Hornby Now Five Ahead In League Title

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31090, 20 June 1966, Page 16

Hornby Now Five Ahead In League Title

Hornby, attempting its third successive title win, defeated its nearest rival, Linwood, in the seventh round of the Rugby League championship on Saturday and has now moved away to a five-point lead.

The goal-kicking of I. T. Drayton was again a major factor in Hornby’s win; but the wide margin was not expected.

Marist and Addington won comfortably enough and are now second equal behind Hornby. Linwood has slipped to fourth, one point behind Marist (Addington) and two ahead of Papanui.

After an even first 20 minutes Marist took over and scored six tries to Kaiapoi’s one. Addington knocked Sydnenham back with two early tries but then the former had to make a recovery as Sydenham swept back. Papanui scored a surprisingly close win over Christchurch in the lowest scoring match of the season. Results:— Hornby, 16, Linwood 4. Addington 18, Sydenham 7. Marist 30, Kalapoi 13. Fapanui 4, Christchurch 2.

See-Sawing Supremacy

ADDINGTON 18: J. L. While, J. Vivian. D. McCosh, M. J. Wortere tries; Vivian three goals. SYDEHHAM T: R. Andrews try; C. C. Preece two goals. After Addington had scored two tries practically before the players had warmed up Sydenham fought back to within three points and it took another two tries by Addington to make the game sate. Addington fully deserved its win. At one stage It was two players short because of injuries and it was twice recalled for minor Infringements in the second half when tries appeared likely to be scored. The absence of A. Tuuta, IDs regular goal-kicker, cost Sydenham a few points. Vivian accustomed himself well to the full-back position, having played second row for much of this season. McCosli and K. Chick were tricky around the scrums and, until injured, B. Wiki ran well in the centres.

As usual, the nippy little scrum-half, F. Clark, was the pivot of the Sydenham backline and it was primarily his work that led to his team’s try. White played good running

football for Addington and A. F. McNsughtan and Wortere were difficult to contain. W. Karim and B. T. Barron wer< the beet of the Sydenham forwards. Referee, Mr K. Henry. I. Drayton In Great Form HORNBY U: W. Woodgate and I. Woods tries; I. Drayton six goa.'e. LINWOOD 4: J. RoeanowsU two goals. Hornby retained Its unbeaten record for olub play for the season and its tenure of the Des-mond-Rogers Memorial trophy in having a 14-point margin against Linwood. However, the score does not give a true Indi cation of the closeness of play. Linwood held an advantage of two points at half-tilme when it led 4-2 but Hornby levelled and then established a 10-4 lead with some fine goal kicking by I. Drayton. Linwood looked well tn the game at half-time having had a two to one majority In the scrums but after the break this advantage was.lost and the ride won only one scrum in the second spell. As a consequence Hornby had a feast of the ba’.! Hornby’s persistent attackilnt bore fruit In the last quarter when It scored two tries. These were not the result of poor tackling but rather the exploitation of quick changes o r direction. Both tries were scored with the Linwood centre, G. Abercrombie, draped around the scorers’ ankles. Linwood can be lauded for its magnificent defence when ll stopped almost certain tries time after time. There were many scrum penalties and-Lin wood found this to its cost because Drayton was in rare form with his goal kicking. In the winning backs, J. Bra: gave a good display and was well supported by T. Wastney Forwards to impress were D Condiick who ran bis backs into position’ many times, and P. Tongue. G. Abercrombie and E. Kereopa were hard to stop with strong running in the Linwood backs and all of the forwards were most prominent in a grand ‘display of defence, although on attack they found the Hornby defence very hard to penetrate. Referee: Mr P. Yaxley. Defences Too Strong FAFANUI: 4: J. Hawthorne two goals. CHRISTCHURCH 2: W. Morrison a goal. One of the lowest scoring games for some time saw Papanui beat Christchurch In a tryless contest. It was tight set defence that ftrevented either line from beng crossed and leading points scorer for the season, J. Hawthorne, sealed the game for Papanui. He kicked two penal-

ities from many attempts, compared to one by Morrison, the Christchurch kicker, whose unsuccessful shot was from well out. There were time* when tries appeared inevitable but they were prevented becauae of cover defence rallying splendidlv at the last second. _ There were a number of fine Individual performances, with the two fair-headed Papanui backs. M. Napier and S. Dunn, showing up. Dunn ran strongly and Napier tried very hard when he received the ball. In the forwards T. Blsman tried to utilise hfs pace to give his backs a chance and in the tight D. Allsop was playing a different role by endeavouring to burst through in the tight. In the Christchurch side. D. Robinson played a sound game at stand-off half and J. Williams and B. Tallot also had good matches. In the forwards R. Turton tried to get his side Into attacking positions by varying the tactics and E. Bennett used his weight to advantage In some telling runs. Referee: Mr T. Houston.

w L D F A Pts Horn. .. 7 0 0 146 47 14 Add. .. 4 2 1 132 78 9 Ma r. ... 4 2 1 123 72 9 bin. .. 4 3 0 101 J>8 8 Pap. .. 3 4 0 108 105 6 Syd. .. 2 5 0 94 119 4 Kai. .. 2 5 0 78 195 4 Chch. .. 1 6 0 77 145 2