THE CURTAIN-RAISER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 193, 30 July 1932, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE CURTAIN-RAISER

FOURTH GRADE REPS. HASTINGS BEAT NAPIER. The curtain-raiser to the Hawke’s Bay-Auckland match was a game between the fourth-grade representatives of Napier and Hastings. The match resulted in a win for the home side by nine points to six. The teams were as follows:— Napier.—Simpson, Keong, Dowrick, Oswald, JI. Brown, Horsefield, Moss, Bowman, Northe, JlcCashin, Stead, Hargreaves, Calder, Scoble, Hedward. Hastings.—Brimmer, S. Wall, Egan, Blair. Simon, Pratt, Drummond, Casein, Littlejohn, Gadd, Russell, Fergusson, Krebs, Tritt, J. Nelson. Right from the kick-off the home side took up the attack, the opening stages furnishing bright, open football. A series of good passing rushes terminated m Wall scoring a great try in the corner. The kick at goa] failed. Hastings 3 Napier 0 Even piay ensued for a time, Napier shewing slightly better form. Finding

that the backs could make little headway the Hastings forwards took a hand and a series of rucks took them close to the scoring area. A prolonged struggle followed, the Hastings pack pushing ahead to fall on the ball as one man for a second try. Again the kick failed. Hastings 6 Napier 0 Shrortfy afterwards Hastings were iqjaiu pressing strongly when Napier were penalised and Russell landed a good goal. The score was unaltered at the interval. Hastings 9 Napier 0 SECOND HALE. Aftei the change-over the visitors set about reducing the lead. They penned up Hastings on the quarterway tor a time then, from a scrum, the rearguard swung into action for Keong to score a good try that went unconverted. Napier 3 Hastings 9 Napier lost no time getting back on the attack. The backs essayed two movements that fell short of the goal hue, then the forwarads broke down the defences to kick through. Chasing hard, Dowrick outstripped the homesteaders to score almost on the dead hall line. Once again the effort went uncrowned. Napier 6 Hastings 9 Up and down play ensued for a long time, both sides being on the verge of scoring on several occasions. For the most part Napier held a territorial advantage. Time was called with the score unaltered and reading: Hastings 9 Napier 6 Mr J. Laws, of Napier, was referee.