VICTORIA VALLEY NOTES

Northland Age, Volume 25, Issue 16, 13 August 1925, Page 2

VICTORIA VALLEY NOTES

(Own Correspondent). On the Ist inst. an adult and a school basketball team journeyed to Fairburn, leaving the Valley at 9 a.m. The Victoria Valley school players were Doris White, Eileen White, Esther Panther, Violet Stevens, R. Parker, S. Noble, L. Snelgar, R. White and B. Trigg. The first match was between Victoria Valley and Fairburn, the latter winning by 16 to 5. The Victoria Valley team seemed rather thoughtful —even pensive at times. The game was a quiet one, playe I in splendid weather, and. refereed by Mr. Harrison, was played in the best of spirit. The next was Fairburn against Peria, refereed by Miss Gregory. Both teams seemed to be experienced players, ind the result was another win for Fairburn —9 to 6. All three school teams were composed of both boys and girls. Victoria Valley and Peria were to have played against each other in the afternoon but rain made the abandonment of this match advisable.

The 1 ulies’ teams were Fairburn Oruru ( >r is it Oruru —Peria?) and Victoria Valley. Tiie Victoria Valley team consisted of Miss D. Tracey, H. Panther, P. Kitchen, J. Burgoyne, K. Tracey, M. Ramsay, E. Paton, Mrs. A. White, and Miss Gregory. The res alts of the three matches were something like the problem of the three snakes which formed a circle one behind the other and swallowed each other. Oruru beat Victoria Valley, Fairburn beat Oruru, Victoria Valley beat Fairburn, and in each case the win was by two points. The Fairburn colours are blue and black, and the other two adult teams red and black, but in different arrangements. The Victoria Valleys appropriately wore red jumpers, similar in shade to the military red coats of the Victorian era, and, seen mingling with a crowd in the distance, brought one’s mind back to the time when we used to see the soldiers of the Crimean War. Oruru had pirated our colours and their whole appearance indicated their piratical character —banditti kerchiefs of Bolshevik red hiding their golden, auburn and raven tresses or shingles, red French revolutionary belts, white at shoulders, and rest black. The last match of the day, Victoria Valley against Fairburn, was the most spectacular. In the first place, there was the beautiful colour contrast—red and black against blue and black. At the beginning of the match, Fairburns looked much nicer than Victoria Valley. No, I did not say that the Victoria Valleys were not as nice looking as the Fairburns. What I did say, oranyway, what I meant was that the beautiful shade of shimmering blue showed up nicely in the sun, and was well suited to the bush peach complexions of Fairburn.

But the rain was now coming on heavily. No that did not take off from anyone’s complexion; but it made the ground muddy. Fairburn mud is of a delicate cinnamon eau-de-nil grey-brown mauve and this proved to be just the right shade for producing an excellent colour scheme with the otherwise somewhat trying Victoria Valley red. On the Fairburn blue, it looked just like mud. Fairburn led in points in the early part of the match but possibly the circumstances mentioned above may have produced a superiority complex in the sub-cons-cious psycho-analytic mentality of Victoria Valley. Anyway, Victoria Valley won in the end. , Both teams rose to the occasion —and there were frequent occasions for rising—-movements, culminating in brilliant acrobatic displays and skilful tumbling evolutions, which showed a high degree of grace and activity. Sometimes there was more grace han activity and sometimes more activity than grace. It is very evident that basketball is a worth while game both for players and spectators.