Hornby Has Unbeatable League Lead

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31150, 29 August 1966, Page 13

Hornby Has Unbeatable League Lead

. , . Hornby won the 1966 Canterbury Rugbv League championship when it beat Marist. 37-2, at the Show Grounds on Saturday. With one round to play, Hornby has a four-point lead over Addington.

The defeat of Marist and Addington’s victory over Linwood left Addington two points

clear in the O’Brien’s sponsored tournament. Hornby’s championship win was its third in succession and is the third competition won by the club this season, the others being the Barr Cup and the Tavendale Cup. Hornby trails Addington by one point in the Vivian Cup and by two in the O’Brien’s tournament.

Should Addington beat Marist next week it will win the O’Brien’s tournament and have the right to challenge Hornby for the Vivian Cup. Papanui has taken a clear lead in the Gore Cup after defeating its former co-leader, Sydenham, on Saturday. Scoring was predominantly high with 27 tries in the four matches. Results: — Hornby 37, Marist 2. Addington 33, Linwood 14. Christchurch 12, Kaiapoi 10. Papanui 17, Sydenham 16. Championship points (with Vivian Cup points in parenthe-

O'Brien’s points: Addington 4. Marist 2. Hornby 2, Linwood 0. Marist Massacred HORNBY 37: B. W. Langton two. T. Wastney two, D. V/. Moore, D. A. Condick. P. J. Tongue tries: I. T. Drayton eight goals. MARIST 2: J. K. Keremeta goal. Hornby shook off its lethargic form of the previous week to completely outclass Marist. In spite of the loss of its captain, J. M. Bray, after 30 minutes Hornby played confidently against a disappointing Marist XIII. Marist lagged on defence, allowing Hornby to move the ball among its forwards and create openings for the speedy three-quarters. Hornby monopolised possession from the scrums and neither N. M. Diggs nor A. Newsome could win a respectable number of scrums for Marist.

Only three Marist players emerged with any credit. R. J. A. McKenzie was the only forward to constantly harass the Hornby forwards, but he could not be expected to play a forward pack on his own; R. S. J. Irvine tackled well and his line kicking was good, although usually Hornby won the resulting scrum: the replacement fullback, W. Sherlock, was most impressive on defence in the second spell. Drayton kicked well again for Hornby to take his club points total to 147 and his club and representative tally to 205. The penetration came mostly from

the strongrunning threequarters. Wastney. Langton and W. Woodgate. In the forwards Moore and Condick were given plentv of leeway, Tongue ran well from loose play and K. Neiman monopolised scrum possession. Referee: Mr P Yaxley. Points Galore

ADDINGTON 33: M. J. Worters, P. M. V. White. A. Mcßeath. D. McCosh. J. H. Fisher. A. F. McNaughtan. P. Turnbull tries; White six goals. LINWOOD 14: G. J. Abercrombie two, j. Seales, K. Wilson tries; R. Haffenden goal.

Both teams threw the ball around in attractive style and 11 tries resulted. Addington put the result beyond doubt in the first few minutes by continuing in the same style that confounded and defeated Hornby the previous week. Linwood came back well and never attempted to tie Addington down to a forward struggle. K. Chick and D. McCosh made initial openings close to the scrums and N. Dewes and M. J. Worters ran strongly further out.

Although the Linwood threequarters were inferior to Addington in pace and deception Abercombie was quite impressive and scored two very good tries. W. R. Campbell has settled down well at losse forward and he and W. P. Noonan played well in the Linwood pack.

R. Cotter again led the Addington forwards well, receiving fine support from McNaughtan and B. Gillman. Referee: Mr W. K. Henry. TOKI IMPRESSIVE

PAPANUI 17: J. M. Toki (two) and P. Baillie tries: J. C. P. Hawthorne four goals. SYDENHAM 16: R. Andrews and B. T. Barron tries; A. Tuuta five goals.

Although Sydenham held the lead for much of the game it saw the match taken from it in the final minute w’ith a penalty goal by Hawthorne.

At times players had difficulty in handling a ball that had become slippery with the surface water lying on some parts of the ground. At other times some good football was seen and some of the tries were the result of clever combined work. Two of Papanui’s three tries were scored by the former Maori All Black winger, Toki. He was set up nicely for both of his tries and displayed good footwork in touching down. For Sydenham the promising young wing, Andrews, scored a fine try as the result of using his pace in a strong run. Neither side was completely up to strength, but this did not stop replacements from showing enthusiasm and putting some dash into their play. Another Papanui player to stand out was M. J. Napier and the centre, S. Dunn, had several good runs before he retired with an injury. Sydenham’s captain, Barron,

again led his side in fine style and capped off a good display with a try. In the forwards Tuuta brought up his century of points with five goals. Referee: Mr R. A. Pont.

VICTORY SNATCHED CHRISTCHURCH 12: D. Parker two tries; W. Morrison three goals. KAIAPOI 10: E. Sincock and J. Nelson tries; J. E. Bond two goals. Christchurch trailed Kaiapoi by one point with only a few minutes of play remaining when its captain and full-back, R. H. Turton, moved into the loose forward position to add fire and enterprise to the tiring pack. Turton initiated a movement which culminated in D Parker sprinting over the goalline for the winning points. Parker had an outstanding game in the three-quarters, as did the Christchurch replacement scrum-half, L. Tehuia. E. Bennett and T. Parker were strong Christchurch forwards and R. Franklin distributed the ball with polish. Kaiapois Bond played his usual intelligent and rugged game in the front-row. He gave his team an abundance of ball with quick hooking. The Kaiapoi backs made several elusive breaks, but frequently had difficulty in handling the greasy ball. In addition to Bond, Sincock, Nelson, Barry Williams and P. Waihape were the best players for the loser. Referee: Mr J. Hillsdon.

ses) are:— Horn. Add. Mar. Lin. W L D For Agst Pts 11 1 9 3 6 6 6 7 1 1 1 0 269 258 178 183 97 156 188 201 23 19 < 13 12 <9) 10) (4) (4) Gore Cup points are:W L D For Agst Pts Pap. . 2 0 0 43 23 4 Svd . 1 0 24 24 2 ChCh . . 1 1 0 19 18 2 Kai. 0 2 0 17 38 0