THE LEAGUE CODE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21263, 17 August 1932, Page 15

THE LEAGUE CODE

CITY BEATS CHAMPION TEAM

INCIDENT IN TEST MATCH

POLICY OF THE SELECTORS

By its success against Devonport on Saturday, City repeated last season's honour by being the only team in the competition to defeat the senior, championship winners. In the first round last year City beat Marist by 16 points to 2, this being Marist's only loss. Devonport suffered its only defeat in 1932 at the hands "of City.

It is not often such good goal kicking as that on Saturday in the principal match is seen by a junior playing his first game in senior football. Maher, City s fullback, contributed eights points to his team's total by four place-kicks. Maher ably filled the place of Watcne, who was fullback in tho second test against England.

Marist has been strengthened by the inclusion of ,T. Laird, who played an outstanding game for South Auckland against Auckland recently. Laird played for Mafist against Newton and with more experience he should develop into a firstclass forward.

If tho incident is correctly reported when Amos was denied the shot at goal just prior to half-time in the second test match, the referee made an error. It appears that New Zealand was awarded a penalty for a scrum breach by the English forwards. Once Amos had placed tho ball the kick should have been allowed. The bell rang for half-time after the penalty had been awarded. On tho same ruling when a player scores a try as the bell is sounded for time, the kick at goal would bo disallowed.

F. McDonald, who is ono of the most improved wing-threequarlers in Auckland, had the misfortune to receive an injury which will lay him aside.for some weeks. McDonald retired in the Marist v. Newton match, and a later examination revealed a broken bone in his leg. Ho is at present in the Auckland Hospital and is progressing favourably. . The English team will play an exhibition match at Wellington to-morrow against a combined North Island thirteen. The final natch of the tour will be the third test against New Zealand at Carlaw Park on Saturday. The policy of the selectors in changing the rearguard formation for the test match at Christchurch is lmrd to understand. With two halves' chosen a better formation could have been fielded by dropping either Hassan or Abbott and leaving Brisbane, Cooke and Davidson in their original positions. The New Zealand Council specially engaged 1 a coach from Australia for the purpose of raising the standard, but experimenting in test football will undo all the good work. Hassan is purely a halfback, and if considered not good enough for this position htshould have been dropped. By his play for Auckland against England he fully deserved a place behind the" scrum in the test match. Hassan and Brisbane play to gether in club football, a, point which should have carried -weight with the selectors.

BOWLING NOTES KEEN CHALLENGE MATCHES TOURNAMENT AT EPSOM BX SKIP Winter bowling green enthusiasts spent an enjoyable afternoon last Saturday. The week's fine weather had a great effect upon the greens, which were found to be equal to mid-summer conditions. The two challenge 'games for trophies were very keenly contested, and the players in each match gave a sound exhibition. Carlton, holders, retained the Edwin Stars by a slight margin of points from the Epsom team. The game was a fairly even one, although in the early stages Carlton led 11—4. However, the Epsom team moved up to within four points at one stage, but it could not decrease the gap. The losers scored on 12 heads, mostly in singles, whereas Carlton secured three threes and a four. Richmond, the Epsom number three, played a fine game, and Kilgour was seen to advantage when he saved some difficult situations. The next challenger is Bush, Balmoral. Dick, Jponsonby, was , successful in taking the 'Denison Pins from llardlev's strong West End combination by the narrow margin of one point. West End practically lost the match on one head, where Ponsonby secured a six, due to Dick shifting the jack to the rear where West End had no bowls. From this stage West End, playing a forcing game, got further in arrears until near the end, when ten points were scored in three heads. On the last, head Ilardley, requiring four to tie, went very close to doing so, as he drew a good shot to make three with his first bowl, but was a shade short to count with his last bowl. The next challenger is de Launay, Carlton.

The Epsom two-Saturday tournament was concluded on Saturday, T. R. George's team winning the event. Playing in his usual form the successful skip proved a hard opponent for the opposing skips. '1 lie winning lead, H. Forbes, only a secondyear player, gave a good display and shows promise of being a first-class front division man. The Balmoral Club started a similar tourney on Saturday, when three games were played, leaving three more for the second day.

WRESTLING REFEREE

INTENTIONS OF C. POLLARD

Influenced In a great extent by recent successes of other ex-amateur New Zealand wrestlers, (J. Pollard, who gained popularity during the last three seasons as referee to the Auckland Association, is considering active participation in the sport once more. The light-heavy-weight professional title of the Dominion is still claimed hy Pollard, who defeated Bayno four years ago, since when there has been no challenger. Bayne's successes in Queensland of late, combined with those of Naylor, Gardiner and Elliott, have led Pollard to entertain high hopes as to his future in the sport-. Pollard has always been a great wrestling enthusiast and, although he has not appeared publicly during the last couple of seasons, he has concentrated on keeping fit and acquiring the finer points of the sport. Ho has also been specialising in jiu jitsu. He has 14 years of experience as amateur, professional and referee, and considers that ho has greatly increased his knowledge as a result of carefully studying the styles of the various overseas mat-men while in the capacity of referee. 1 Pollard 'states a contract -has been offered to him in Queensland, but he prefers to wrestle in New Zealand first. He would like to be matched against Muir or Wilson. In the event of his doing well, Pollard vrill visit the JJnited States*