FOOTBALL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 143, 15 June 1909, Page 6

FOOTBALL.

NOTES. (By ' 'Spectator.l') Those -who attended the Show Grounds oji Saturday were amply rewarded for their expenditure at the gate. The Awatere and Opawa teams j enjoyed the struggle immensely, and j so did' their respective supporters. I am not saying that the Opawa-Awa-tere match would not have been in- j teresting, but I venture to assert that whichever ground the blue-and-white event had been played on, there also would have been the crowd. Jack O'Leary prefers playing to sitting ira judgment on play and players. He was out again on Saturday, and did good service for Moutere. There is now a vacancy on the Union. Saturday's match may fairly be called "willing," with very little of the undesirable element of roughness. There were many free-kicks, the majority being caused by over-eager-ness on the part of the forwards, both in the scrum and in the loose. The Hugby Union desires to popularise football among the ladies of Marlborough, but ladies are not likely

to attend if their ears are to be assailed by such language as proceeded from the mouths of some of the spectators at the Show Grounds on Saturday. If the grandstand were opened the lady watchers could sit there, and the greater portion of the oaths that continually escape a section of the male members of the crowd would not be heard. Church had a "day off" as regards place-kicking, save for the one easy proposition on which he realised. He shone, though, in making marks and finding the line. Manning got in a couple of splendid punts, which found touch only a foot or two from Moutere's line. It was from the second of these that Central's try was obtained. Talking of Manning, the following paragraph from the Free Lance is interesting:—"Manning, the Oriental forward, has developed a bump that would have gladdened the heart of the late. Tom Ellison could he have watched him executing it." The efficacy of that bump, as executed by Charlie, is well-known in Marlborougli. The wisdom of introducing the. fiveyard limit in the throw-in from touch was amply demonstrated on Saturday. It had the effect of making the game much faster, and the two sets of forwards were thus seen at their best.

Every club should supply each touch-line umpire with two flags, so that the players can see at a glance whose ball it is when the oval goes out. On Saturday one of the umpires in the senior game had only one flag (black-and-white), and the Moutere men claim that this resulted in confusion and led to SowmanV try, as the white forwards, thinking that it was Moutere ball, took their time in getting up, and were thus too late. They should have hurried, of course; but that does not affect the principle of the thing. It is a hard matter to differentiate between individuals in the respective vanguards on Saturday's play. Sowman and o'Sullivan, the Central wings, were always there, and so were the two Hegglims. Hush created a verj' favorable impression in his first game, and Forbes put in a lot of solid graft, as also did the remainder of the forwards, Broadmore, McCallum and Aitken—a truly formidable pack*.

Satlierley shone out most prominently among the Moutere forwards, and Nolan (who, by the way, still gets off-side en occasion) was often conspicuous. Sterling work was also put in by Sheridan, Joe O'Dwyer, JBell J. O'Leary and J. McDonald. McDonald's tongue wagged at the start, but as he settled down he found no time to talk.

The Moutere passing was, if anything, rather better than their opponents' ; they seemed to have more combination, but there is plenty of room for improvement yet. W. O'Dwyer, their half, started some nice rushes, but faulty handling further back killed most of them. All the backs acquitted themselves well, Skelley and Morgan perhaps sharing first honors. Whiteley, Ross and .Robinson did well whatever work came their way, the two latter being responsible for one or two serviceable runs. Fred Parker was jn good form against Moutere, his taking and running being splendid. White, on the other wing, was disappointing; he did much better than that last year. McArtney will do better when he conquers his nervousness, although once or twice he extricated his side from a tight corner. Rranton stood up well to the advancing hosts, and enhanced the favorable impression he created earlier in the season.