SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 81, 9 August 1929, Page 3

SCHOOL FOOTBALL

SXRATF.QJJP! DEBEAT HAWERA.

Playing at Haw,era, Stratford Technical High School 24 (six tries, ono converted, and. a field, goal), 'defeated Hawera Technical High School; 3 (a penalty., goal). The 'game‘.'Whs- played in: the best spirit, ' of, high school football, being of open order, and full of fast - interesting. play, with fast and straight running, clean passing and hard tackling throughout. In the forwards the, teams were fairly, evenly matcibejl, but Stratford fed thenand took more opportune open up, the game. In the biras, however, Stratford showed marked superiority and clean handling with splendid combination paved its way to many tries. The"teams were: Stratford (black); W. Lacy, (fullback), N. Crossman, J. J. Weston, E. Townsend, T. McQre.ady,■ C. Crossman (half), D. Harkness (rover), A. Bone, T. Aitken* B. Hprrocks, R. Smith, G. Wellington. IV Hastier, B. M'MUlan, (hookers). Hawera (maroon and blue): &U rgenor (fullback), Lee, Boyle, Herhert, Edwards, R. Campbell, M. Campbell, (half), Gray (roper), Lord, /1-Smith, Huston, Pacey, Wollett, Kees gan, Le,wis (hookers). Stratford won the toss and chose to face the sun. Midfield play followed the kick-off and then Her-' hett put H,ayr.erai f in a,, good position by a dash down the wing. Stratford cleared and> reached Haw,era’s quarter where Whiting had; a shot from a .penalty and an excellent kick saw thp' hall rehound off the. upright, Tightly pressed in the corner,'R, Campbell cleared for Har wera with a powerful kick to halfway. From the line-out Pacey led a* Ha’wera. rush to within ten yards of Strafford’s line, where the fullback Lacy stemmed. A long kick by Whiting* wa 6 followed fast, and thefullback w;a& caught in possession,' a, stoppage, for a scrum, occurring on the Hawera twentyc five line. From a Stratford rush, inside Hawera’s side of half-way, C. Grossman came out of the -ruck with the'hall and passed to McCreacly, who dashed for the line, where he sent, Whiting .on, a tackle resulting in a neat transfer to Townsend for a try under, the posts. Whiting’s kick went c wide,—Stratford 3, Hawera^O. Hawera; pressed, -and a try seemed AlWfe when., Herbert was clear of the fulback with the ball at toe, hut fumbling spoilt. C. Grossman followed; a high kick, a,nd Stratford were dlmgerous until checked by a

' forward pass, and then Hawera ral- / lied to open a nice passing bout from Stratford’s quarter, Herbert being held up in a dash for the corner/ A rush upfield saw Stratford take, the, offensive, and a, passing bout broke down when N. 'Crossman dropped Whiting’s pass when close. Following tight, play in the corner in which the Stratford forwards repeatedly dived. for the line, Weston . sectlirfed the ball as it rolled out of a nieele and dived across. Whiting’s kick tell short.—Stratford 6, Hawera. ■ 0. , ' A breakaway by Stratford, was checked by Edwards cleverly intercepting a pass and lining. Immediately; following Herbert saved an alppipft certain, try by intercepting. Stratford were tossing the ball abppt ip a, convincing manner, and were not to be denied, reaching the line where, Whiting secured and div-ed-for a try. His. own hick earned, full points. V A Hawera rus,h from, the re-kick reached Stratford’s qiuub ters, when the interval was called* • SECOND SPELL. Lineouts in midfield followed, the opening of the second half, and then Hawera roused th e hopes of their supporters by a nice piece of passing in which Edwards, Herbert and

Boyle showed to advantage. Strat- ( ford eased the pressure by marking and, lining at half-way. From midfield Bone and, Fastier, led a Strat. ford forward rush and Hawera saved ‘by forcing. Again Strafford pressed; and C. Grossman, dived over, but' was recalled, for a scrum, from whidh Lacy secured and. raced.; across, Whiting’s kick did not reach, —Stratford 14, Hawera 0. The Hawera forwards for a short period became superior, and led by Gray rushed play close, where Stratford turned the tables and an exciting, run in which backs and forwards participated ended in Pastier being held, up on, Hawera’s line. From the scrum the home side, cleared to halfway, where Edwards kicked' hard and followed fast, but Lacy forced as he crossed the line. Tight f ■ V i rU- .».*/■

play in Stratford’s corner with Hawera players being held up as they dived for the line, terminated in a Stratford player being offside. From the penalty Keegan landed a fine goal.—Stratford 14, Hawera 3. Fast open play on both sides resulted in some very bright football, N. Grossman making a solo run to be checked by the Hawera fullback. Again the ball swung across, handled by all the Stratford rearguard, and in a meele on the line C. Cross iwr.n dived over. McMillan failed with, the kick—Stratford 17, Wvcra 3. Within a minute of the kick-off a Stratford assault reached to within striking distance, and McCrea'dy notched a field goal.—Stratford 21, Hawera 3.

A Hawera rally resulted in a strong attack being made, but the Stratford backs broke through. From a few yards inside halfway, Keegan had a shot when a Stratford forward was penalised for holding the ball, but the distance proved too great. From th.eir own twenty-five area Stratford cleared, and Whiting made *a fifty yard run.to pass to N. Crossman, who made a great bid f° r fbe line, being pulled down by Surgenor when about to cross. The ball 'rolled out, and Horrocks in support snapped up. to score. The kick was disallowed—Stratford 24, Hawera 3. f ‘ G'ood efforts by Hawera twice endangered. Stratford’s line, a mark eventually clearing to midfield, ;w)iere time sounded. —Stratford 24, /Hawera 3. The referee was Mr A. K. Morrison, TARANAKI CHAMPIONSHIP. ‘ J ' ' '' ‘ WAITARA DEFEAT OKAIAWA. The winners of the Northern and Southern Divisions school Rugby competition, met on Viitcria Paik yesterday and after a hard, fought tussle the decision went to Waitara, The scores; wore: Waitara .21, Okaiawa 4, Waitara were much heavier than, their opponents, but Okaiawa had better combination though it did not help them very much. The game was a ard fought one though most of the scores were easy ones, and were usually individual runs following a piece of scrambly play. Soon after the game commenced Waitara, forced their way downfield and let the ball out to Cole who scored near the posts. He failed to convert his try. For Okaiawa, Tora, a, solid Maori back, dfopped-kicked a. neat goal. Maiiy. obtained Waitara’ls second score from a scrum and Cole converted. Following this Laurie Oole scored twice in succession and converted' both his tries. Mr. S., Dunbar ably controlled the game.