SPANISH IDEAS OF FOOTBALL

Temuka Leader, Issue 2833, 25 June 1895, Page 3

SPANISH IDEAS OF FOOTBALL

The gentle Spaniard, whose enjoyment of a bull-fight is one of the things which Englishmen fail to understand, recently bad his sensibility lacerated by the spectacle of a Rugby football match, playod between teams made up of the officers of the Channel Squadron at Vigo. I lie game is reported iu the local Spanish evening paper as follows :—"Yesterday afternoon, at the landing place, the sailors of the British Squadron played at a game of football. It is a game of ball which has never been seen by us, aad the excess of barbarity shown in it makes it appear not a very attractive one. At each end of a track, formed in a square, wero erected two posts, those on one side representing one camp, those on the other the camp of the enemy. Victory belongs to the ba.nd of combatants that succeeds in parsing an enormous ball between th,o posts of the enemy's camp. The ball is thrown from ov,e to another of the combatants, and in this act lies all the iuterept of this almost ferocious diversion. Ho who holds tho ball leans forward, and his friends and foes do the same around him iu ferocious attitudes of lying iu-waib. ready to spring on their prey. He suddenly runs, hurls the. ball rapidly to one of his comrades, who runs with it, tho?e on the enemy's side, endeavouring to Btop him. Tho bru aiity used to throw down the one who caivios tho ball oould not be believed by one who had not witnessed it. He is S( i; •(! fust round the waist, thou, by the he id, lugs, and feet, rolled On tho ground, wh'.ro ho wrestle.', and struggles with lub ■>.u, :reaHoV. As the combatants of each si : • assist thoir comrades they form a i-!i .:! of living budics, one an top of tho ..;:.■>•, !il.! a tangled skein of serpents ■,\)':i mimau heads. All are mingled t..i.'..-i!ior, and tho pack twists and twirls, k-.' >':\ iiij.; on tho ground. Mo doctor i'> :,.d it, necssary to exorcise his calling y -'-rda' 0:1 ac-.-.mnt of football, but iho salant-; »eiv stopped at tunes by the i;; ; ;•• of the !ii'M, wli,., attentive a'id ••it, sio;>,.u.! them with his wh-stle ! ■': ;, !i;e ~l niggle was assuming too ' :..•! miLiti! an aspect. .•Abundance, howi■. :■, oi scratches, wounds, tumbles, fell in * :'.'_• U>t of the players, and in Homo c: ■..-.; tho white and red showed on their ;;. ■ ■ the signs oi combat."