FOOTBALL NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 141001, 20 April 1920, Page 6

FOOTBALL NOTES.

(By “Blue and Gold.”) The Wairarapa Rugby Union '.decided on Saturday .night in favour of:;-a: sole selector for the senior :to'alu ; . -.Tin's was a sensible move. The threcirsclector proposal was called-in years ago. Tho appointment, of Mr E. McKenzie as sole selector of ;the Wairniupu team is oue which will .hn’cet with general approval. At tlie? hands of the genial “Ted” players are sure-of a “square deal.” My own opinion has always been that Ted is the right man for the job, and he has given proof of this/dn the past. _ The /proposal to raise the weightlimit of third-class players, from lUst to somewhere in the vicinity. ot lost 101 bis .nn absurd one, and it is a matter for congratulation that the Rugbv Union gave it. q short shritt. Mi H.McKenzie's proposal to raise the weight-limit to 11 stone had the redeeming feature that it had as one of its objects the creation of a fourth grade. ■ ... It is reported that Gladstone will again be: able to put a strong team in the field. It seems certain that there wiL be no fewer than nine teams—Ponc-kc, Athletic, Petone, Selwyn, Oriental, Varsity, Wellington, Hutt, and Berhampore competing in this year’s Wellington senior championship In 1919 Ponoke ; carried off the honour from Athletic, with Petone, Selwyn, and ■’Varsity finishing in that order. Berhampore will be ma king its debut in senior football* and it is considered certain, that Hutt, which won the junior championship in 1918 and 1919, will also compete. Wellington College, which put up .such a wonderful performance in the 1918 Wellington senior championship, and which was one of the leading junior teams of last season, will this year play third grade. “Rangi” Wilson, New Zealand rep, and a member of the Army team that won the King’s Cup, is home from the. “front,” and he will once more be found leading the Athletic (Wellington) forwards, The team will include practically all the men who chased the leather last season. Everything promises well for the Petone" Club, which will have more playing members than iff any previous year. Unfortunately, it will be without the services of James Ryan, a New Zealand rep of 1910 and 1914, who recently captained the New Zealand Army team. Ryan is now resident m Palmerston North. However, brothei E. Ryan, a Wellington rep, and also a member of the New Zealand-Army team, will play. Then there will be Mark Nicholls, a five-eighth, who was a 'skipper of the brilliant Wellington College team of 1916 and 1919. Among those who will be found wearing the blue jersey are:—W. P. Coles (who captained the Royal Air Force team in England), A. Smith, D. Fitzgerald, and T. Price, all of whom made themselves prominent in football circles in England: M. f Corner and H. E. Nicholls, both North Island reps: W. Hamilton, M. Love, C. B. Thomas, W. Thomas, M. Griffin, A. Bond, A. Smilie, B. Hill. ( Mr All: Johnson, who had acted as sole selector of the Wairarapa senior team for years past, declined to take on the job again this season. Mr Johnson did his work very well under difficult conditions. Last season one or two newspaper correspondents had the temerity to criticise Mr Johnson’s selections," but, as the latter has remarked, these “critics” probably learned their football from schoolboys at the street corners A football selector is not infallible —no sensible person expects him to be —but the Wairarapa Rugby Union has been very fortunate in having two such sole selectors as Messrs A. Johnson and E. McKenzie at their disposal.