1977 league change

Press, 14 September 1976, Page 6

1977 league change

The 1977 Canterbun 7 Rugby League club programme will ipen with a smaller version of the qualifying rounds vhich were discarded by the code’s board of control last evening.

Instead of all the junior dubs being given the opporunity to seek premier status, inly those which finished first md second in the premier B competition — Woolston and Riccarton — will be in the pre-season series.

Their opponents will be Marist-Western Suburbs and Sydenham, the teams which trailed their other six rivals after the two full rounds of the premiership this winter. The order of fixtures and the dates have yet to be decided, but all four sides will meet each other, probably between the middle of March and beginning of April. The adoption of the mini grading round was something of a compromise after two other proposals had been voted out. The original motion, proposed by the secre-

tary-manager (Mr D. G. Gaynor), was that only Woolston and Marist be involved, with their contest to be decided on aggregate in matches later this month and in March.

Another scheme, put by Mr M. R. Clinton, called for the two lowest premier clubs to have games against the two top premier B combinations, but not on a full round-robin basis, Sydenham and Marist would not actually have met, nor would Woolston and Riccarton.

As in the past, positions were decided on placings in the longer premiership rather than in the subsequent championship play-offs. Marist had a better scoring record than either Sydenham or Addington even though it was two competition points behind, and Sydenham became the second team threatened with relegation because its points percentages were inferior to those of Addington, with which it was seventh equal. Ironically, Marist later beat both Sydenham and Adding-

ton to reach the Gore Cup final.

Woolston was a decisive winner of both premier B contests. Riccarton had been the runner-up in the premiership, before losing to Halswel) ir thechampionship semi-finals. The four clubs now have the knowledge that they have the off-season to increase their playing strengths ir their quest for a role in the top grade. The two most successful sides in the round,w'" '°' n Papanui, Chnstchurch-Eastem Suburbs, Hornby, Kaiapoi. Linwood and Addington in the eight-team premiership, the others dropping to the prem. ler B section with Halswell University-United, Shirlev and possibly Rolleston. The premier B division ln< traduced during this season, is to be retained, but it w decided that, the method ol finalising the gradings would stand only for one year. Il might or might not be re. tained in the future.