FOOTBALL.

Evening Star, Issue 14689, 5 October 1911, Page 5

FOOTBALL.

NORTH v. SOUTH. Telegraphed from Auckland that none >f the Aucklanders chosen for the interisland Rnpby match at Wellington on Saturday will "be able to play. DISGRACEFUL EXHIBITION IK AUCKLAND. The close of the Rugby football season of 1911 on Saturday afternoon was mark"! by a game which is described i:i the 'Herald' as " a booting and punching struggle." The writersayo : "The fo;vrardr, of both sides. City and Marist Brothers' Old Boys, with few exceptions, v/ctc spuilty of indiscriminate hacking, obstruction," and punching, the City team being the worst offenders. In one melee on the jine-out the referee's eye caught M'Devitt, of Marisb Brothers' Old Boys, retaliating, and he was ordered off. He was unfortunate, in that others had been guilty of the same or worse tactics, but had escaped official notice. The fierceness of the play may be gauged when it is mentioned that on "on© occasion F. Herring, of Marisls", when on the ground, received a hard kick on the face, e'ven though the hall was vards away. He was stunned by the kick, and when he had recovered finished the game with a hlood-covered face woree than it is possible to get in a prize ring." CANTERBURY'S SEASON. The financial position of the Canterbury Rugby Union to date, as reported by the secretary, is as follows:—Receipts, £1.427 lfls 2d "(a record) ; expenditure. £845 Is lid (also a record) ; balance, £582 12s 3d. The Otago Union inv.st have an even more .Tar'sfaclorv "nest ecg " a» thp result of ei<rht representative matches this season, but a silly decision by the governing body prevents "the disclosure of the gats •' takings" being nude public. ARCHDEACON HARPER'S VIEWS. Archdeacon C- C. Harper, in his spsech at the Yorkshire dinner at Wellington on Monday nijht, h?.d something severe to say about sport, especially football, in this covntry.. lie spoke as an ox-referee, and said that after sixteen years" experience of football in New Zealand he doubted whether one could ever be sure of seeing straight football here, except in the school matches. There one did s;e straight football, us in the ChristehurchWang-mui match. He had only had time to see one match this year, and that was the Wel-lington-Auckland match. He _ sincerely hoped it was not a fair sample of football in New Zealand to-day.