ASSOCIATION FOOTALL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17010, 7 April 1923, Page 3 (Supplement)

ASSOCIATION FOOTALL.

SURPRISES IN THE ENGLISH UUP ; The I London eorre-pomVciit of the-] j " Still- ■■ Uiitiar dote I j February 8: ! When Charlton Athletic. the I ; vouiig-' -L oi th. roo.Wion.M c V;,. who l • l.ro struggling tu escanii-h < .m,o . »-.--- J the first”’rottu.rof “liUbinglisri Cup. : the periorma.M :• -..as iv*>..rued a - a I fluke. Nov., le v, ver. r!c. \ hove the - • Highly justified id cm .-.elves* by on ok • j r. in \.he '. ceond i’onvou U was the ••■ld store. Chari; on foot bail. The.- .-.bn. 1 by \ peril, dash and resolute end.:-;: veur, was to put their ifpponen t off u. dr game* n :;d in ! this thev were completeK- successful, j They scored two goal- in the second half, and their victory was really de*. iThe three lies'* teams this season . tv Liverpool. Huddersfield and Sxnd'-r----land, but otilv two of them remain in ■ •he tournament. S:rnder!iind were beaten at Wot, Ur mwich. More- \ over. Hudd. ;-a -!d could uni. d-. with M iHwall. and though ih?y will probably v. in the . -play ej» their owe. ground their form i»; the firs- suavh was very dis-npcinting. i.irci—:>nl were at Wolverhampton and they experienced co difficulty in defeating th c iucltless Wasub - v i As mo -sib la Cxp winners Toticuhi;. Hotspur, l.av ' mm wide.: t i*. • .lan oi Sunderland. They plsvrtl delight fully against Munch i United gained the most de? : .«!ve vici-.rv of the day. scoring lour goals without reply. The omv thiiig against their chances is the of -:hcir forwards, hut if the weather remains good and the : rounds dry they may overcome this handicap. The feature of the second round was the success of London clubs. Sis were engaged and not one failed. Chelsea, however, could not get a goal on their own ground to beat Southampton. and there is n real danger of their losing the replay. Similarly there is not much hope For Millwall at Huddersfield, but West Ham are expected to get through at the expense of Brighton, and Queen’s Park Rangers are already sale as the result of their win at Wigan. Over half a million people watched th 6 sixteen matches and the money taken at the turnstiles amounted to over £40,000. Five games at present are undecided. The clubs who have passed on to the third round are Bury. Derby County, Bolton Wanderers, Chariton Athletic, Cardiff City. Plymouth Argyle. Tottenham Hotspurs, Sheffield Wednesday, West Bromwich Albion. Liverpool, and Queen’s Park Rangers. W. M’Kenzie (“ Off-side Mac ”) writes an entertaining letter to a Christchurch friend on Rugby matters. The following are some extracts:— Some fellows who were down her© the other day from Sydney passed some uncomplimentary remarks about the last New Zealand Rugby team which was in Sydney, and their comments bear out your previous statement that in some measure the. old study of Rugby, which our lamented friend George Stevenson used to view as a fine art, is now in a. sense atrophined. and possibly is in danger of even becoming as extinct as the Dodo. W bile on this phase of the business, 1 am sure that New Zealand Rugby has a good deal to thank for the efforts which were put forward on its behalf, first, by the Poneke Football Club, under the captaincy of Syd Nichols, and then by Tom Ellison. Davey Gage, •Tabby” Wynyard. “Mother” Elliott. It was Ellison who, when in New Zealand, absolutely conceived the idea of lifting the ethics of the game to an art. and I can honestly give the credit to his memory that fie was the first man who taught me the game could bo made a .science. Davey Gallagher fas he admitted to nit on later ocascions) stated that he. ia his wing forward system for the All Blacks, tried to follow on my lines, and Seeling himself also stated that his endeavour in smashing forward tactics (what the Germans later on called •* shock ” tactics) were largely copied from my own system which was put into some effect by myself, Tom Pauling. Jack Swindley, Joe Callnnan, and Hardca-stle (the Petone High School boy) on certain memorable football fields when Wellington and New Zealand were hard to beat. No doubt, however, the war gave the game a tremendous setback, as it was impossible for the coming players during that period to devote the time and thought to the science of the game as we did in our time, when, if your friend could not talk football to you i’.nd your devoted chums he was counted very ignorant, and we slept with the Book ot Rules under our pillows, studying day by day as regularly a s ti devoted Mussulman would over the Koran.

1 am sure that unless the New Zealand and English Rugby Unions bestir themselves very quickly that the League game will, before very long, become the premier game amongst the public in England, N.S.W., Queensland, and New Zealand.