FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11680, 15 June 1901, Page 7

FOOTBALL.

The Rugby championship matches for this afternoon will be City v. North Shore, Newton v. Suburbs, an;! Grafton v. Ponsonby, nil three, senior fixtures to be ].laved at Epsom. The City-North Shore match will occupy the main field in front of the grandStand, and on form the red and blacks should not experience any great difficulty in adding to their list of victories. In the two remaining contests set down for decision, Newton and Grafton may ho expected to carry oil the honours. The grounds and referees for the cup matches in the three grades are as under ;— No. 1 ground: North Shore v. Citv, Mr. Campbell. No. ?. ground: Newton v. Suburbs, Mr. Murray. No. 5 ground : Grafton v. Ponsonby, Mr. IViham. No. 4 ground: Grafton 11. v. Ponsonby < 11.. Mr. Surinam No. 5 ground: City 111. v. Ponsonby 13, Mr. Blakey. No. b ground: Grafton 111. v. Ponsonby A. Mr. Knox. No. 7 ground: Famed 111. v. New ton 111., Mr. Molloy. At Ellerslie: Newton 11. v. Suburbs, Mr. Greenhough. At North Shore: North Shore 11. v. City 11.. Mr. White. Owing to the rooms under the grand- I stand at Potter's Paddock being in the occu- I pation of the country volunteers, players pre ! requested to dress them elves for play prior j to leaving for Potter's Paddock to-day". The j Management Committee of the Rugby Union ; is in no way responsible for the unfortunate j position created. j The standard of play in the first-grade j competitions was again distinctly disappoint- : ing last Saturday, the games being for the ! most part of a scrambling nature, with very little pretension to combination and scientific Rugby. The Ciiy-Ptirnell match was ' very one-sided, the wearers of the red and ' black uniforms having matters practically all ; their own way. Their forwards had tin- Par- I neli vanguard at their mercy, and. playing a j loose, open game, they gave their backs : plenty of opportunities, opportunities that , the speedy rear division made every tt-o of. as may be gathered from the score -41 points to nil), the largest in a cut) match in Auckland for many a long day. Newton won from Ponsonby by 10 points to 3. and might have shown a wider margin in their favour had there been any concerted attack on the pitrt tif their backs, several openings made for them by the forwards being thrown away through the want of combination in this quarter. Ponsonby were again compelled to recruit from their juniors, and. under the circumstances, must be credited with having fought out the issue gamely against superior odds. The kicking on both sides was decidedly •"off," little or no use being made of the line. The meeting between Suburbs and North Shore furnished the most interest- , ing contest of the day, the teams being more j evenly balanced, and although it fell to the j lot of Suburbs to leave the field victorious, i they had nothing the best of it: in fact, it ' Bras slightly the other way round. The game was marked by one of the most regrettable and discreditable incidents that has marked Auckland senior football for some considerable time. About the middle of the second spell the referee, who had had occasion to •warn Taylor (Suburbs) before, ordered that player off the ground for rough play. It was difficult in the rush, of barnsckers which ensued to get at the rights of the matter, but : there is reason to believe Taylor was not . the actual aggressor. Certain it is that rough play had been indulged in many times earlier in the game by some of the Shore players, who were lucky in not being caught in the act by Mr. Gittos. duet at the doe of the game, however, one of the blues was ordered off, thus evening matters up some what. Far more disgraceful than the rough ; play was the behaviour of the " hoodlum" • element in the crowd. They hooted the referee ad lib. an;! flocked upou the ground , like a mob of --.keep whenever it suited them. • The match had to be stooped several times : on this account, the referee spending a good , part of hi-, time in trying to keen the lines i clear. ! The positions of the seven competing ■ teams, together with the points scored, are j indicated by the following table: — j Points. I P. W. L. For. Agst. City 3 3 0 96 * j Grafton 3 3 0 31 0 j Suburbs 3 2 1 8 2/ j North Shore ... 4 22 21 14 j Newton 3 1 2 13 20 ' Ponsonby '113 7 54 j Parnell ' 4 0-13 65 j HERE AND THERE. | The secretary of the Auckland Rutrhv ] Union (Mr. C. E. MacCcrmicfc) has received ; a letter from the Poverty Bay Rugby Union j asking that a match should he arranged j against Auckland before the close of the , season, the fixture to take place at Auck- | land. The matter will he considered at j next Wednesday's meeting of the local j uidon. j City and Grafton will try conclusions on | Saturday next, and Rugby enthusiasts are ! looking forward to the most interesting con- ; test of the first round, which will then Ik; , completed. 1 hear that feeling is running | prectv high between the players of the two ; districts, and trust that the referee who will ; be placed in charge will at once assert i'..'-: authority should there be the least tendency j towards rough play, lints nipping the trouole j in the bud, a-.id. preventing a recurrence ot j anything approaching the discreditable scene , that occurred in one of last week's mufene-. j My fear, m»v prove groundless, but then j is no harm in sounding a timely note of j warning, as it has been pretry freely rumoured that certain members of one of tie- j teams ere under the impression that tu-j j owe the other side a grudge in eonneclioi j with a question that was recently pin to the Rugby Union with regard to the eligi- | bility of " player under the < '-:• log resi- j dential qualification clause to don the jer-ey | of the club he lint; been listing. Prom what J Iran gather there i- not the slkdue-d ground ; for believing that tie? one team has been , working against the other, and I sincerely . trust that there will be no feeling shown. j W Trier distinguished him-eir last Safer j day by kicking seven goals in nice attempts, I besides scoring a try for City, thus coring j 17 of the 41 points 'obtained by the wearers . Of the red and black jerseys. A- he is also a more than, useful forward. < he is bound to claim consideration when the selection of , our representative team com-- to be. made, j provided hi continues to make good use of ■ Bis goal-kicking power-. _ _ j The secondary school-' matcne* will be - commenced today. In the St John's Col- ; lege v Grammar School match. Mr. Kerr will referee, and Mr. Pitts will have .huge of the whistle in the King s College v. 1 rince ! Albert College match. 1 Mr V. J. Orison, chairman of I lie Auok- j and P.. forces' Association, who will repro- ; lent Auckland at the cool, n: o .:, refer, is . o be onened at Wellington on Monday next, . •ft for the Empire City on 'J hurray last, jiluch good should arise out of tne con- . ferenee. i According to a Dunr-din writer the Asso- I Ciatioii game is becoming more popular , with the public of Duuei'lii. ) ' W. Pitt, the ox-North .Shore player, and , one of the returned troopers, was '" town during the week, but left again for Celling ; ton on Thuivdav. I'hcru i.- -aid to be some | likelihood of his being : ppointed to a post tion on the staff in one or other of the voiun- i teei di.-tricK in which case it is quite pos- | sible that he will not return to Auckland. A capital nortrail oi the ex-North Shore back. .1. P. Gcrrard. '.ho is at present play- j ing in the three-quarter line of the Athletic j Club Wellington, is published in the last | Free Es nee I" hand. I A few weeks since it was rumoured that , the well-known Otago threequarter back, I George Stephenson, intended going to Km: | land. 'but according to latest advices from down | South it seems that he is going to Sydney ; to join the theatrical profession as a man I agw. ■*

