RUGBY LEAGUE Blackball Holds Thacker Shield

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 September 1946, Page 6

RUGBY LEAGUE Blackball Holds Thacker Shield

Rakttia Well Beaten

Sequence of Marist ff 7 ins Broken Rakaia, winner of the Canterbury Rugby League championship,, proved no match lor Blackball, the West Coast champion team, in the lenge match for the. Thacker Shield at Blackball yesterday. Blackball was much more at home in the unfavourable ground conditions and won easily. Surprise result of the day was lhe elimination of Marist, from the knock-out round by Ngahere, as a result of a last-minute score. The match also counted for the oneround competition and a final between Marist and Blackball now appears assured. Brunner also had a last-minute win, over Kohinoor, and ithus annexed the Challenge Cup. Results in all grades were as follow:—■ Senior: Blackball 29, Rakaia 8; Ngahere 8,. Marist 7; Brunner 8, Kohinoor 7; Runanga 23, Hokitika 6, Junior: Runanga 8, Rapahoe 2. (At Christchurch): Sydenham 11, Blackball 10; Blackball 15, Riccarton 9. Third Grade: Brunner 19, Runanga 3. (At Christchurch): Blackball 11, Aranui 9; Blackball 5, Riccarton 3. Fourth Grade: Runanga 5, Marist A 0; Brunner 32, Blackball 0; St. Joseph’s (Chistchurch) 13, Marist 3; Marist B 6, St. Joseph’s 6. Schoolboys: Senior colts —Marist 32, Kohinoor 6; junior Marist 9, Kumara 3. Blackball’s Handling Won Match Playing in a veritable sea of mud, the Thacker Shield match at Blackball was most notable for the manner in which the Blackball backs handled the difficult ball, _ and this was the deciding factor in an interesting game. The Rakaia forwards, with D. Meade, A. Deane and C. O’Connor always in the van, had the edge on the home pack, but once the ball got into the open, the Blackball backs showed glimpses of their best forlh. The Blackball line was not crossed, all of the challengers’ eight points coming from penalty kicks by the captain, C. Davison, who also proved a good general. A. Alfield (half) and j. O’Connor (five-eighth) were the most impressive Rakaia backs. R. Nuttall, the Blackball full-back, played a game similar to his notable game against England. W. Mountford (second five-eighth), M. Ord and R. O’Donnell (tried on the wing) also did well in the Blackball backs. C. Mcßride was outstanding among the forwards, with good support coming from R. Aynsley. Blackball’s first try was scored by Ord, Nuttall converting. Two fine penalty kicks by Davison brought the score to five—four. A penalty up-and-under well placed by McNaughton saw Mcßride collect and send on to Aynsley, for the last-named io score under the posts. Nuttall converted. Just before the interval, Mcßride scored a fine solo try, after a 30-yard run. Nuttall missed the kick, the half-time score being, Blackball 13, Rakaia 4. Ord again opened the scoring in the second half and Nuttall converted. Davison countered with another penalty goal but Blackball returned to the attack for K. Mountford to score. Nuttall failed to convert. Davison kicked his fourth penalty goal, but in the closing stages. R. O’Donnell and A. O’Donnell scored tries, Nuttall converting the first. The final score was, Blackball 29, Rakaia 8. Mr J. Mathews was referee. Ngahere’s Final Rally Succeeds With 1G minutes left to play in the knock-out and one-round competition match at Ngahere, Marist, leading by 7 points to 2, appeared to have the game in safe keeping, but Ngahere staged a great final rally. Scoring two unconverted tries, the winning one with only two minutes’ grace, Ngahere brought off one of the major surprises of the season and again demonstrated how dangerous an opponent it is on its home ground, particularly on a heavy field. Neither team was at full strength. Ngahere included three juniors and Marist was without the services of P. Coll and L. Beban. The Greymouth team also played a man short for more than half of the second spell, J...Curnow retiring with an injury. The ground was in bad order. The score at the interval was 2-all, Pascoe (Marist) and Howden (Ngahere) having kicked penalty goals. Half-way through the second half, Pascoe received a reverse pass from a scrum in the Ngahere 25 and ran in for a try, which Dargan converted. In the final stages, Pascoe, in attempting to clear his line, kicked across field, behind the goal line, and D. McVicar, following fast, dived on the ball to score. Howden missed the kick. Ord fielded the kick-off and after a good run kicked over the Marist players’ heads, for- A. Smith to race in and touch down for the winning try. Howden missed the kick' the game ending: Ngahere 8, Marist 7. Mr. L. Kinsella was referee. Runanga Too Good for Hokitika

The ground at Cass Square, Hokitika, was in better order than the majority of the playing fields, and Runanga produced some good football to beat Hokitika by 23 points to 6, in a knock-out and one-round competition match. All of Hokitika’s points came from penalty kicks, but it was unlucky not to have scored at least two ' tries. Territorially, the game was more even than the score indicates. , Mr. J. Griffin was referee. ’