large amount of talk —one could almost say chatter—which took place among players of both sides. Appeals for a mark, whether successful or not, were often greeted by derisive shouts, or sometimes denials, by the opposition, and earnest exhortations to kick or pass were far too frequent. This noisiness on the field, although common in lower grade football, is fast becoming general, even in senior matches, and referees would be well advised to pay stricter attention to its suppression. BRILLIANT LEFT WING P. Robinson, who went to Gisborne with the Canterbury women’s hockey team last year, played a particularly fine game on the left wing for West Christchurch against Pukaki last Saturday. Time and again she gained 30 yards with brilliant runs, and with more support from her inside forwards her side might have won. On her present form she should again find a place in the representative side, and it would not be surprising to find her displacing D. Dickey, who has been left wing for the last four years.