WELLINGTON PETONE.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 13, 16 July 1923, Page 5

WELLINGTON PETONE.

The ground at Lower Hutt, ; upon ■which Wellington and Petone met, was in a very poor condition and; considerably slowed up the play of. both teams. The rather easy victory for the town men may have been due to the fact that Petone were obliged to play three of four of their" juniors, who, naturally, ,-were not quite up to senior standard., Play for the most part was confined to the vicinity of Petone's circle,, though at times the suburban forwards managed to for.cc their way into the Red and Whit* territory, and had- it not. been for Martis on ths full-back line, Cummins, the goalie, would hay« been called upon to.defend on many more occasions than actually was the case. As it was, the custodian for the town* men was able to; spend most of his time strictly-as a spectator. The first goal. came as the result of a good centre by Thompson to Emery; who took the ball down the field well, and had'little difficulty in finding the net; Give-and-take play followed until shortly before the interval, when O'Brien took advantage of a scramble in Petone's circle and sent in a shot which gave the goalie very little chance to save.

At the opening of th'a second spell, Petone rallied for a short'time, but the Red and Whites once more settled down to win, and.the suburban men had little chance to counter-attack.. Only a few minutes after the resumption of play Boyd, with a splendid shot, added another point to Wellington's tally. Martin was playing a good- game for Petone, and saved his side repeatedly. Supported by the centre half, he was the mainstay of the Petone defence. , Scott, the right half, showed a distinct tendency to obstruct, although on the whole he played a substantially sound game, iiie fourth and last goal was scored by Emery, the leather coming in from Wellington's left wing. Taking the game right throughout, it was played in good spirit. Mr. B. Ginger was referee.