MARIST ARE SLIPPING

NZ Truth, Issue 1284, 10 July 1930, Page 19

MARIST ARE SLIPPING

Wearers of The Green Jerseys Play Draw With Kingsland

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.)

The once invincible Marist League team is getting knocked from pillar to, post, now that Gregory and Brisbane are away m Australia. On top of the stiff trouncing handed out'by Shore the previous week, the best they could do against Itingsland on Saturday was to make a draw of it.

I/INGSLAND seem to have a hoodoo *> on. Marist. In the first, round the suburban side were licked, hut won on a protest. , On Saturday, they gave Marist all they wanted, but it is a safe bet that had Gregory been playing, two easy shots at goal would not have ended m a rank failure fpr the greens. Saturday's games were a sharp test of the players', ability tb adapt themselves to wetrweather conditions. It rained cats and dogs on the Friday night. When the teams finished churning up the mud on Saturday afternoon, the.groundMooked. like a bog*. Good football was out of . the-, question. In fact, it was jiist a mud scramble most of the time. Richmond had bad luck against Ponsonby. Scotty Prentice's crowd were leading 9—5 with five' minutes to go; but Ponsonlby slammed on a converted try at the death-knock, and scrambled home winners by a bare point. 7 Richmond must have missed , their old goal-kicker, 'Taylor 7 They scored three tries to' the Ponies' two, but couldn't convert any. of them, whereas Frank Delgi'ossd made, no mistake with the two the Ponies' scored. . McLeay is playing great football for a youngster. He and Kirkup of Newton,, and Young of • Marist, are three of the best . boys m the League this year. Watch this trio! They will be rep. men m another year or two. Xtevonport's victory .over Newton was nothing to write' home . about. Les O'Leary collected all of Shore's ■five points with a try arid a goal, but the boot might easily have been on the other foot. Share.;., were making heavy weather 'of it at the finish, and . Francis headed .some . slashing rushes for the red and whites which missed by a whisker. Heavyweight boxing champion, Pat McCarthney, is playing good, football for Shore at present, but the, bestVt-nrp forwards on the ground were the lightweights, Casey, of Shore : and Francis. Both got into it m great style; .' • Alf Scott was a tower of strength to Shore. He led the pack . like' a champion, and his smashing tackling stopped many a Ne.wtpn rush. ..',, 7 Trevor O'Leary is one of the most versatile youngsters m the game.- He can. play anywhere m the backs, and he gave a magnificent display at full for Shore on Saturday. . Newton has got some fine ma-, terial coming on. Francis, Kirk- . up and Middleton are greatvbattiers iri the pack, and young Demp-:

sey is the makings of a top-not-cher. m the backs. City managed a 6 — 2 victory over Ellerslie, m spite of the absence -of their four cracks m Aussie, and Davidson being on the injured list. From all accounts, Ben won't be seen m ac<tiori for some weeks yet. It's bad luck for City, as Davidson was starting to show something like his old form. Old-timer- Nelson -Bass ".< was again skipping round ariiohg the City forwards like a two-year T old. The soft grounds are a god-send to" players like him and Alf Scott who are nursing wonky limbs, but poor*, old "Snowy" Dixon couldn't stand up to it on Saturday, and had to be carted off.