Canterbury Notes.

NZ Truth, Issue 309, 27 May 1911, Page 3

Canterbury Notes.

Button, the luminous-haired forward of the Christchurch team, used to play full-back till his pugnacious possibilities dawned upon his captain, when the player with the useful name was placed m the vanguard, and thereafter his brilliant brick-top, like the unhelmeted head of Harold, the Saxon, conspicuously led the way m forward dashes. His following up on Saturday suggests future rep. possibilities if he does not repent of his vigor ; and once a red-headed man gets into the r ps- eit is impossible to dislodge him.

Little-big • Crawshaw, old Boys' five-eighth, is showing new subtleties every match and will be a

tower-: of strength to the Whites this season.

Strange thing that Old Boys put up their, best fights against the strongest teams. They were just robbed' of victory by the champion Albions, and suffered defeat at the hands and extremities of Christchurch, a' dangerous but disorganised team.

Rowe is not the top-notch half of whom a side like Christchurch is badly m need.

People go temporarily mad whenever Fryer gets the ball, but he can't do the impossible, and when he falls little short of it there is disappointment. ' A fast, dodgy player like Cook is overshadowed by Fryer.

Millar, of Christchurch, ought to be told that he is playing threequarter, not forward. He gave two or three- free kicks and lost ground for his side on Saturday by being out of his placet, after which he managed to keep on-side.

Among the rapid Canterbury College backs who made the astonished Linwood team sit up and take notice on Saturday was a player named Blank, whose moniker is a misnomer when applied to his performance, which, far from being a blank, was full of incident. The writer once knew a man named Coward, who was the most courageous person he had met for some time. With a name like that it is necessary to hustle to remove a bad public impression. Norrie also moved with volcanic unexpectedness among the College backs.

Dingle, who used to exhibit reliability but lack of hurry as a fullback, finds it necessary to get a move on these times at three-quarter for Linwood, whilst the velocity of Piercy seems to be increasing, probably by contrast with the slowness of other backs.

Mitchell's potted goal saved Merivale from defeat by Linwood on the previous Saturday, when the Merivale backs seemed to have no organisation ; so that when Fuller and Freear dropped out against Sydenham, no one was surprised to find the two teams playing a drawn game. The disorganisation was more manifest than ever, and the Merivale backs contributed further to their defeat by desperate pots at goal. The drawback of this sudden popularity of the pot is that it is necessary to learn how to kick straight before making the attempt m matches.

The Marists lost their best back m Amodeo, who has good-naturedly played one game this season m place \oi injured player Mahoney. He will ill future follow, with his eyes, the heroic, but futile, exertions of ' his I club-mates from the touch-line.

The Burns-Gray-Weston combination is' not the entire strength of the ever-victorious Albion team, but is receiving great scoring assistance from Hardingham, Turner, and Wilson. The displays of Hardingham and Turner m particular on Saturday were Al, although accomplished against a weak beaten team mi n Mariste.

J. Howison, who represented Canterbury five years ago, stripped to play for Sydenham, his old club, on

Saturday. Ho was more successful than J. Jeffries m his attempt to "come back."