DEFEAT TAKEN WELL

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27150, 21 September 1953, Page 8

DEFEAT TAKEN WELL

CANTERBURY PLAYERS CARRIED OFF FIELD TRIUMPHAL JOURNEY FOR TEAM (From Our Oum Reporter, WELLINGTON, September 19. The final whistle in the Haniurly Shield match at Athletic Park today was the signal for a vast crowd around the ground to swarm acrofes the playing area. Within seconds, to the resounding cheers of Canterbury and Wellington supporters alike, the victorious Canterbury players were lifted shoulder-high and carried to the entrance of the dressing rooms. This last gesture—that of supporters accepting their team’s defeat magnificently—marked the end of a period in which the Wellington team had received the wholehearted support of the Rugby public. A Similar scenes were encountered by the players as, with horn blaring, the team bus travelled from the park back to the hotel. A red and black jersey flying from one of the windows of the bus proclaimed for all Wellington to see, that the bus contained the team of the strongest Rugby province of the country. Along*the two mile journey back to the hotel, pedestrians all acknowledged Canterbury’s supremacy with cheers and other good-natured gestures. Back, at the hotel the team was accorded ' a vociferous welcome from some of the hundreds of Canterbury supporters who had travelled to Wellington for the match. A banner carrying the slogan that in the morning had formed the main theme of the procession—“We won’t let the shield go South” —had been captured by the Canterbury supporters and changed to read “We let the shield go South.” Other captured trophies included a stuffed dummy wearing Canterbury football gear, which in ihe procession in the morning was seen hanging from the girders of a large mobile crane with a placard round its neck that here was “Wellington’s last victim.” Farewell at Wharf

Thousands of Canterbury and Wellington supporters crowded on to the steamer express wharf in the evening to bid farewell to the Canterbury team, its supporters, and the shield. Such was the press around the gangways that passages had to be cleared by the police to enable travellers to get aboard.

As the Canterbury team arrived cheering broke out and confetti was liberally sprinkled on all its members. For those players who were lucky enough to dodge the light-hearted efforts of the crowd on the wharf, there was still the reception inside the foyer of the ship to be undergone before they were able to get to their cabins. Easn man when spotted coming up the gangway was cheered slapped on the back and wrung by the hand. Mr J. G. Rankin, one of the selectors, was wafted aloft on to several shoulders as he displayed the much-sought trophy. Up on deck the celebrations continued unabated. A group of Canterbury supporters resident in Wellington had climbed on to a high ramp, and a man with a piano-accordion led the crowd in singing. Just before the boat left the wharf police officers cleared the ramp, to the announced disapproval of both passengers and those on the wharf. As the ship pulled away renewed cheering and singing broke out. and this could still be heard as the lights of the wharf faded in the distance. PROCESSION IN WELLINGTON

PUBLIC’S BELIEF IN VICTORY (Fr,om Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON. September 19. The intense interest of the Wellington public in the last Ranfurly Shield fixture of the province for this season was amply demonstrated in Wellington today, when thousands of men, women and children lined the ■ streets through the city to see the second shield procession organised by the Wellington Rugby Union. Fifty floats —most of them depicting what Wellington hoped to do to Canterbury—marching girls, motor-cyclists and bands made up the procession. Passengers stepping off the Rangatira were given a foretaste of what was to follow later in the morning, when they saw what was written on the posters of a Wellington newspaper. “Today’s Rugby menu—Canterbury lamb,” said the posters. “They had better eat a hearty breakfast because if they are relying on Canterbury lamb for. dinner they might do a« starve,” one Canterbury supporter was heard to exclaim when he saw the posters. That the crowd was fully in accord with the sentiments expressed on the floats was evident from the applause given every exhibit. Several floats championing Canterbury’s cause received a good-natured if somewhat incredulous reception. With few exceptions Canterbury’s most noted product—the lamb—formed a part of each float, and many of these depicted the usual ultimate end of this produce—the slaughterhouse. One of the most graphic illustrations of this was a float showing a butcher about to deliver the coup de grace to a diminutive lamb, which was surrounded by the skeletons of sheep bearing the names of unions which had already fallen under Wellington’s axe. Another lamb figured in a float which stated that “Canterbury has the wool to pull over the eyes of Lloyd’s little lambkins.”

Even Shakespeare came in for mutilation in pressing home - Canterbury’s claim to the shield. A Mark Anthony in red and black football .garb stood over a fallen Julius Caesar sporting Wellington’s blue and gold colours, while a placard oh the side of the float announced that “We Can-ter-bury Lloyd, not to praise him.” A threat to Wellington could have been implied in a float which stated “No shield, no spuds.” Perhaps the best float was that which allied the defeats of other unions with the provinces’ products or projects. Auckland’s loss was illustrated by a bridge bearing a placard “Another Auckland dream gone south.” Waikato’s “Moo-Loo” had been “milked dry,” and Otago’s defeat was symbolised by a set of broken bagpipes and “Otago’s busted windbag.” Canterbury. at this stage, was being led to the slaughter. Many other floats, all of them with a Rugby flavour, helped to make a grand procession which, judging by the expressions on the faces of some of the Canterbury players, had succeeded in arousing in them a greater determination to take the shield south.