FOOTBALL NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4319, 30 March 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

FOOTBALL NOTES

(BY “TOUCH.” Bendall, of the Christchurch F.C., has been transferred to ‘Wellington. He will be met on the wharf by the secretaries of the serven senior clubs. Frost, who captained the Canterbury representative team last year,-has decided to retire from the football field this season. The Canterbury Rugby Union made a profit of £3lB 17s ! 10d on the last year’s transactions. In referring to the suspension of Porteous until the end ol 1901 for striking a player in the Otago-Wellington match, the Committee of the Otago Rugby Union, in their annual report, expresses regret that no action was taken in the case of the Wellington player who gave provocation to the Otago player. “Charlie” Bush, late of the Orientals, has joined the Alerivale (Christchurch) Club. The “Chrsitchurch Press” says that it seems very probable that Canterbury football will be stronger this season than it has been for some years. The Christchurch Club have some very good playF® -8 to do battle this year, the number including Keating, a five-eighth flayer from the Northampton Club (England); Irons, a Hawke’s Bay “rep” forward of last year ;> Gordon, one of the Pirates’ (Otago) best forwards; - Rattray, a back playsefcfrom the same club. «, “Seobici’iMackenzie has been elected to life meffvbership of thfe'Dunedin Foot-ball-CluW?rScobie is now resident in Aiigkland.

-Rugby football, or its equivalent in tbe,»United- i §iates,'niust be truly a fearsome garner^'The'men are padded and protected all semblance to athletes p, and, Acorn their*photographs,' - Id6k more like caricatures than footballers. The knickerbockers are stuffed and quilte ed in extraordinary fashion, huge bulging pads protect the shoulders, and the padded head-caps are remarkable features. The game seems to be played with I

great roughness, if not brutality, and the triumph of sheer strength and weight seems to be tho rule. One reads of men being ' terrible in lino hitting,” ‘'a bull for strength and a horse for work,’’ of ,: a well-axeeuted fake.” and of ‘'Yale’s powerful line,” having ready for the runner “holes big enough for the laying of asphalt pavement.” Yale’s seven for.vards this season, averaged, by the way. 13st 81b per man. They are' compared in their irresistible rushes to a herd of buffaloes. Yale, this year, completely crushed Harvard and Princeton by sheer ! physical strength, and is spoken of as the greatest team in the history of American football. “Yale won” (says a writer in the “Outing”) “by literally battering the opposing rush line to pieces.’ As with all sports in the States, ; football is gone into a fashion astonishing to English ideas. At Annapolis, the cadet team practices from 6 to 6.40 in the evenings, “on a field dimly lighted by six .arc lamps.” It would be curious to see a. game played between first-rate English and American teams. Probably Ameri-

can methods would find little favour in British eves, and the fact that the) States teams number eleven instead of fifteen players would be also a difficulty. 1 The Wellington Rugby Union will hold its ann'ual meeting this evening. Tho business to he transacted will be j mostly formal, but a motion to be moved I.by Mr J. T. King will not come under that categorjr. The motion stipulates ] “That at the Annual General Meeting of the Union, only Delegates be allowed to vote on questions brought before tho ! meeting.” There is a good deal to bo said both for and against the motion, and a lively debate may be looked for. I Mr King’s objection to tho present state of possibilities is that it may happen I that one club will have two, or even three, more votes than it is by equity entitled to ; and with that fact in view i he is desirous of prohibiting presidents 1 and similar officers from exercising such votes- ! The question of amalgamation with I AVcllington District- Unions in the matter j of making touring teams representative 1 of the whole province will be brought up again on Saturday. At -the end of last season a special meeting of the union i decided to approach the Wairarapa, Wan- ’ ;>anui, Manawatm Horowhonua, and ■ Bush Rugby Unions on the subject, and j in accordance therewith the secretary of ' the local body wrote to the above-named unions asking them to discuss terms of amalgamation. There seems to be a i lack of stationery or stamps in the localities, for (So answers have been sent to. the communications, but it is to be hoped that the union will not let this fact interfere with further action. Tho proposed innovation is a desirable one, ■ and tho committee of the Wellington Rugby Union should keep the proposition steadily in view of the district bodies.

During the past two Saturdays practice j matches have been held by the various I city clubs, the form shown being mid- •; dling to inferior. Kicking seems to bo the strongest point, for one player re- | turned from Miramar last week with his front teeth missinp-. | The 25th International match, England .v. Ireland, came off at the Lansdowne load Ground, Dublin, on February 9th. The choice of ends fell to the home side, who elected to take during the earlier half of the game whatever advantage acgrued from having the wind behind them. I England kicked off, and play was very , fast, the ball rapidly changing hands, ' until at length G. C. Robinson, for England, gained a try close to the posts. Shortly afterwards the interval arrived, tho score then being England 3 points to nil. In / ths second half Ireland played , a great game, and won by two goals (10 1 points) to one penalty goal and one try (6 points). I | The seventeenth contest between Scotland and Wales took place at Edinburgh also on February 9th. Wales relied, with three exceptions, upon the team ' that gained such a brilliant victory over I England at Cardiff. • Scotland, too, were able to put into the field an exception- | ally powerful fifteen. The Welsh for- I | wards displayed groat energy from the ' outset to the conclusion, and for a long i time the Scottish backs had an anxious I time. They, however, proved equal to the occasion, and eventually the game ended in a victory for Scotland by three goals and a try (18 points) to a goal and a try (3 points). I I i' ell is universally admitted to bo tho [ best three-quarter in Scotland this year, ' , says an English writer, and one of the , most dangerous she has ever had. He is a splendid dodger, and has rare speed. He hails from l\ el,son, New Zealand, is 21 years old, stands sft. 10in., and scales over list. Me is a prolific scorer.