FOOTBALL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13644, 11 July 1908, Page 7

FOOTBALL.

WHOLESALE SUSPENSION

P«r Press Association,

IXYERCABGILL, July 10. At a meeting of the Eugby Union * u*. or Til ivers members of tne xnrates Z rt. «I»«i to pI.J ia bad weather on Wednesday tiended for the season. The suspended include Hughes and Hamilton, ><ew Zea.Sd who were probable membeis of the New Zealand team to meet Britain in third test. TOUCH LINE TOPICS. (By C.E.H.) The- British teiun play Wanganui tbs afternoon, and meet laranaki at ' i-ivmonth on Wednesday. Un * his . wwk the visitois are pitted against Auckland, and a week later tin-- tmat te-s, toin-ts up for decision. Mackenzie Sub-Union are endeavouring to'arrange a match with Waimate, to be ptaved at. Timaru. ' , Five of the last six gamts p.ajed bj the Britishers were looked upon as soft tilings, but starting with to-itij s match the tourists are likely to be hard at work. If they prove equal ,o defeating Taranaki on Wednesday tLio last Lt will assume almost as great iniTr .»« usual standard of the province, the British team'are likely to receive a warm reception. on Wednesday. Ihe back uivsimi includes five players up to colonial form in Coleman, Hunter, Lameton, and Hardgreaves; and on his day out Dive is not far behind. The annual match South Canterbury v. North Otago is to be played in Timaru on lhursdav next, and the following week the YVairurapa team will be engaged at Temuka. These fixtures s.*iouid provide useful opportunities for the local representatives to acquire some combination before embarking on their northern trip.' '. . . i hope that the- attempt, which is to be made to form a sub-union at Geraidine will prove successful. Hie experience of Mackenzie and Waimate proves that the . travelling dlfticulty wus responsible foi a, targe aniounc ot the apathy previou-sij shourt), and a the expensive trips to *J.imaru can l>e avoided football should take a; fresli uraae of lile in CJeiaiQina aiul distnet. ihe Anglo-Welsh team are scheduled to piuy nine inairli s in Australia, on the following : —Wedmsdav. August--sth, .New iSVuth 'Wales; Saturday, Uth, Amateur Team tor Kng>antl; WediKsday, ifetn, Xortliern District, at XfiWcas.lc; Saiturdav, 22nd. -Vfff South Wales; Wednesday, 26th, Queensland, at- Bri»ban-; Saturday, 29fh, Queensland, | Brisbane; Wednesday, iseptembcr 2nd, Queensland, at Brisbane.

Some peculiar decisions given in recent matches :—A player penalised for off-side on taking an opponent's pats; a scrum ordered after a- heel back over the line though the defending side did not force, but kicked into touch at 25; a free-kick for off-aide against a rear-ranker whq kiefced the ball forward in the scrum; a scrnm for knock-on when the ball 1 vrent yards behind the player attempting to jafce it.

There has been a rumpus at Invercargill, owing to -the refusal of two eemor teams to turn, out oa Wednesday in the rain and mnd. The Union officials decided that ail games should be played, and all the teams." took - their dncking with the exception of the two mentioned above—Britannia and Pirates. A telegram this morning states that the Union disqualified both teams for tha remainder of-*n® season.

When British team played in Christchurch they were greatly surprised to find that on two or three occasions the ■ Cant-erbuiy men did not wait for the line umpire before throwing-in from touch. Not many local players would be inclined io wait if certain where to throwf in from and a comrade was waiting,! but perhaps a number have not noticed that it jty permissible for a- player throwing the Jjall in to play it himself, provided it is fairly thrown in and not- bounded. It is -a very common occurrence for a player to be penalised for not parting with the bail when on the ground or for not pu.ting it down when tackled, but have any of our referees given a freekick against a man who " prevents such player either putting the ball down or getting up." . One offence in nearly as frequent as the other. Another point which does not appear to have arretted attention is that it is the duty of the referee to wait for tha non-offending side to make the claim for a scrummage after a defending side have carried or knocked the ball over their line. :

-Local football 011 Thursday received ita first serious check on account of btd weather for some time. Writing from memory, it is at least three seasons back since a postponement was rendered necessary under similar conditions. The last occasion on which I can remember a holding over of football fixtures was in connection with the funeral of the late Mr iSeddon. In view of the approaching tour it was rather unfortunate that the Union should lose a gate, bat, mofit likely

another game with Waimate will be arranged whilst the rep. team is a way, employment thus being found for . the players who are not included in the travelling combination. In some not-ef» on the British-Canterbury -match I Avrote that Dibble in the first spell "'crossed the line and appeared to score, but was pushed into touch-in-goal before the referee got up." The visitors appeared to take the decision in good part, and as no other paper at the time made any lemark on the - incident it seemed that the last had been heard ■; of it. - But from a '"you're another" controversy in a Wellington papier between McEvedy (who was captain) and the .'referee, it transpirte that a discussion took place at- half-time in which - McEvedy claims that Mr Laws made' an apology for a bad decision: Tte referee . maintains that he did not apologise. Wallace, the well-known Wellington player, has " retired" as often as a theatrical star. His latest announcement that he had played his last- game in the second test was followed two or three days after by an ultimatum that he was available for the third if selected. t Perhaps he will make" another farewell appearance this day fortnight. A proposal by an enthusiastic admirer of that the Xew Zealand Union should promote a testimonial to him seems to have been seriously dtscuesed before the committee concluded that the rules did not permit gifts to be- made to players. When A. J. Gould, who up to his time was looked upon as Wales' greatest footballer, accepted a present (I think of a cottage valued at £400) he was promptly ruled out for professionalism, and so far (its I know is under the ban to. this day. Wallace has been playing for a long time"now, and has fairlv earned a rest.

