BETTERING THE GAME

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1922, Page 14

BETTERING THE GAME

POSITION OF THE PREMIERSHIP

GENERAL NOTES.

(By ".Vanguard.")

What will happen this afternoon I cannot pretend to know, beyond that the Thistle-Waterside game on the Basin Reserve will be a tip-top match, but it appears that the championship must lie between Thistle and Watersiders, both, up to last Saturday with seven wins and a draw to their credit, with Thistle half a nose ahead on account of a slightly better goal average as a result of their easy win over Karori. Diamonds have done well-' this season, but they can scarcely pick up the necessary points. Hospital may give them a run for third place by the lodk of things.

The Waterside-Y.M.O.A. B match at Association Park last Saturday was the sort of game that made spectators congratulate themselves on their afternoon's luck, it was a really fine display of the game, and certainly did make one wonder why Young Men's championship points are not higher than they arc. They had the luck of the game against them on quite a few occasions, and a draw would have set out tho merits of the two teams better than tile final score, Watersiders 3, Young Men 2. Young Men should have scored from their opening rushes in tho first five minutes, but J. Smith missed a great opportunity at an open goal. They did not hold play—for ' that matter play , was never for long definitely in favour of cither side—the Waterside backs, both of whom played good (football, cleared, and a smart interchange of. forward attacks opened up. Phillips opened the list with a good shot early in tha spell, and Cusaok and Palmer replied and put Watersiders in the lead by 2 to 1 in tho first spell. Spectators were inclined to doubt the decisions as to both those goals, the general idea among those who questioned the rulings being, that the first was from an off-side movement, and that the goal-keeper when taking Palmer's shot in his hands stepped back over the line but still held the ball in play. The referee's rulings stood. The second spell was as pretty as the first to watch, the pace* always being very fast, while the play was between teams as teams, not between one set of forwards and the opposing backs; both teams were remarkably well matched, front lines to goal-keepers. M'Girr, on the Y.M. half-line, played a particularly fine game in this spell, and the wings of either team showed fine dashes of speed, notably Smith, who, well on in the spell added Young Men's second goal after a pretty piece of work opened up by Ives. and carried on by the centre. Anton added the third for Watersiders shortly afterwards. Y.M. speeded up again. with at least a draw in mind, but the defence— Jackstone being most I prominent—was \generally too sound and there was too much solo work, though once or twice great rallies in the very goal-mouth very nearly ended in successful headed shots. Watersiders, too, made their attacks willing, and' often in" the last quarter of an hour but met a stubborn defence on the full-back line and found the goalie sure when the backs were passed. On the afternoon's play, however, the Waterside goal-keeper set the - standard, his handling of the ball in tight corners being very bright indeed. From first to last the game was a tip-ttjp one.