ROUGH FOOTBALL PLAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19800, 22 November 1927, Page 11

ROUGH FOOTBALL PLAY.

SERIOUS RIOT THREATENED* POLICE CLEAR THE GROUND. Exciting incidents marked the final of the British Association football competition recently at the Glades ville Sport?. Ground, where Gladesville-Ryde met Balgowni© to decide the premiership, 86yiv a Sydney-paper. The game was marred throughout by unnecessary roughness and the referee was continually holding the game up and administering cautions to the players on both sides. There was an ugly incident at one stage of the game. When two players were engaged in a meiee a third joined in and indiscriminate kicking was carried on, with the result that two players were ordered off the field, while a third was carried off suffering from a nasty wound in the forehead, which bled freely. ' During the second half, after Glades-viile-Ryde was disallowed a goal Ly. tho referee, one of the players menaced tho referee and attempted to strike him. This man was also ordered off and the local team finished the game with nine men. So rough did matters become that at one stage a, serious riot wail threatened, as players and spectators were gathered together on the playing area, and it was only the prompt intervention of the police that prevented trouble. There were 4000 spectators and excitement ran high throughout the gkme.