FOOTBALL IN BULLER

Grey River Argus, 3 May 1932, Page 7

FOOTBALL IN BULLER

Rugby Results Old Boys Score First Win. (Uur Own Correspondent.) The weather conditions on Saturday though dull, were ideal for football, and the big game on the Square, Star? v. Old Boys, attracted a crowd of fairly large dimensions. The rather poor show, ing of the Old Boys ’ forwards in tho match against Rivals and their convincing defeat by Rovers at Granity the week before, did not suggest that the side would achieve their first home victory on Saturday against Stars’ hefty fifteen, but contrary ;to expectations, Old Boy.s emerged victorious, after a great game, by 9 points to 6. The play was full of incidents, and although the passing on both sides was palp'ably weak, the play was interesting, and at times excit'ng, and the result was in the balance right up to the final whistle. Both sides were at full streu gHi. and followers of th e teams watched the progress of play with enthusiastic interest. Old Boys won, but the superiority, one would expect to be shown by a winning side, was not apparent, and if Dame Fortune had bestowed an equal share of luck on -the Stars, the result would have been reversed. This is not mentioned with tha object of in any way, of robbing the victors of the merit attached to their win, but in fairness to the Star Club, who drew all the small marbles, ami were not, on the general run of the play, favoured wi'.th their share of tho lo lies, and were decidedly unlucky not to have at least secured a draw. Jack Connolly played a great game for Stars and was easily one of the hardest working forwards on the field. On two occasions, after great dashes for a try, he was only brought down on .the lines, and all “Bunter’? got for his trouble was a dislocated optic! They were the closest things of the game for Old B >ys. In his first effort, he gathered a good pass from Gilsenan and went Hi rough on his own, but; lacked a little of what the locally-owned horse, Alpine Melody produced at Blenheim, and he was overtaken just as he was about to fs 11 ov-ei tho line. Doherty. Gils-enan ai’d Cnnsadine were also a power of st ength to the side. In the back division. Greer, who scored all .the points for Stars, was the most enterprising, bui is still a little covetous, though he made amends with brilliant play, for O' e or two mistakes in that direction. Woodward, at full-back, did some fair work. Hislop was easily the best scrum half, and his server .to his backs was cleaner than that of his vis-a-vis. Jones was verv watchful and brought down •he elusive Holder. Old Boys’ star, on more than one occasion. The wings, T.

Connolly and Hennessy, were not given many opportunities. The Star backs q s a whole, should have done much better in the first half, when their forwards repeatedly got the ball from the b.crums. The centres are by no means perfect, and until the faults i n this de. partment are remedied, the good work of their scrum eight, w’ll go for nought.

Individual’)’ the Old Boys’ backs were much the faster, but their combination lacked that snap which would ( liable them to register tries. Holder indulged in many so’io spectacular runs, but invariably. Jones and Bonifacio figured n some good tackling and stopped h s progress. Mat Robinson, who made hi." first appearance since linking up with the benedicts, had the misfor. rune to met with a slight iniruy in the opening stages of the game, bur recovered sufficiently to kt r augment tho Old Boys’ score by outstripping the opposition to get a splendid try. Sm Tp was not nippy enough behind the scrum and his transfers were without snap. He was on more than one occasion bottV'd up by the opposing half, before he could get rid of the ball. Th,e Old Boys’ forwards were a uniformly hardworking side and considering their big handicap in poundage, when compared with their opponents did very well in the scrums and in the loose work, at times, more than shared the honours. After an . interchange of kicks 'rho opening stages of the game were mark, ed by a period of patchy play, but the Star forwards held the advantage and gave the Old Boys’ defence a very an xious time. The ball cam* 1 from a melee in Old Boys’ 25 and was gathered by Prince who should have gone for the lines, but he elicted to pass and what looked like a good chance to score was lost. An offside ruling against Old Boys gave Greer an opportunity to open the scoring from, a handy position which he availed of with a splendid effort. The three point load gave Stars an impetus to increase the score but Old Boys playing determinedly man aged to keep them out. though o n numerous occasions, their ]'nes were in imminent danger. Old Boys were hard pressed, and if Stars were not scoring, they were at Least keeping the offensive to themselves. The Old Boys’ forwards broke away and Seaton, Stevens and Mason were prominent in a movement which transferred play to Star’s territory, where a passing movement participated in by Caldwell and Mason terminated in the latter getting over after some exciting play. Holder mis-

s.?d the kick. Stars returned to the at. tack and strenuously fought for the leading points and their persistent efforts were rewarded when Greer co! lected a pass from Hislop, and after a dodgy run, scored a try which was applauded. Jones failed to add the necessary points. The teams crossed over with Stars enjoying a three-point lead. The second period was not long in pro. gress when Holder indulged in one of his character 1 stic zig zag runs, which looked like trouble but on being well tackled, by Bonifacio he dropped the ball which was smartly snapped up by Robinson, who ran through the opposing players, to score the equaliser. The effort was not improved upon and with the score six all, a neck and neck contest ensued. Stars asserted their superiority and attacked vigorously pinning Old Boy s to their lines and off-side infringements only brought temporary relief to the wearers of the white jerseys. J. Connolly made desp'erate efforts to pull the game out of the fire and on more than one occasion, was only stopped in the nick of time. Play was in Ol ( ] Boys’ twen.'ty-five, when the unex. pected happened. Quinn kicked high

and Woodward, the opposing custodian, failed to gather, with the result that Forman, who followed up fast got an uninterrupted passage, and scored a try which was not converted, but the three points sealed th e fate of the Stars. Resu t: Old Boys 9. Stars 6. The game was the best seen on the Square so fai this season and was full of lively pas sagos, which at times was bordering on brilliant Rugby. Mr H Casey gave every satisfaction w th the whistle. Rangers Exploit Drop Goals.

At Millerton, Rangers’ Seniors sue cessfully exploited fie'd goals as a medium of scoring points in their match against Ngakawau. No tries were secu ed in the gome, which was won by the home team by two dropped goa’s. kicked by Blyth, to. a penalty goal. sc or. ed for Ngakawau by T.ip'pfri. Rivals Routed.

The town team w : thout r h? service* of several of their regular players were completely routed at* Wai mangaroa in their match with Unified. The home side put on 11 points in the first half and in the second put on another 19. whilst the visitors failed to score. The country players has so far met two tow n teams and in '.the games have rattled, up a total of 59 points, whilst on’y three have bee n registered aga nst them. They look like going a long way in the competition. JUNIOR GRADE. Old Boys 25 —Westport 3. The Old Boys’ second string gave a great exhibition on the Square in their match with Westport. Their backs handled the ball with precision and the oppos'tion could not cope with the sustained attacks. Old Boys won 25 —3. Stars and Birchfield. Draw. • Played yesterday, before a big attendance, at Birchfield, after a stren.u ous game, the teams shared honours by scoring three points each. Twomley got a try for Stars and Martin kicked a penalty goal for Birchfield. Ngakawau v. Stockton. The issue was in doubt in the above gime, played at Ngakawau, up to the final whistle, and the score three points each, was a fair reflex of the merits of the teams. School v. Old Boys. The above third grade fixture, played On the beautifully-la’d-out grounds at the School, proved a good exhibition of Rugby and was evenly contested. Tommy Robinson scored a try for Old Boys. Weenink got a try for School and Strachan added a penalty goal. School won by six points to threie. Stars Reverse at Denniston. Stars’ third grade fifteen travelled to Denniston on Saturday and were de feated by 12 points to nil. The home side had all the best of matters and won deservediv.