League opener on week-end

Press, 13 March 1985, Page 64

League opener on week-end

Inter-club rugby league in Canterbury begins at premier and colts levels next week-end with the opening rounds of sponsored tournaments.

The well-established Radio Avon knock-out is again the curtain-raiser of the premier competitions. It will be held at the Show Grounds over the next three Sundays leading up to the final under lights on Wednesday, April 3. It is something of a quaint tradition that the Radio Avon draw is released with a claim that seedings are based on positions in the previous year’s premiership, yet that has never been the case.

The top four teams from

1984, Hornby, Halswell, Papanui and Sydenham, have a bye through the first round. But the fifth and sixth teams, Linwood and Marist-Western Suburbs, have been drawn to oppose each other instead of having easier assignments as would occur under an orthodox method of seeding. In the other games Kaiapoi plays Eastern Suburbs, Addington lines up against Parklands, and a nonpremier club is assured of progress to the second round from the meeting between Woolston and Parklands.

To make matters worse for Linwood or Marist, the successful side has the daunting task of opposing

the undisputed champion, Hornby, in its second appearance. Woolston or Riccarton will have a still difficult, but less awesome, encounter with the fourthranked Sydenham.

It would be almost a disappointment, after all these autumns of curious matchings, if the Radio Avon draw was actually seeded as claimed. But it is unfair in a tournament which carries a considerable amount of prize money that a junior club is guaranteed further advancement than one of the playingthrough Gore Cup finalists.

Games will be divided into quarters of 15 minutes, and extra time will be added if scores are tied at

full-time. No stoppages will be made for minor injuries and four replacements will be allowed.

The Radio Avon is preceded, for the first time, by the Anderson and Hill colts tournament, which makes its debut on the fixture list at the Halswell Domain next Saturday. It continues on March 23 and the final is scheduled for March 30.

Administered by the Canterbury junior advisory committee, the colts knockouts has an age limit of 19 years, though teams of 18 years and 17 years players are eligible to enter. The winning side receives a trophy and set of jerseys, and there are prizes for the other semi-finalists.