LEAGUE CONTESTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19015, 12 May 1925, Page 6

LEAGUE CONTESTS.

SATURDAY'S PLAY REVIEWED. | PONSONBY'S GOOD SHOWING. ; CLOSE CALL FOR MARIST. Tn view of (lie. beautiful weather on Saturday.il, was only- to lie expected that ; /the attendance' at Carlaw Park would lie large, and in filet if was the best to date, j this season. If was also expected that Marist. would have little difficulty in j beating Ponsonby, but, a surprise was m I store for the patrons of the League ; code'. ; Ponsonby fielded ii much stronger side j than in the previous week, Their foot- i ball, too. showed a wonderful improve- | merit, the whole 13 players rising to the! occasion and giving Marist a "very close j contest. On Saturday's form Ponsonby J will be, very bard to beat in tutiire j ganies. Ability to get possession of the j ball from the serum is the most, important factor iu the l/cagee game, and with La wry hooking Ponsonby are well served in this department. The Marist backs is a whole were dis- j appointing. Better combination will! have to be infused when they meet other I strong sides. During the first, spell the ; handling was very weak. '.the backs, j too, seemed to make little progress, j being intent on getting the ball to the | wings and not gaining much ground. j Good Individual Efforts. Marist owe their success to the, in- j dividual effort;; of several players, do • this, Gregory was the, most outsiand- j ing'. His defence was wonderful, and j his fielding perfect. During that trying j 20 minutes in the second spell, Gregory i f,bowed up as a fine footballer. Kirwan , 'was the best of the other backs. He was responsible for some fine openings, arid when running strongly is very hard to stop. His try was a brilliant solo effort. W. (sbent, behind the serum, gave j his, backs plenty of opportunities, and did some good stopping. The, fiveeighths, Toss and Brisbane, were weak in handling the tjall. Gallagher, on the wing, showed up well, putting a lot. of determination into his play. Malloy was very sound. Of the forwards, J. Stormout. was perhaps the best. He did a lot of spoiling, and followed up well. Singe played a hard game, and, with O'Brien, shone in the open. O'Brien was caught offside a lot on Saturday, and with abetter understanding of this rule much good will come to this fine, forward. A Promising Fullback. Each player in the Ponsonby team showed improved form. Henewini, at, fullback, was the// outstanding player on the ground. His display stamps him as tW most promising fullback playing the, farno. Showing plenty of pace, HoS mt gained flu. admiration of the crowd with his brilliant solo runs, his handling was perfect, and his line-kic,:-ing excellent. Peckham, behind the scrum, p.ayed a, fine gAme, never failing to give bis backs all the opportunities that came bis way. On the blind side, he showed much cleverness. The, wings. Relgrosso and Littlewood, got fhrcueh a lot of ur.e.ul work, the former playing the better game. Cole, at centre, was the best of the three-quarters, and is a player of considerable pr'omisfr. Ponsonby's forwards are a goo/1 even lot, and with a few more games together should develop into a solid division. McMahon and Payne were great, workers. A word of praise is due to Mr. 'laylor for the very able,/way he controlled tho mime. City Outpace I-Tewton. City had little difficulty in beating Newton, whose young players were no match for their more experienced opponents. City's big/ score came from their speedy backs. Seldom .do they ka k the ball, preferring to be caught in possession rather than give the other side, the advantage. . L• Brown and Davidson were the shining lights. The former in particular is a firm type of player/ Mitchell and Wetherall were together in many fine movements. Both played sterling football. N. Bass was the best of the forwards getting through a tremendous amount of work. He is the best all-round foiward playing the game m Auckland. McDonald and K-üby were prominent in the open, both scoring as the result of fast following up. Maekie played another useful game. In Mansill Newton have a high-class wing threequarter. His play each Satur- ' riay is brilliant, and in a better side lie would be a dangerous scoring back. C. Poison, Newton's half, is a keen player and is in fine foijm at present. Hargreaves and Gallagher are young players who show promise. Clark is a good forward, ever conspicuous in the loose. .Stack and O'Donnell held their ownf bot-h players showing plenty of pace and enjoying the day chasing their speedy oponerits. Eiclimoacl v. Athletic. Richmond have improved very considerably since the commencement of the season, and on Saturday at the Domain gave Athletic a hard struggle. It was only the luckiest of tries that lost them the" game. Deadly tackling is the striking feature of Richmond's team, and on this score, they more than hold their own , with the leading teams in the competit tion. Athletic played without Avery and G. Lang- Dufty was a lower of strength to the. winners. His long well-placed line kicks caused concern to the Richmond men. Wilson-Hall got through much fine work, and was perhaps Athle.tic's best, back. Jri the forwards G. Hadlev was most prominent playing a fine roving game. R. Ifvlnrid was again the best back in Richmond's team. He tackled Duffy on many occasions and generally gave a fine display. Haiilori at fullback played a very sound game, bis form being ' firstclass. Play in the B Division. By their defeat.'.of F.lleislie, the leaders t>f the B Division, Otahuhu have shown considerable improvement, and as ;| lf . rnmpet it ion advances some fne football' ran be expected from them. Good junior teams have often v,on the blue jers.cv am! it will occasion no to see." l.iihu win the R Division. Kingsland and Mangel e played a diawn fame, each sale scoring 13 point-,. Li t. el Kingsland, showed good form, scoring Ihree tries. PAYMENT OF REFEREES. A COL' 11.FSI'0\])']■]NT'S ADVOCAf A'. Oil the subject of League fnolball rrrrees Mr. li. A. Millard \vi itcs as tllows: "f-eillg u /keen follower of the jee.gue code, f was very surprised and l>iii-li ii-tereste.l in (he report of i he game , liriyed at DcYi npiirf fast Saturday. !t is ' |uite v,b\ ious the Veakness in the game t. the. control of it by the referees. It is ipinliy obvious that the game is ftrnentablv weak /in their number and ibility. There are plenty of players iho have just left the playing ranks who tou Id make excellent referees. They Kissess a sound -knowledge of the game ind players. It is this class of man whom t ia desirable to enlist hi the ranks of our

