FOOTBALL

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 373, 16 September 1897, Page 4

FOOTBALL

[By

Vigilant.]

No match of importance was played on Saturday afternoon.

George Smith is hardly likely to leave Auckland if he can find a situation here. L< tus hope he will be fortunate enough 'o do so. as the loss of this speedy three-quarter would be a keen one.

Speaking of the above match reminds me that there was some talk earlier in the season of another match between the cup winners (Ponsonby) and Parnell before the winter game was allowed to die away. Has it. blown over? The Tukapa Club (Taranaki champions for 1897) come up to Auckland next week to play Ponsonby seniors (Auckland cup winners) at Potter’s Paddock on Saturday week, 25th inst. The match should be a good one, and should attract a large attendance.

The Ponsonby District Football Club will send a team to Aratapu to-morrow evening, playing the Aratapu Football Club on Saturday afternoon. The Aucklanders return on Monday next. A writer in a Canterbury exchange says the victory of "Wellington over the local team was a rather lucky one, as the visitors had by no means the best of the play, as Canterbury had them a good deal more on the defensive than they were themselves called upon to defend their own line.

The success of the Wellington team on tour should give southern critics some idea of the strength of the Auckland team that defeated New Zealand, and “ Forward,” in the Otago Witness, will no doubt now be led to believe that we are a pretty strong lot up this way. Opinions seemed to be very much divided as to the desirability of removing the headquarters of the New Zealand Rugby Union from Wellington, the latest union to express itself in favour of Wellington retaining charge being Hawke's Bay. Canterbury and Otago are still going strong for a change, but as far as I know, the strongest union in the colony, Auckland, has not expressed an opinion either one way or tbe other. The long looked-forward-to costume match between the Takapuna Club and the Orakei natives will be played at Devonport on Saturday afternoon next, and is the only attraction of note to kickists set down for decision. The Maoris have been training most assiduously, and Paul, with his 22 stone, is said to have worked up sufficient speed to seriously inconvenience Nancy Lee and the Lady of the Lake (Takapuna) of the opposing team. Kick-off at 3p m.

Dave Gage, the well-known representative footballer, is back in Wellington, where it appears he is likely to settle. The New Zealand Rugby Union has decided to suspend for two years three members of the team (Harris, Roberts, and Calnan), who toured New South Wales and Queensland, for alleged misbehaviour in Auckland. The Wellington Rugby Union subsequently asked for a copy of the evidence on which the governing body decided to take the steps, but this has been refused them, the New Zealand Rugby Union’s ground of refusal being that some of the evidence was of a confidential nature. This, together with the action of the Otago Union in notifying that they were the correct people to deal with Harris’s ease, seems to indicate that trouble is brewing. The Wellington team on tour has had a most successful run, and a somewhat lucky one. They defeated Taranaki by 3 points to nil, and minus several of their best men, have defeated their opponents right along the line. A good deal of the element known as luck has accompanied their efforts, as their victory against Canterbury was a potted goal (4 points), and against Southland a penalty goal (3 points), though in theii' last fixture something more in the way of true Rugby was seen, when they beat Otago by 10 points to 6. The success of the Wellington tour in the South Island gives a fair line of the strength of Auckland this year. The players from the windy city, with a weakened team, manage to defeat their southern antagonists after being themselves defeated by Auckland, who, they admit, would have scored a much more substantial victory had they had a dry ground. On this line of reasoning, Auckland should have proved too strong for everything through the colony