CmnmiUe V ers °{ th ° - Xow Ze:,lilnfl A PP«»" SSlr,™ ? V ° been lllVitod ° attcnd the week referees at Wellington next A Wellington writer looks upon the folI lowing as an ideal back team for a WellingI to » rep. -Full, (i. Snoncor, threel I , ' ! m ' W Bur , r ' Wriglcy, Mclntyto? fiveeighths. \Vo 0(ll Wallace; half. Meredith. -tne practice of endeavouring to intimidate an opponent by shouting at him fortunately finds favour with very few footballers, says forward," in the Otago Witness. Yet in a senior match on Saturday, when a place Kick was being taken, the opposing forwards I accompanied their charge with yells such as a i tribe of Red Indians on the warpath need not have been ashamed of. Needless to say, this is alien to tho spirit of the game. What was considered legitimate and expedient in our school football days is hardly" becoming in senior football. 'I he Otago Rugby Union is still hammering away at the Porteous-McGuirk incident of last year. It will bo remembered that in vi ° Wolliugton-Otago match Porteous struck MeGuirk, and was suspended, but a-s Me(ftttrk was said to have in a measure provoked the. assault the Otago Union addressed the New Zealand Union on the matter, and the latest development is a reply from tho New Zealand Union, stating (hat as the Wellington Union had not reported on tho matter, the union (New Zealand) did not deem it necessary to investigate, and did not intend to do so. The Otago Union have now expressed disappointment at the attitude- assumed by the parent hotly. The Sydney writer, "The Cynic," expresses regret at the fact that the" New Zealand programme for the New South Wales team will probably consist of seven matches, and that the tour will extend over at lea six weeks. lis points out that the time involved will prevent many players from thinking of the matter seriously, thus preventing the team being as representative as should be. and holds that three tost matches should be arranged fo, instead of two, holding that the test matches should be made tho feature of the tour, in order that the merits of the opposing colonics should be thoroughly tested and the question of supremacy definitely settled. _ _ According to the last mail received from Australia, the question of New Zealand visits is under the consideration of the. executive ', Committee of the Queensland Union. A { local writer predicts that the terms suggested i by New Zealand will not be found. acceptable . to tho governing body of Queensland. j