Football.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 142, 16 June 1906, Page 14

Football.

[By Dkopjuck.J

RUGBY. Tho conditions under which the Petone and Oriental teams played at Pctono . did not lend themselves to a good display of Rugby. Play was uninteresting on tho whole, the 'sloppy ground and I greasy ball spoiling moro than one effort which would have como off on a dry ground. Oriental held a three-point lead until within a quarter of an hour of the end of the game, but at this stage Petono shook themselves together for tho first time, and carried things pretty well ' as they pleased until time was called. : Tho suburbanites registered two trios within five minutes. Tha final spurt wan a brilliant one,- and quite .nonplussed Oriental. . M. Ryan, as full back, was not at his best on the heavy ground, but on the whole he acquitted himself with credit, j Ramsden was the best of the Petono throequarters, his defence being especially good J. Ryan and Kelly were m \ and out. •M'Gregor was prominent for some ' j smart kicking, but otherwise his display ■was below the standard. Green played a really fine game at half, his clever punts saving Petone repeatedly. | Of the Petono forwards, jl'Gill, on the wing, was the most prominent. Driscoll was about the best of tlje pack men. j The mainstay of the Oriental backs was Roberts, who played a great gamo, ' and took upon himself tho work of two ( men. His defence was perfect, and he seized upon every opportunity for attack which presented itself. Cleary did goad work at ■five-eiehths, but his want of weight made itr-elf apparent in the hejv woik. Highet was the pick ofthe thrccquarter tic-e. Ho was not especially l:ocn un roincr down to rushes, but tackled in splendid style, going oh «t his maiv 1 in true curne.it. The wing threequarters were we k, although Wilkinson was better than his fellow wing. Mannin". BaskeviKe, and Bunckenberg w-sre the best of the Oriental forwards The surprise of last Saturday's games was the Old Bo'-s-Southsrn contest, which resulted in a draw, neither pide scoring. The ground was covered with water in parts, and was not in a. fit state for , any te3m Co play a senior match on. j The Old Boys put a very w«ak team in • the field. By the poorness of their backs, Athtetics tost the match against Melrose. On the day Athletics rather beat the opposing pack, except at hooking tho ball in the scrimmages, but the rearguard was deplorably weak in attack. Very good opportutdties, primarily made by tha forwards, w«ro utterl" wasted. The Melrosa backs, apart from G. Spencer, whose work at fuLl-bick, was admirably do l -e; were not first-clasa, but they were brilliant in comparison with their vppjj.tbls. M'Kay, w-njc threequarter, performed fVirlv well,' particularly in lino kicking. He is a very strom* runner, and, with a little development in the " head," should mak* a very valuab.e back. Th« bout between Victoria College and Wellington principally showed that club football in Wellington this year can be decidedly drab at times. The Col'.egipns however, are showing that they aro improving as the weeks go by. Incidentally, M'Ksy, of the Melrore teuin, shows that the system of high tackling, which has a great vogue now, can b& very ineffective. A fortnight ago he knocked over seven' or eight Southern men who att.aipted to grab him above the ■waist, and scored after he had waded through that team. Last Saturday, against Athletics, ht aiso showed that hieh collaring was an unreliable check on a strong runner's progress. It is a very rare spectacle indeed to see a man laid low by ho legs I "Aa Old &tager" writes regretting the I days when football used to be played on Xewtown Park in tho years . nef ore the troops which went to South Africa and more troops which came to Wellington during the Duke's visit knocked My correspondent declares that every time nowadays when he visits Newtown Park he heaves a sigh from the bottom of his boots as he thinks what a lovely arena lies theie for tho sturdy contests with the oval and what a glorious amphitheatre has been pimiaed for spectators Then thete is the lordly nil' standing guard in the background, to ! keep the -keen southerly wind from thd shiversome spectator, and the northerly has also a rampart set up against it. ; .Surely, writes the complainant, some- | thing should be done about it! Why , should sut-h a ground be given over to matches in whith there is next to no interest, whilst thousands of lovers of the game shiver on the Athletic Park or "do a perish" and are greatly inconvenienced at Petone. ''A question for the City Council? Of course it Is A very big and paying question for the City Council Why should the lattci body continue to allow money to bo diverted from the coffers of the tramways to thoso of the Railway Department? If the four big matches which are arranged weekly took place on the Athletic Park and Newtown Park thero would bo an immense traffic on the. tramcars, and the 'city would benefit ' tremendously. Oh, for the days of the long-ago, when great games wero playe«J ( on Newtown Park ! Thoso days might' easily return if tho Mayor and his council would take their respective head.s in their hands, sit down suddenly, and think hard for a few minutes. What do you think? Shouldn't they be told about it?" | Newtown Park would certainly be ' more convenient than Petonb for senior matches. There aro only two grounds there, however, and the Association , players have the Use of one of these. The Rugby Union is not a body which is- likely to study public convenience before its own finances. Tho Potono .games pan oat well for tho union, and 1 understand they not only receive a portion of every train fare over a certain guaranteed number, but also a percentage of tho takings at the Pewnie ground. A charge for admission cannot be enforced at Newtown Park, and this recalls a story of the days when big matches used to be played at Newtown. It was tho practice for spectators to pay lor admission, but if a man chose to do so ho could insist on his rights as a citizen and enter free. When challenged by the gatekeeper, a keen follower of Rugby, a certain < gentleman refused to pay. "You won't pay sixpence to go in?" queried the . gatekeeper. "No," was the reply ; "I'm j a citizen and you can't stop, me going in." "Well, take that," said tho disgusted guardian of tho gate, as ho deliberately punched tho "citizen" in tho eyo A southern paper, referring to recent allegations of misconduct, says: — Travelling teams have been the cause of more trouble for football and other sports than any other single circumstance, and j right through New Zealand we have . found far too many instances of un- | gentlemanly conduct off the field. At one timo or another almost every^ union in the colony has had to deal with fellows who could not behave themselves away from home, and, though strong measure* have been taken, one ctill hears too much of unseemly conduct off the field. Hotel-keepers and railway officials are the. ' people who complain, and _ there must bo something in their stories when one can point to hotels that absolutely refuse to take in travel.ling team» i and one can call to mind