■e.ferees. Thn idea of their handing ogether in ni: association is sound to ;i Doint. hut. too much power is vested in his body. Tlie League is ill-advised in Hissing on to the Referees' Association the povii'i' to make appoint.merits for each game. Admitting it. is desirable for the referees to he handed together to ensure unanimity of opinion in the interpretation of the rules, I am of opinion their duties and power should end at this. Sooner or later the supporters of the game will tire of the ever-increasing weakness in this department of a. very popular game, and the League will eventually be obliged to grapple with the question. " I suggest that the power of appointment he vested in a committee of three or a sole selector chosen by the Auckland League, and that a serious effort he made to recruit to the ranks of the referees the recently retired players oy offering- a remuneration for their services. They are richly entitled to at least one guinea, per senior match ami a graduated scale down for other matches. A player on the field has the honour of his cluh and the possibility of representative honours as an incentive, but the referee, on whom the success of the game depends, has indeed a thankless task. It is no wonder that he. feels he is the aggrieved person. He is subjected to the criticism and oft times abuse of the onlooker, and as a consequence becomes ease-hardened to the point of being indifferent, which leads to hack of control, which in time, leads to the undesirable exhibitions vahieli are becoming all too frequent for the good of the game. If tin' League remunerated the referee, and so j secure the services of an employee, they j could select the very best material at hand, and it would he a decidedly advanced move on the present system of being obliged to accept the indifferent service offered them just now. "Dissatisfaction in regard to the refereeing is rife among players and supporters alike just now, and the League should stand four square to the position and effect the obviously necessary reform and offer a reasonable remuneration to referees. It would be a justifiable expenditure. and would doubtless secure the .services of men of the necessary ability to control the game. I trust the different clubs will take up this j»oint. seriously and discuss it from all angles, and so bring about a most, necessary reform. The clubs, too, could, with advantage all round, appeal to the players for a little more assistance from them to the man with the whistle and forget, the idea that has gained so much credence that the referee is a natural enemy of a player. Foster the spirit that one is necessary to the other, agree to differ on contentious points, and play the game for the game's sake, and a just rev,'aril will be forthcoming."