Linwood Prevents Cup Surprise

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30213, 19 August 1963, Page 6

Linwood Prevents Cup Surprise

Hornby, last season's coholders of the Tavendale Cup, all but pulled off a major surprise on Saturday when, until late in the game, it held a lead over the more favoured Linwood team. The cup is played for in a one-round oowxpeti'tion when the representative team is away. In the other senior matches Papanui showed improved form to defeat Christchurch, and Marist hung on grimly to gain a narrow victory over Sydenham.

Results were:— Linwood 10, Hornby 6. Marist 10, Sydenham 8. Papanui 12, Christchurch 6. Tavendale Cup points are as follows, championship pointe being in parenthesis:—

The final of the lavendale Cup was not a great match, but ,t was interesting and hardfought. Either team could have won, and the margin between Che teams was never more than tour points. Both teams had players away in the Canterbury team —Hornby had six out and Linwood three. Two tries were scored by each side, and the margin was the goal-kicking of Linwood’s J. White, The match was won and lost in the forwards. In the first half the Hornby pack threatened to gain superiority, but it later wilted under numerous Linwood batterings Play was often fiery and twice die referee. Mr A. Lowe, cautioned opposing players for Illegal tacics. mainly in the scrums. The Hornby forwards, after a good start, were not the same attacking force without I Drayton and M. L. Cooke, but D. Condick, R. McKenzie and D. Moore often found gaps in ’ casual Linwood defence None had the speed to use his opportunities though, and the movement would die for want of support. The Linwood forwards did not show out until the latter stages of the second half, apart from some tireless work by J Flanagan early in the match. When they found their feet, however, they were often very dangerous K. Battan covered well and was in support to take the final pass to score the winning try Of the others M Carlyle and J. Petheridge worked well on defence and occasionally, on attack. With four of the Hornby backs in Auckland, several players new to senior football were fielded. The best of these was the winger R. Moffat On attack he showed determination and was a hard man to stop However, his kicking, although iong, was not very accurate Of the regular backs, I. Robb and A Williams were both very sound. Robb was tidy around the scrum and safe on defence while Williams made several good runs and showed a devastating side-step. The Linwood backs, apart from G Abercrombie, did not olay well W Campbell, at scrum-half, was clearly out of position while R Pouneford. the fly-half, spent much of his time retrieving Campbell’s wild passes Abercrombie was the best back on the field and olayed his best game of the season He scored one try and ’made” the other. His defence was also sound. For Linwood tries were scored by Abercrombie and Battan White converted both. Williams and Moffat scored tries for Hornby The referee was Mr A Lowe Papanui v. Cbristchureh Papanui defeated Christchurch because it had the superior goal-ktcker Each team scored two tries and either earn could h’ve won. Early ir ‘he same Christchurch we-e unuckv not to score two tries, ir ♦he secord half Papanui almos' scored another. The match was marred by poor handling and passing and could be described onlv as interesting. Neither team could gain ascendency over the other, apart from a period just before half-time when Papanui

camped on the Christchurch line, finally being rewarded with a try. The lead of 8-0 to Papanui at the interval seemed a safe one, but Christchurch retaliated with a try soon after the resumption of play. Christchurch were without R. H. Turton, its leader, and at times clearly showed it. With someone to drive it on Christchurch could have won the match. The loss of D. Robinson, the best of the backs, with an injury did nothing to give Christchurch any confidence. In the Christchurch pack E Bennett and T. Parker worked hard but received little support Too often Bennett would break through, only to find himself alone. Parker was tireless on defence and distributed the ball well from around the rucks. The Christchurch backs showed little attacking ability apart from L. Tehula and Robinson. Tehuia was safe around the scrums but seldom eluded the Papanui defence. Robinson made several strong runs up the centre until he had to be carried off when injured in a movement that lead to a Christchurch try. The best of the Papanui pack was E. Tavendale. He was elusive on attack and energetic on defence. He received good support from K. Pearce. The half-back. J Raxworthy. played a sound game, while K. Allan, a winger, made several determined runs At centre R. Macleam was impressive and showed good acceleration. For Papanui. Tavendale and Macleam scored tries and Tavendale kicked two penalties and a conversion. N. Hickey and J. Williams scored tries for Christchurch. The referee was Mr A. Drake Marist v. Sydenham On the number two ground Sydenham were desperately unlucky to go down to Martst With the score 8-10, E. Butterfield missed a simple conversion from out in front. Both teams scored two tries in a rather scrappy match. Marist scored all its points in the first half with the wind behind it. P. Smith and H. Nepia were competent Marist backs and both made elusive breaks and kicked Intelligently. Smith was magnificent on defence. In the forwards P. McQuinn and L. Mulcare stood out. McQuinn was extremely fiery in the first half and Mulcare was outstanding towards the end of the match In the Sydenham backs W Karina had an interesting duel with Nepia. He was full of enterprise although his defence was at times suspect. However one deceptive break by Karina led to a fine try. J. Martin was safe on defence. The veteran forward. J. Pirnley. led his team with intelli?;ence. His handling was excelent and his anticipation was good. R. Lewis and E. Butterfield were honest toilers in the Sydenham pack. Smith and Nepia scored fries for Marist and Nepia kicked a conversion and a penalty goal Karina and Butterfield scored tries for Sydenham. Butterfield converting one. The referee was Mr K. Henry.

P W L F A Pts. Lin. 5 5 0 250 85 10(18) Hom. . 5 4 1 269 79 8(18) Mar. . . 5 3 2 256 150 6(17) Cheh. . . 5 1 4 105 283 2 (6) Pap. . 5 1 4 145 283 2 (5) Syd. . 5 1 4 101 246 2 (4) LINWOOD V. HORNBV