the threat of the railway authorities in Christchurch, not sp .very Jong ago, to refuso passages on the trains" to football teams. Thus the Auckland Star:—The holding of the Ranfurly Shield will apparently be no easy matter this year. Wellington's defeat of Wairaiapa by the onormous total of 62 points to' 9 showt> something of the calibre of that fifteen, for tho valley district has a very fair fifteen. The New Zealand formation was trjeu by the Sydney Club against University on Saturday week. In the first spell the usual 3-2-3 scrum was formed, but in the second a change was made, in Sydney's formation! The pack was 2-3-4 with Swannell as wing forward. It proved a splendid move, for it saved Sydney from defeat. Swannoll filled his new position very well indeed. Sydney s forwards did better in the second spell, add were superior during the last halfhour. ■A New York paper of Bth April states that tho suppression ol American football has resulted in Englishmen teaching their game to Americans. On 7th April there were over •40 games of Rugby played in or near New York, tho Eng lishmen teaching their opponents while playing. At the restaurants _at night there were many informal British banquets, at which the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes wero displayed and toasted. The Cardiff F.C. on 28th April brought to a close the most successful season—with one exception—in the history of the club. Of 32 matches played, 29 were won, two drawn, and only one lost, tho solitary levers© being in the fixture with tho New Zealandeis,> who, after a thrilling contest, ran out winners by two goals to a goal and a try. The aggregate score for the club is 65 goals and 71 tiiea.^ or 613 points, as against 10 goals and 14 tries, or 83 points, ob t.ained by their opponents. J. L. Williams, left wing, heids the list of trygetters with 35, the other players ti I reach double figures btiug the capUiin, I Percy Bush, with 11 tries (and six drop- ' ped goals), C. Bigg 3, with 17 tries, and I E. Gwyn Xicholls and R. A. Gibbs 10 each. Their most powerful livals, Swansea and Newport, have each been defeated four times by the "blue nnd blacks," a feat without parallel in Welsh football, whilst the club championship was practically assured to them before Christinas. Ungeutlemanly conduct off^ the held is as bad as rough or unfair play, and will do as mu-h if not moie, to alienate tho sympathies of the public.—Extract from v southern paper.