FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11229, 25 November 1899, Page 7

FOOTBALL.

Tlireo celebrated English footballers are brother officers in "The Queen's," ordered to South Africa. They arc: Mangles. 0. E. Wilson, tlio old international forward, who broke his left two seasons back, and E. O'H. Livesey, of Hlnckheath. Referring to the death of poor Armit, "Forward," in the Otngo Witness, says: With unspeakable regret it is that I have to clironielo tlio death of A. M. Armit, tlio Otago representative throe-quarter back, as tlio result of the injuries he received in tlio Taranaki-Ota|ro match on August 26. Tlio feeling of regret is nono the less keen becauso it has been apparent all along that there could lie only the one ending to the accident. It is indeed the keener that a man who fights so pluckily for his life as Armit did, should have to acknowledge himself unequal to the tremendous odds against which he contended. I'll beat you yet." was the confident manner in which Armit more than once expressed himself to tho doctors; but hoy knew the fatal nature of his injuries, and lie did not. Though the fracture of die spino mended, the action of the spinal cord was never resumed, and, that being so, to live was impossible. Armit himself recognised at last that ho must submit to tlio inevitable, but no person under inarching crders for the other world could have borne himself with greater composure and fortitude. Wasted and exhausted in body though ho became, ho was game to the very end. It was with a sharp pang of pain that tho community heard last Sunday that on that forenoon—a beautifyl spring day, just such another as that Sunday eleven weoks before when tho hospital precincts wore thronged all day with anxious inquirers for the oatient —ho had passed away. In him Otago has lost olio of the most able exponents of tlio game it lias ever had. No better scoring tlireequartor-back has donned the dark-blue jersey, and it will probably bo years before his equal appears. Now that ho has gone, many of his host achievements on tho field recur to the thought, and as tho scene tho memory calls up flashes vividly in tho mind, it is hard to realise that the brilliant little dasher has scored his last try, and has crossed that goal lino which everyone, must sooner or later cross. May tho earth lie lightlv upon his remains.