FINE PACK MET STODDART’S TEAM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19117, 9 July 1930, Page 11

FINE PACK MET STODDART’S TEAM.

NEW ZEALANDERS NOTED FOR DASHING PLAY. (Specially written for the “Star.”) By BEN IVESON. Regret has often been expressed among old followers of the game oi football in New Zealand that a series of test matches was never arranged between Stcddart’s famous Bridish team and a New Zealand fifteen. At that period (1S8S), the Dominion possessed some of the finest footballers it has ever seen. The South Island was prolific in those days in the matter of outstanding players, while there were some great men in the North. Take the South Island forwards of those days. Comb the four corners of the football world, and better men could not be found. Did not Stoddart’s pack realise the strength of the southern forwards in that great drawn game against Otago, and in that battle of battles at Dunedin against the South Island ? Then the second match against the South Island demonstrated that, though some of the first selections were absent, there were still plenty of good substitutes—propositions in forward play as hard as ever they had met on any football field. British Player’s View. The fair-haired Anderton from Lancashire once said that those South Island forwards were proteges of his Satanic Majesty, and that on the day they took the field in a football match the nether regions were minus their hottest elements—a compliment, to the “ devil ” they showed in their play, and the warm time they gave the opposition. And was this statement an exaggeration? Let us shift back the hands of time, and once more crowd ourselves on to the old Caly ”in Dunedin, away back m September, 1888. There comes on to the field a band of big men, dressed in blue uniforms—-nine forwards who; would have done credit to any All Black team that ever represented the Dominion.

They are 44 Anderton’s Devils.” First we glimpse 44 Dutchy ” Evans, one of the smartest, brainiest and most vigorous forwards that ever pushed his head through a jersey, and who in point of merit gives ground to no forward of to-day; Canterbury’s fhmous champion for many a day, and hero of a hundred harcl tussles, and wearer of the old Red and Black jersey from 1888 up till 1893. Then there is I. W. w. Hunter, big and last and a most deadly tackier, who made a life study of the game, hailmg trom Otago, which lias procluced so many solid footballers; poor old Jack Stephenson, who was about two Charlie Seelings roiled into one, and who led many a desperate attack for Otago, with a heart as big as a lion • Peter Anderson, who many times

played for Otago and Southland; W. D. Bean, a particularly fine type of forward, who played with remarkable vigour, a Canterbury representative from 1885 til! 1889; E. E. Morrison, the old Otago High School player, an associate of J. R. Montgomery, the Otago captain, and what a famous pair they were; Tom Sonntag, who, when once under way, required little short of a brick wall to stay his progress, and Harry Treseder, the Zingari-Richmond forward, and sometime of Southland, when the Maroons gave tis such fine players as Ike Jenkins—now there was a champion all-rounder for .you—Tapper, Cuff, Galbraith, Harry Lee and Ekenstein; and last, but not least, the last-named player—B. Ekenstein. That was the South Island pack which met Britain. Champions. Those forwards were the forerunners of the All Blacks of to-day—every man a champion, and every man worthy of a black fern-leaf jersey. Did not Arthur Stoddart, when speaking of the Otago and South Island forwards the Britishers met at Dunedin, # pay the highest of tributes to them for their splendid play and their sportsmanship, ranking many of them among the best the team had encountered on its tour, and did not Bumby, the Lancashire half-back, express the view that they were the hottest proposition in the way of vigorous forward effort that he had ever got down to? And add to that South Island pack Arthur Morris, Wright, Torrance and Webb, of Zin-gari-Richmond. That Britain v. South Island match at Dunedin, which was won by the visitors by 5 points to 3, and the similar game played later at Christchurch, when Britain won by 6 points to nil, were the two nearest approaches to tests that the Britishers played in New Zealand. Good Northerners. The North Island, in a test game, would have had claimants for All Black honors in J. Leckv, of Auckland, Tom Ellison (Wellington), George Williams (Wellington), Dave Stewart (Thames), Davy Gage (Wellington), E. M’Causland (Auckland), Joe Warbrick (Auckland), 44 Tabby ” and “ Pi ” Wynyard (Auckland), “Barlow” Madigan (Auckland), Ihimaira (the old “ Smiler.” of Hawke’s Bay), Sammy Cockroft (Wellington) and Bill Warbrick (Auckland), while Parldv Keogh, ot Dunedin, and Harry Lee, of Southland, •would probably be considered certainties. The South Island, too, had such men as Bill Thomas (Otago full-back), the late Dr Thomson (Dunedin), George Harper, of Nelson, J. Donnelly, of Canterbury, J. Croxford, Tom Lynch. Alec Downes, three noted Dunedin backs, F. Fuller (a Canterbury back of considerable ability), A. M. Plank, M. Riley, A. J. Weekes, J. M. Turnbull and j. Sincock (five fine Canterbury forwards, who all played for the South Island against the Britishers at Christchurch), who would also be strongly in the running for a test team. The task of selecting an ISBS All Black team would have been much harder than selecting a New Zealand fifteen to-day. and the Britishers of that tour would have found that their j