FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue IV, 28 July 1900, Page 158

FOOTBALL.

Saturday witnessed the conclusion of the Cup’ fixtures, and, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, there was a very large attendance at Potter's. The result, of the match. City v. Newton, which was won by the former by 13 points to 12, was rather a surprise to the majority, who anticipated a much more decisive win for the wearers of the red and black. Moreover, they were fortunate to win by even the small margin of 1 point, as within 3 minutes of the end of the game they appeared well beaten. By their victory on Saturday City has established a unique record, having this season won the championship in all three grades. At the beginning of the winter it was very generally considered that City, on paper, had a : ther soft thing for the Senior ( ha in pionship, but. as usual, the good thing did not work out quite as expected, for, although City has won the premiership, there was nothing of a moral about it; in fact, many will be found to contend that they were lucky to win, which only goes to prove the glorious uncertainty of the game. The match on No. 2 ground at Potter’s was between Suburbs and Parnell, and the former team proved quite too strong for their opponents*

and won by 14 points to nil. Suburbs appear to have struck form at last, and it is a great pity that they did not do so earlier, as their present team would apparently have given some of the leading clubs a real good go. ® © © CITY V. NEWTO.' City was fortunate enough to win the toss, and therefore had the advantage of playing with a strong wind in the first spell. For the first twenty minutes it did not appear to assist them a great deal, or, rather, the majority of their backs were unable to take advantage of it, and seemed totally incapable of taking, passing or kicking the ball to any stood effect. In consequence of City's poor display the Newton players quite held their own throughout the first part of the spell, and the numerous supporters of the former team were beginning to get rather anxious. City then pulled themselves together and the backs, showing some improvement, the ball was for some time confined to Newton territory. Here, from a scrum, City heeled out. and a nice bit of passing between Young. Asher, McGee and Absolum resulted in the lastnamed player scoring between the posts. It was a really good piece of play, and the try was one of the best Absolum has ever obtained. Young converted, making the score 5 to nil. With less than fifteen minutes of the first spell remaining. City seemed to recognise that the position was far from safe, and they therefore made strenuous endeavours to improve matters, but for some time without suc--ess. However, just on time. Brown brought off a pretty dribbling rush and carried the ball over the line, where he and Paul dived for it simultaneously. Paul appeared to get it, but in falling he cannoned with Brown and failed to get his hands on the ball, which rolled clear, and Bonella, who was following up fast, scored

a second try for City in a splendi 1 position. Young was again entrusted with the kick, and narrowly escaped missing the major points, the ball just going inside the post. Time was then called, leaving City with a lead of 10 points. On resuming play it was soon apj.flent that Newton were going to make desperate efforts to overhaul their opponents’ score. Kight from the jump they set to work and carried the ball to City’s 25, and there it remained for by far the greater part of the spell. The kicking of the black and red backs against, the wind was not nearly so effective as was Newton’s in the first, spell, and. on the other hand. Newton appeared to make more use of the wind than their opponents had. On several occasions, however, their kicking was a bit rash, and forces resulted, but City gained little or no respite therefrom. Asher was primarily responsible for Newton’s first score, being collared in front of his goal he deliberately threw the ball forward and a free kick was given against him, and Eaton succeeded in landing a goal. Far from being warned by the result of Asher’s breach of the rules the City players seemed to deliberately lay themselves out to incur penalties, and free kick after free kick was awarded against them. Although they continued on the attack it was a considerable time before Newton again succeeded in scoring. Then a City back kicked across the field, but failed to find the boundary, and Roberts dashing up took the ball on the full and scored near the corner. The kick at goal was rather a difficult one, and Eaton failed to increase the score, though ho made a fine attempt. For the next ten minutes City supporters were none too happy, as their men seemed unable to clear their line, and some of the numerous free kicks awarded against them were going uncomfortably near the posts. Then Asher failed to take a high kick right on the goal line, and the ball was

rushed over and Eaton secured it, but the same player failed in his shot at goal. The score now stood at ten to nine, and there was less than ten minutes still to go, so that the occupants of the stand were worked up into a high state of excitement. For about five minutes nothing eventuated, though Newton were almost incessantly on the attack, and then, for off-side play, a free kick was given against City. This time Eaton was successful, and brought the score to 12 points to 10 in Newton’s favour. The game at this stage appeared to be all over, as there was only about three minutes to go, and in addition City seemed a thoroughly beaten team. However, the unexpected happened, as from the kick off the play centrefl, and Asher picking up dashed through the Newton backs, and passing to Absolum in the nick of time the latter player got over at the corner. The score was obtained just in time, as the bell sounded directly the shot at goal had failed.

Though the game was a hard fought ami interesting one, in fact, at times it was wildly exciting, it cannot be said that it was a good game from a football point of view. As a matter of fact it was one of the poorest exhibitions of scientific football seen in any big match this year. The backs on both sides almost without exception played downright bail games; indeed one would expcet a better display from schoolboys. In all departments of the game, with the exception perhaps of tackling, was the same weakness shown amongst most of the backs, and even the tackling was not first-class. As for taking the ball, the majority seemed to have absolutely no idea of it, and their attempts in this direction were often ludicrous in the extreme. On the other hand, the forwards of both teams did some exceptionally fine work, and it must be admitted that the vanguards were very evenly matched, neither side being in a position to claim any great advantage in this respect.

