RUGBY INCIDENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 4 August 1934, Page 3

RUGBY INCIDENT.

A CHARGE DISMISSED. Per Press Association. ’WELLINGTON, Aug. 3. Arising out of an incident at a 'Rugby football match at Miramar on July 21, when a spectator allegedly struck the referee, a former All Black and referee, Umberto Primo Calcanai, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court on a charge of assaulting George Alfred Bell. The evidence showed that defendant had shouted criticism at the referee, who later requested defendant to leave the ground. This Calcinai would not do, and it is alleged that he struck Bell. Mr E. Page, S.M., dismissed the charge, remarking that he considered the referee was ill-advised in going up to a spectator and persisting in ordering him off the ground. The referee had no power to do that, and he must expect , a certain amount of barracking from the toucliline. Mr Page added that the evidence of the referee and an independent witness did not coincide. When the decision was announced both the prosecutor (Senior-Sergeant Dempsey) and defendant’s counsel (Mr J. D. Willis) suggested that the parties should shake hands. Calcinai and Bell left the Court together, smil-