ATHLETIC SPORTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 843, 15 June 1910, Page 7

ATHLETIC SPORTS.

1 FOOTBALL. Y.M.C.A. Club. following will represent the —M.C.A. Wednesday tear.i versus the Hearts A at Kelburae l'.irk to-day:— Ninmio, Austin, Adair, Phillips, Gibson, Wilson, Meais, M'Kay, Copeiand, (Jammings, and Ftippj emergency, Dennis. . Hearts Club. Hearts B v. Union at Dufipa Street at S p.m. Jit-arts U will be represented by : — Johnson, Alexander, KarriKia, Coward, Bolton, AslUon, Algur, Hepner, Dobson, Lister, and W'ciber. N. U. TOURING TEAM. LACKS DASH AND "NIL>MNESS." Why has the English (earn been K> thoroughly defeated.' asks the Sydney Is tile team as great as the Northern Unionists of England believe it to bo? And is -Nurt.tiern Union football in England ao highly developed after ail? These questions have beeal discussed oai all ,sides since the brawny Britishers wero beaten by the nimblo colc-nials. Tim 6 after time ono has been fold thai the Northern Union footballer'is far. superior to his brother of the liugby Union in ; England. It may bo to, but we liave our doubts. His game is moro spectacular than the primal Rugby, it exalts the skill of the player, because it shows olf his fi.no poiuts. But it is clear that the liugby Union player of Great Britain can oompare, favourably with tho Northern Unionist. In this country we have seen the two, under similar conditions of climate and grounds. Apart from tho fact that the Englishmen were outpaced by the New • South ■ Wales players, both back and forward in their two matches, strong differences in tho style of play conduced to the drul> bings. Tho Englishmen now with us have so far, on the whole, played a stylo of game which tends to denude-each man of his personality. Each colonial, on the . other haud, gives full play to his own particular powers, or individualism, a.nd yet blends quickly and'happily with his comrades. These individual and collective qualities would not in themselves explain the * big difference between the ".two teams were it riot that, they aro supplemented by that football esseoitial—nippiness. Tho English players must posgess dash and nippiness in their own country, but as a body they have yet to show it here. The)- may aptly be compared with the colonial as a thick-set coach-horse with a racehorse. Olio cannot imagine our present English visitors: improving to an extent sufficient W 'place them on a par with the best fifteen ,of D. R. Bedell-Sivright's party. It is true they liavi been opposed in the two matches by a set of backs comprising men of outstanding individual excellenco and rare pace, ..whose combination it would be difficult, to surpass, even by the -brainiest combination of New Zealand players such as that of 1903., In tho Northern Union game dash, irickiness, and. cleverness in handling the ball are essentials, even more so than in the Rugby Union game. And yet in this team so far we have seen no forward to compare with Bedoll-Sivright and Harding of 190-i. What chariipions that pair would have been in their prime in this game on the fast fields of "this counb-y! Either tho Northern Union has selected tho wrong type of forward for an Australasian tour, or the men have yet to go far before they reproduce their true English form. . , The football our visitors have shown 113 to date is practically the football of 20 years ago, without tho. very strong individualism of the Stoddarts and Anilertons of 1888. And it really appears that, after all, Rugby football in the South of England and in Wales has, in the point of skill, developed even more than it has in Lancashire and Yorkshire, the great Rugby Union' counties of tlio J BO J s. Indeed in 1888 Yorkshire was considered by the Maoris to bo greater even than England. ■ ■ GOLF AND TENNIS.' 'AUSTRALASIAN COMBINED TEAM TO TOUR. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. Melbourne,* June 14. It is proposed to arrange a visit of a combined tennis and golf team to America and Britain next year. , The' team will probably comprise the Hon. Michael. Scott (New South Wales Amateur and Australian golf champion), ■ Norman Brookes, the two Pearces (Tasmanian golfers), E. P. Simpson, C. Felstead (open .golf champion of New South Wales), and Arthur Duncan (golf champion of New Zealand).