For the winners Donovan, at full, played a fair game, though at times his kicking was hardly up to the mark. Of the three-quarters McGee played a safe and steady game, but his passing occasionally was erratic. Absolum showed some glimpses of real good form, notably on the occasion of scoring his first try, but between whiles he was very weak. Stevens gave a wretched display, both his taking and "kicking being extremely poor. Asher, at five-eighths, although at times he was responsible for some brilliant pieces of work, made several awful mistakes and seemed to altogether lose his head. He was directly responsible for one or more of Newton’s scores. Young only played a fair game. Of the forwards Tyler was the most prominent, and he gave a really re-markable-display, as good as any seen .this season. Of the others Bonella .and Scott were the best, and both did excellent work, as did also Brown on the wing. One at least of City’s forwards was not doing his share of the work in the pack. I’illinger was rather slow as full for Newton, and altogether was none too safe. None of the three-quarters were up to the mark, Paul being about the best and .Roberts the worst.

Wood, at five-eighths, was Newton’s best back; in fact, he played about the best back game on the ground, and that really is not very great praise. Still he played a good sound game, both in attack and defence, and would no doubt have done even better had he received proper support. Every one of Newton’s vanguard appeared to do his utmost, and the result showed that there were no wasters in their ranks, as they quite or more than held their own with their formidable opponents. A. Wilson was in great form, and his kicking was of great advantage to his side. Of the others Long was about the best, although when all played so well it is difficult to discriminate. ® ® ® PARNELL V. SUBURBS. (Suburbs 14, Psrnell 0.)

This match was played on No. 2 ground, and created little Interest beyond the fact that whichever team was defeated would be lowest In the senior competition. Parnell won the toss, and elected to play ara'nst the wind. Shortly after the j-ame started Suburbs made a rush and by fust following-up Cooper, the Suburbs threequarter, scored. Austin failed with the kick. Suburbs 3, Parnell 0. Neutral play followed for some time, until Parnell assumed the defensive, and for some time kept Suburbs penned In their 25. Beyond ■ force, however, nothing resulted. Just before the close of the flrat spell, Cowan, Cummings. and Sutherland took part la a paaslnc rnn and eventually Walker scored.

Austin converted. Suburbs 8, Parnell 0. Shortly after the resumpt'on of play for the second spell. Cooper got across the line again and scored. Austin failing with the kick. Suburbs 11. Parnell 0. The Suburbs forwards made repeated attacks and got over the line twice, but lost the bail. Towards the end of the spell a good opening was made by Cowan and Dempsey, ami Cooper scored his third try. Austin failed to convert, aud the game ended: Suburbs 14, Parnell 0. NOTES. Though the game was somewhat uninteresting througuout, yet 't was fairly fast. Play was, however, almost entirely contiued to the forwards. Suburbs were superior to their opponents in all branches of the game, and their win was well deserved. Parnell, who had a very weak team, with a good many in it. played a very teeble game, aud were outclassed. All the suburbs threequarters played good games, especially Cooper, who tor a young player piayed a very clever game, scoring three tries. Cummings ami Sutherland were also in good form. Gray at half played an excellent game, probably the result of playing behind a superior front rank. The forwards all worked with a will, the best perhaps being McKnig.it, who lias been playing line games througuout the season. The Parnell back division was very weak, Twinanie being the only back who played up to form. Stier a also gave a fair display. The forwards were outclassed by lueir opponents, the only ones showing good form tiemg Cullen on the wing and Handcock in the pack. ® ® ® THE SECOND JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP. The following table shows the position of the teams which competed in the second junior grade:—

Suburbs B lost all matches by default. Match Pousonby B v. Parnell was not played. ® ® ® THAMES DEFEATS OHINEMURI. (Thames 13; Ohinemuri nil.) PAEROA, Saturday. Fully 1500 people, the largest crowd ever seen on a football field in Ohinemuri, assembled this afternoon to witness the Thames-Ohinemuri match at Paeroa. The Thames excursion train brought about 400, and hundreds came in from Walhi, Karangahake, \V aikino, and Waitekauri. The general opinion before the start of the game was that it would be an even "go.’ and this greatly assisted to increase the attendance. Contrary to expectation, however, Thames won easily by 13 points to nil. The game is easily described, as two-tnirds ot’ it consisted of scrum and line play, in which the two teams were pretty evenly matched.- and it was only in the latter half of the second spell that the Thames backs went in for systematic passing, in which they far excelled Uninemuri. bwind-ley captained Tnames and Garvey Ohinemuri. Ohinemuri kicked off. and shortly after, for off-side play. Thames got a free kick, and McLean had a shot at goal. Shaw returned into touch, but Thames immediately pressed Ohinemuri. and rushed the ball over the line. Shaw kicking over the dead ball line. Douglas kicked out, and the Ohinemuri forwards got a dribbling rush on. which Buckland stopped. Thames worked the ball into Ohinemuri’s 25, and Douslin made a short dash and passed neatly out to Dick McGregor, who dodged over between the posts. McLean added the major points. From the kick-off a lot of line play followed. Garvey stopping rushes in good style and kicking into touch. Toward the end of the spell Ohincmuri tried some passing, but owing to McColl’s habit of slopping to take the pass no good resulted. Several scrambling rushes by the forwards on both sides, >1 of whom were working hard, and one or two kicks b.v the backs, and the first spell ended without further score. Thames 5; Ohinemuri nil.

