FOOTBALL

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18599, 21 June 1930, Page 16 (Supplement)

FOOTBALL

First test. Britain v. New Zealand, at Dunedin this afternoon.

British team v. Southland on Wednesday, and against the combined Ashburton - South Canterbury - North Otago team at Timaru on Saturday next.

Temuka now have 14 points in the championship, and Old Boys 13. Star and Waihi are level with 8 each, Celtic have four and Zingari one. The championship now rests with Temuka and Old Boys, who will not meet for some weeks. When they do, a firstclass game can be expected.

Otago, with six ex-All Blacks in the side, were well beaten by the British team. The visitors have now played eight matches, having won six and lojt two. They have scored 178 points, while 70 have been recorded against them.

Old Boys had matters all their own way against Celtic last week, scoring the largest number of points recorded in club matches this season.

An error of judgement on the part of Seaton in the early part of the match between Star and Temuka’ last week cost Star five points. The fullback waUed for the ball—a new one—to bounce, and before he could secure possession Gaffaney, who had shortpunted, was on him. and dribbled the leather over the line in a flash. this warning several other players throughout the game persisted in waiting for the bounce, and more often than not were beaten badly.

The most outstanding feature of the Star-Tcmuka game last week was the amount of talking and yelling which went on. Temuka were the chief offenders, and the imposition of a penalty or two would have effected a marked improvement.

One rush staged by Temuka in the early part of the match against Star last week was the prettiest seen on the Park this season. The Black and Whites opened up in their own 25. the leather passing in and out until the opposing 25 was reached, where one of the forwards failed to accept in front of an open goal. Star were completely non-plussed. and a try would have been a fitting reward for a really brilliant piece of play. Other good movements were staged by Temuka, but none nearly so spectacular as the one mentioned. A portion of the crowd at Fraser Park last week was inclined to scoff at the referee for the number of penalty kicks awarded Star, but almost every one was justified. Star's regular kicks had a day off. Had they made full use of the chances in this direction, they should have won bv twelve points. The team was sadly handicapped without Provan and Wilkes. Had these two been in their customary positions, a different story might have been told. Rarely have the Star forwards been so sluggish as they were for a period of about fifteen minutes in the first half, but in the second half they put more vim into their work. good innings in championship golf, and it is beyond the power of a man of my age to play six rounds of championship golf and do well in all of them. It would be different if the championship were decided over two or three rounds, but we old fellows cannot keep it up. It is the younger men’s turn now.” When reminded that he won his last championship at Hoylake. and that had the competition been decided on the two qualifying rounds and the first two round he would have won again at Hoylake in 1924, Taylor remarked that it was “a fine thing to retire from championships with these memories. That champioifthip at Hoylake in 1913 which I won in the biggest gale and storm of all championship meetings is one of the proudest achievements of my career, and I would like to retire remembering it.”

“The difference between a challenge match an a match, say, against Colonel Bogey, is the difference between a real fight and a bout with a sparring • partner (says an overseas contempor- j ary). There are not many of these j ‘blood’ affairs nowadays, but seventyodd years ago they were of frequent occurrence and often of absorbing interest to rank and file players. The twin brothers Willie and Jamie Dunn formed a wonderful combination in the sixties, and their many foursome matches against old Tom Morris and Alan Robertson aroused tremendous interest at the time. The brothers Mungo and Willie Park, of Musselburgh, were also famous players of money matches. Willie had a standing challenge in Bell’s Life, London, for 20 years, to play any man in the world for £IOO a side. The most famous of all single matches was that between Willie Park, punr., and Harry Vardon. Willie was so wonderfully skilful on the greens that he reckoned himself ‘stone dead’ at two yards. He had laid it down in his book on the game that ‘the man who could putt was a match for any man'; but after his match with Vardon. in which he suffered defeat by 11 and 10 in a 72hole game, he modified his dictum to read, 'the man who can putt is a match for any man—except Harry Vardon.’ Vardon’s long game was so nearly perfect that he could afford to. and did, miss many two-footers.”

FOUL PLAY

MENACE TO RUGBY IN SYDNEY. Rugby Union authorities should take stern measures to put a stop to the unclean tactics which have crept into the game (writes C. L. Brown in the Sydney “Sun”). The bestowal of only adulatory comment is not beneficial to a game if it is obvious that a little adverse criticism. or at least a note of warning, is desirable. While unclean play is the exception rather than the rule, in Rugby Union matches, it is undeniable that if publicity, which is more likely than anything else to remedy this steadily growing disease is not given to the subject, a few players are likely to bring the game into disrepute. Indiscriminate kicking, punching and obstructive tactics have come under notice thus early in the season. The last-mentioned evil, i.e.. grasping the jerseys of players who are not in possession of the ball, is invariably pro- | vocative of reprisals from those who have been illegally interfered with. How to Counteract It. Efficacious methods of eliminating these blots upon the game are: (1) By dub coaches and officials instilling into the minds of players that they must play the game in a sporting spirit; (2) Iby referees dealing drastically with offenders; and (3) by a cessation of the Rugby Union's leniency with players whom referees have sent off th® field. Coaches, a fine body of men, who give their services gratuitously, disseminate tactics to be employed, with meticulous care, but do any of them ever warn players that foul practices such as those which have been enumerated will not be countenanced? Referees should awaken to their duty by meting out proper treatment to players who contravene the spirit of the game. It is not exaggeration to say that by closing their eyes to offences against the canons c.f the code, they encourage such malpractices. Referees Not Upheld. Referees, however, may have been ; discouraged to properly do their duty 1 on account of the leniency with which offenders are treated by the Rugby Union. An instance which comes readily to mind occurred last season, when three players were suspended from playing for a period by the committee before which they appeared. The two clubs to which they were attached, keen to have the services of those who had been sentenced, on the following Saturday appealed to a hastily called and sparsely attended meeting of the council, with the result that the disqualifications were entirely lifted. The referee's report in respect to the offenders was explicit, and he even attended the council meeting, at which he submitted to a cross-exam-

ination from partisans associated with the clubs concerned, as though he were a guilty party. But he did not waver. The vote which lifted the penalty that had been imposed was composed almost wholly by delegates of the clubs concerned, and other officials from the same source who are on the council through other avenues. “What is the use of sending players off?” the referee, Mr J. Guy, was heard to ask at the meeting’s close. The greatest ignominy possible to befall the players of any game is to be dismissed from the field for indulging in foul tactics, and they should be made to realise that the controlling body will see that there is no place in the game for them until they have adequately purged their offences. It is hoped that Union football will be entirely cured of this canker, from which, happily, only a small proportion of its players suffer.