RUGBY LEAGUE Worst Grounds Of Year For Yesterday’s Games

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 August 1949, Page 8

RUGBY LEAGUE Worst Grounds Of Year For Yesterday’s Games

This has been a bad season for Rugby League on the West Coast, with a succession of wet Sundays, but it x is doubtful whether games have ever been played under worse conditions than yesterday. • With defaults and cancellations because of the state of some of the country fields, yesterday’s programme was severely restricted, but those teams which did take the field had unenviable experiences. Only one senior match was played, as Ngahere was unable to find a full complement of players for its game with Runanga and after a “scratch” game had been considered, further rain caused the abandonment of the fixture.

In view of the conditions, there was a fair crowd at Wingham Park for the Marist-Blackball game and the spectators had plenty of entertainment, if not much real football. The ground, after an inch of rain in the morning and further heavy showers during the afternoon, was a sea of mud and it was not long before the colours of the jerseys were almost indistinguishable. With two series of games played in the one-round competition, Runanga is two. points ahead of Marist, but Brunner, which is to enter the competition next . Sunday, may possibly prevent the competition from becoming a repetition of the championship. Only about half the games set down for yesterday were actually played. There were several defaults, while the Blackball ground was not available for the games set down there. Results were:—

Senior: Marist 11, Blackball 5; Runanga won by default from Ngahere. Third grade: Ngahere 6, Lake Brunner 3; Runanga 6, Marist 2.

Fourth grade: Blackball 3, Kohinoor

nil. Fifth grade: Kohinoor 6, Runanga 3. Sixth grade (schoolboys, at Christchurch). Canterbury (holders of Norman Cox Cup) 8, West Coast 8.

Blackball, on the other hand, failed to produce any combined play in the backs, although one or two of the players did well individually. The tackling on bothTsides was good. Once again C. Mcßride was the outstanding Marist forward and he made a lot of play, with R. Neilson and J. Meates. J. Calder was a hard worker in the tight. The .whole Blackball pack worked well, with R. Aynsley at the head. T. Longley, L. Kerr and F. Thompson also showed up at times. J. Pascoe, exploiting his wellknown stab kick to the full, played an excellent game in the Marist backs, as did J. Curnow in the halfback position. J. Mundy sold some splendid “dummies” and two of them produced tries for Marist. V. Meates showed speed, but did.not have much success with his runs. A reserve grade player, F. Aynsley, gave a very sound display as fullmack for Blackball, while L. Sweetman (hdlf-baok) and J. Lee also did well. With few opportunities, J. Oliver (another reserve player) Impressed on the wing. The teams were as follows:— Marist: L. Dargan; M. Teen, V. Meates, L. Dunn; J. Mundy, J. Pascoe; J. Curnow; J. Meates, R. Neilson, C. Mcßride, K. Moseley, J. Calder, P. Costello. Blackball: F. Aynsley; D. Kirk, R. Nuttall, J. Oliver; W. McDonald, J. Lee; L. Sweetman; L. Kerr, T. Longey, N. Haistie, F. Thompson, R. Aynsley, A. Clark.. Scoring Movements Blackball scored in the first few minutes. Lee put in a short kick and Marist could not hold the tricky ball, Longley diving through a loose ruck to touch down between the posts. Nuttall converted. Marist’s first points came as the restul of the brightest move of the match. Mundy broke , away from half-way, sold a “dummy” to Nuttall and passed to Teen who was tackled near the line, but not before he had passed infield to Pascoe, who scored. V. Meates failed to convert. A “dummy” by Mundy, also produced the opening for the next Marist try. Neilson and Pascoe handled before the ball reached Mundy and he cut through to score about half way out. Meates again missed the kick, the halftime score being Marist 6, Blackball 5Blackball was seldom out of its 25 in the -second half and play showed little variation. It was not until the closingstages, that' the Blackball defence cracked. After a series of scrums almost on the line Pascoe put in a short kick and J. Meates won a race for the ball to score near the posts. V. Meates converted, to make the final score, Marist 11, Blackball 5. Mr R. Baird was referee.