Hornby Almost Assured Of League Title

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31120, 25 July 1966, Page 6

Hornby Almost Assured Of League Title

Hornby—which is assured of at least sharing the title— Addington, Linwood and Marist will form the top four of the 1966 Canterbury Rugby League championship.

Hornby was held to • a draw by Sydenham on a muddy ground ideal for Sydenham to use its tight forward play and cause Hornby to drop its first competition point this season. ;

Marist dropped down a place to fourth on Saturday when it lost to Addington, 7-10, after leading by seven points at half-time. After a good first-half performance Marist’s defence faded. Linwood did not have an easy task against Papanui but scored the only two tries in the match while Kaiapoi was upset by a rejuvenated Christchurch team.

Result?. — Christchurch 23, Kaiapoi 10. Sydenham 0, Hornby 9. Addington 10, Harlst 7. Linwood 3, Papanui 4. Championship points (with Vivian Cup points in parentheses) are:

Christchurch More Effective

CHRISTCHURCH 23: J. Wi'Ll.lams <2), T. Parker, J. H«nare, R. 11. Turton tries; E. Bennett 4 goals. KAIAPOI 10: T. Gage, Barry WMIfiams trie*; J. E. Bond, 2 goals.

Better team-work and the absence from the Kaiapoi pack of J. E. Bond—who played ,on the wing because of an injuryenabled the Christchurch pack lo get on top anti open the way for the s'peedy backs to capitalise on the domination of possesision.

The Kaiapoi defence tended to sitand back and let the big Christchurch forwards. E. Bennett and T. Parker, get up speed from the. pday-the-balls. Th'ia only served to make Chrdst-

I church more'difficult to stop, 11 i particularly near the Kaaapoiu line. R. H. Turton led hl« team 1 well, distributing the bait and. • when necessary, covering hisl ! backs. Bennett and Parker ! surged through from the play- , the-baM« and R. Franklin ! played a fine all-round game. In the Christchurch backs D. . T. CarroM played well at full- j ■ hack and J. W'/Jiams and J. . ■i Henate impressed in the threequarters. I B. McConnon and Barry W*,lI Warns weft the best of the Kaiapoi backs and the veteran. |N. L. Isdes, played weffl in the | pack. i Referee: Mr W. K. Henry. Both Tries To Linwood I LINWOOD «: G. J. AbercromMo, M. Morgan tries; J. Rosanewski goal. i PARANUI 4: J. C. P. Hawthorne, two go sts. Although Papanui held Linwood territorially and did much of the attacking in the last quarter of the match it wae not able to breach the solid Linwood defence. In - condltiona that did not -asstfet Open football Papanui attempted to get the ball to its fast three-quarters [ but was constantly held up by good tackling. On a dry ground the speed of , G. J. Abercrombie and E. Kere■opa (Linwood) matched against 1 that of A. N. A/faler, S. Dunn, and M. J. Napier (Papanui) would have had a greater influence on th® result. The slippery ball led- to handling errors which killed many promising moves. E. Williams and W. J. Godfrey 'combined well for Linwood near the scrum and Kereopa and Abercrombie used what ball j the.v did , receive effectively. •W. R, Campbell played competently at full-back. In the Linwood pack. W. P. Noonan and G. J. Rnsanowski ;held their own with the st.rong- ! running T. L. Bisman. The best of the Papanui backs ■ were G. H. Clarke, who again ran deceptively and was , efficient close to the scrum, and Dunn. Referee: Mr N. Taylor. Marist Fades ADDINGTON 10: G Laing and A McNaughton tries; K. Chick two goals. MARIST 7: C. Worfers a try; P. Smith two goals. Marist failed to sustain a ! splendid first half display and could not keep out a determined second half bid by Add | in.gton. which scored 10 points to take the honours in the last few minutes of the game. In the first half it was hard to see Marist being beaten as it played a much better brand of football than its opponent. Several splendid breaks were made and the one that culminated in Worters scoring the team's only try was well executed and caught the defence completely unawares as the ball was quickly reversed across field. .

I In the centres. P. V, Smith ! marshalled his side wall and 'was constantly trying: to vary play in an effort to breach the defence; In the forwards L. Mulcare played his usual non-stop .game, with moments on attack and periods of overtime on defence. The hooker, X. Diggs, was more prominent In the play than usual. The strongest runner in the :Addington backs was -the centre, X. Dewes, who looks a fine pro sped for the future. He applied pressure with hard running and jwas well supported by D McCosh at stand off half, and the Wing, D. Hooper. in the forwards G. Laing played a gbod gams from the back of the scrum and tried to form the link between forwards and backs with straight running. A second row forward, B i Gillman, played well again and he. too. appears good material for future seasons Referee;. Mr R. Pont. Hard Fought Draw SYDENHAM »: W Karena try, A. Tuu'ta three goals. HORNEY »: K. MuUally » try, I. Drayton three goals.. ’ Sydenhaih. at the bottom of l the points table, halted Hornby s winning tun in an extremely hard-fought encounter. The vigorous Sydenham pack, with E. Butterfield. B. T. Barron J. Tapara and A. Tutrta to the fore, foiled the prospects of the fancied HorHby forwards. In addition, close marking and goad anticipation by the Svdenham back line kept the fleet footed Hornby three-quarters in check for much of the game. F. Clark 1 and R. Baietriek. In the half positions for Byden-

ham, had the edge on their [opposites, while C. Preece and J. Murdoch tackled well In the centres. At full-back, W. Karena had a rewarding game and | scored his team's try after a splendid break. W. Prattley, K. Neiman and D. Condick were solid in the Hornby forwards. Condiek very nearly got through the defence in the second half with punishing runs. P. Tongue tackled well in the loose. Referee: Mr P. Yaxley.

W L D F A Pts Horn .. 10 0 1 224 78 21 (7) Add 7 3 1 20 8 134 15 (6) Iz.n J’ 6 5 0 159 153 12 (4) Mar ... 5 5 1 1*1 141 11 (2) Pap ... 4 7 0 1*4 165 8 (2) Kai ' 4 7 0 149 290 8 (4) Syd 3 7 1 144 179 7 (3) Chch .. 3 8 0 137 206 6 (4)