THE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 2058, 3 August 1893, Page 32

THE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL CLUB.

TO THB EDITOR. , Sjb,— l beg leaye to take exception to a state-

mont which appeared in your last week's football notes. In commenting on tho neglect of certain clubs to fulfil their engagements, your correspondent "Forward" eajs :— "The University Fitjst were to have played the Union last Saturday, and it was only when the members of tbe latter club were on their way to the ground that they learnt that their opponents could not raise a team. That notice of a fact of this kind should be delayed until the 31th hour is not what one club has a right to expect from another. " Now, sir, this statement is absolutely without foundation. Owing to the vacation the 'Varsity had no fixture for July 22, but on the previous Monday I was asked by an official of tho Union Club if I could arrange a scratch match with his club, seeing that both teams were disengaged. I promised to do my best, but on the Thursday I informed him that I could not very well raise a team as some of the players were out of town. We then agreed to put both teams in Friday morning's paper, and if our team turned up at their usual meetingplace on Saturday,'the match would be played, but if not, we should cry it off. On the morning of the proposed matoh I saw the secretary of the Union Club, and told him that it was almost: certain that some of our players would not turn up, and suggested that I should put up a notice crying the match uff. He agreed, but he asked me first to inform the captain of his club about the matter. After some talk with Mr Beadle, the captain pf the Union Club, I agreed to wait until 2 30 p.m., and then, if we found that we had not sufficient players, the match should be abandoned. This was done, and as only half the 'Varuity team turned up, the match Was cried off. I think it is hardly fair to my club that " Forward " should make such a statement as the above without first endeavouring to learn the facts of the case." — I am, &c, Fhank H. Campbell, Hon. Sec. O.U.F.C.

University, August 1.

[On Mr Campbell's own showing the statement to which ho complains was certainly not "absolutely without foundation," though it may have been at the tenth, and not at the elbveath hour that the Union Club received notice of the inability of the University to raise a team.— Forward. J