The second spell opened -with serums from one side of the field to the other, until Thames forwards rushed the ball down the field. Thom saving and kicking Into touch near half-way. Thames forwards again worked the ball along the line, and a kick into touch by Stephenson brought play close to Ohinemuri’s line. From a scrum here the ball was thrown out to McGregor, who made a short dash and fell over the line, scoring his second try. McLean brought the score up to 10 points. From the kiek-oft. the Thames backs got the ball, and a splendid bit of passing by Riley. McGregor. Buckland, and back to McGregor, saw the last named grassed on the line. Ohinemuri were now entirely on the defensive, the Thames backs attacking with considerable success, and finally, from a scrum in Ohinemuri’s 25. Woods passed to Riley, who made a fine run and scored near the posts. McLean’s attempt at goal was a failure. Ohinemuri rallied somewhat after this, but were never really dangerous, and the game ended—Thames 13: Ohinemuri nil.

Mr A. Campbell was referee, and Messrs A. McGuire and McGregor line umpires. Mr J. Arnell was present from Auckland to watch the form ot the various players. The weakness of the Ohinemuri team was undoubtedly in its back division. The forwards held their own with Thames, getting on some good dribbling rushes in the open, and in the scrums getting the ball as often as the Thames. But Ohlnemurl's backs did not seem capable of stopping the passing ot Riley, McGregor, and Buckland, nor did they take the ball at all well, or stop forward rushes. Coming to Individual play, for Thames Dick McGregor was the hero of the game, and is playing perhaps better than ever In his lite. Riley, also, at five-eighths, played a good game, and so did Buckland, though he had fewer opportunities than McGregor. Stephenson was very fair, though not equal to McGregor or Backland, but Woods, at halt, was disappointing. though his stopping ot rushes was

very good. McLean, at full, had nothing to do. Amongst the forwards Cunningham and Smith appeared about the best of a really good lot. On the Ohinemurl side Shaw, at full, kicked well, and took the ball well, but should have stopped McGregor once. On the whole, his play was good. Thom. Flett, and Johnston, at three-quarter, were disappointing, as was also McColl, nve-eighths. Though these four occasion - ally played well, they all made a number of mistakes. Garvey, at half, played a splendid game, stopping rushes, marking and kicking into touch, and saved his side on many occasions. In the forwards Cock was the best wing on the ground, spoiling Woods behind the Thames pack times out of number, tackling, dribbling, and playing a splendid game, and that, too. against such a veteran as Sam McGregor. Matthias, on the other wing, also played well. In the forwards it was hard to single out any. as all were doing their best, but McGuire, Douglas and Sorensen pleased me most. Needless to say. Mr Campbell gave the utmost satisfaction to both sides. ® ® ® W ELLINGTON NOT ES. The match between Melrose am! Wellington on Saturday was very closely contested throughout. The play was very even in the first spell, but in the second Melrose made a vigorous onslaught on the territory of their opponents, and kept Wellington busily engaged in warding off determined rushes. Spencer registered and Woods caried the ball from the centre past all the Melrose backs, and up to their line, but fell at a critical moment. A few points having been registered on both sides, the play became desperately fast. A splendid goal was kicked by Spencer, but Wellington strove very hard to equalise matters. The game ended Melrose 9. Wellington 5. The match Poneke v. the Athletics w-as an even and interesting struggle, the Athletics winning by 7 points to 3. The play in the second spell was very stubborn on both sides. CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS. The senior championship points scored by the respective clubs up to Saturday were as follows: —Melrose, 19; Athletic, 14; Petone. 9: Old Hoys. 8; Oriental, 8; Poneke, 8; Wellington, 6. Melrose lost one match, against Athletic, in the first, round. This is the fourth time the Melrose team has secured the honours, it having cameo off the competition in this cities in 1896. 1897, and 1898 su c ssively. Melrose and Or'ental have one match yet to play, Petone, Athletic, and Weli’ngton two, and Poneke ami Old Boys three; but in view of the championship having been decided, and the number of representative matches to play, the remaining fixtures are likely to be declared off.

P. W. L. D. For. Agst. City A .... 8 u 1 30 o Pousonby B .... .... 7 o 1 1 ol 15 Parnell s 2 V 3l> it» Gratton ... 8 5 3 0 42 oO Suburbs A ..... .... 8 10 City B 3 3 1 24 18 biewton .... 7 0 6 1 12 35 Pousonby A .... .... 7 0 0 1 0 24 Suburbs B .... .... 5 u U V 0 U