It lias often appeared to me that the divergence between second and thirdgrade form is not so great as that between the senior and junior classes, but surely it is wider than the 'position of the Zingari Club would indicate. Two seasons back Celtic .and Zirfgari were each playing in the third giade, and were very evenJy matched. Last year the Celts moved up to junior, and their second fifteen proved quite as worthy opponents for Zingari as their best team had done previously. At the, beginning of the present season Zingaii r<.solved, to enter the junior ranks; though a poor showing against a scratch -team from I'urconi prompted them to call a i.peciu. me---ting to leconsider the matter. It was decided to make the leap, ami the team entered the lists with decided misgivings, yet the end of tlie /Hrst round finiis them with a lead in /the competition. Xh seeming inconsistency might -have been explained on the supposition that Celtic* presidents team were little inferior to their juniors, but this idea its exploded by the entry of tt Zingari second fifteen into the third-grade, where tb y are making as big a tight for the-l&d as did their eldeis last year. Add to this :l prevalent notion that Temuka's third is not far removed from second-class form; and a pretty puzzle presents itself: Find the difference between junior and thirdgrade football. "During the time they were in the South Island the Anglo-Welshmen were inclined to complain more of the strangeness of our interpretation* of the Rugby, code than anything else, but the' change of climute experienced in the northern half of the colony seems to have brought fortn; 3. string of grievances embracing rough play, bad arrangement of their tour, and a rather querulous complaint that they weie> called too early on one occasion. It might be retorted that certain membeis of the visiting team have been the tause of other people losing their sleep '.now mid again, but it is more particularly their treatment on the field to which I wish to refer, Whether or not the tourists merit the scorn which has been hur.ed at some of them on their apparent- knockoais, tbey are certainly the softest team in the matter of taking knocks: that has ever toured the colony, and after every match we ur<r acquainted by telegraph with the details of tfeeir casualty list. XJlis has caused an idea ti} get abroad that they are being roughly handled; but I believe that if as much trouble was taken t» collt-fip -Statistits of the injuring sustained by their opponents it would be found that the Britishers foijd pi.oved themselves capable of " dealing if PMt " with ■ the best: A goot deal of sympathy hag been exprefsed. for the unlucky Vuueatl, but it may not be generally kiiown that Vassall's fjifj of bad luck commenced before lie lefj> Home, and the hurts to his shoulder pjerely a. recrudescence of the original injury, "ap4 !p must not be overlooked that his iirst kfwk-ftut in the colony was sustained >j'Jiiist practising with his comrades, IP is. ungracious to severely criticise our' guests, butI cannot help thinking that onfe or two lenilftg colonial newspapeis and some Press are carrying their good manners u> ifre point of sickly sentiment. One city paper fjje length of excising incidents H'bicb ffcftept -upon the Britishers, and a correspondent who ha,s twyejled with them throughout- tl|eic has been responsible for some charges agafesfr colonial players. The hurts hi stained bf ■ two or three Britisheis in (jie second ttH have been, given wide pmminetu'e, but'l&de been heard of an ugly incident which left q. New Zealander with a swollfP j.3W witbiqfiye minutes ol th< start, Of oi tfee injury

sustained by' Fryer. A typical incident occurred- at- Timaru, ■ from; whence it was telegraphed •• over the . colony that a "swinging foot" injured Harding's aplde. . The only foot, which swung wa6 Harding's own, and if (he hard ; kick which ' he aimed had .struck" Carlton instead of a ball with resistance behind it, perhaps a South Canterbury man would have b°en badly hurt! • Another'. British forward caught..one of members of the. South Canterbury team by the throat on a line-out, and 1 saw. the same thing "repeated by , the same player in a later game. In the first test at Dunedin a Britisher deliberately struck an opponent, and the British captain did not appear in a favourable light in one encounter after the whistle had sounded pretty loudly. Incidents of this kind lead one to believe that there are two .sides to the rough play question, and it would be ridiculous to claim that- forwards of the j physique of the British party are likely to allow themselves to be undu'y knocked about, bv the lighter colonial scrummer.s. '1 he New Zealander certainly is nor over gentle in his manner of- putting a man down, but the '"feet feet" policy of the visitors is likely tf> have as serious effects upon the opposing side. When all is said and done, it must be admitted that the Anglo-Welshmen do not take knocks as philosophically as their N w 'Zen and brethren, and perhaps' the 'explanation' may be found in the fact that th y fare .sumptuously every day and do too little training. Anybody who lias plavtd footliall knows how much more a., bump affects one at the beginning of ;i season that it dins when form liarv been acquired- , RESULTS OF BRITISH TOUR.

The following fixtures have been'arranged for the second round of the schools' football competition:—July 18th—Mari<t v.,-South, Main v. Waimataitai; July 25th—Marist v. Waimataitai, Main v. South; July 30th—Main v. Marist; August Ist' —South y- Waimataitai. .!'

Wairarapa-Busli Won 1-7 to 3 Wellington ... J.n>l •: 1SJ 10 13 C-tago - ... Lofit . 9 to 6 Southland ... ... Won 14 to' 8 New Zealand ... Lost 32'to 5 South Canterbury Won 12 to 6 Canterbury ... ... Lost .13 to 8 West Coast Won 22 to : 3 Nelson Won •12 to 0 New Zealand Drawn 3 to 3 Hawke's Bay ... ... Won 25 to 3 poverty Bay. Won 26 to 0 Manawatii-liorowhenna Won12 to3