FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 879, 10 January 1907, Page 12

FOOTBALL.

A NEW GAME.

The Alexandra Palace Rink Rugby

-team,, which is at present invincible at the new pastime of football-skating, has challenged the Crystal Palace cohort to a match, to be decided at the Sydenham arena in a few days’ time (says a London paper).

It would be difficult to conjure up in the imagination a more exhilarating game than Rugby on skates. The interception of a Gallaher in his dauntless flight with the ball may be a hazardous undertaking, requiring both nerve and skill; to check the onward passage of a fearless skater, when the movements of the intermediary are governed by the caprices of eight little boxwood wheels and a false “stroke” of the feet capable of bringing him down on the hard asphalt, demands even sterner qualities. A word about the origin of this new evening sport. It came into being, as many games do, by accident. A party of adept rink-skaters, young city men working off superfluous energy after office hours, were throwing a tennis ball one to the other as they raced along. It relieved the monotony of ordinary skating, and was at once voted “good fun.” Then, someone suggested a larger ball—a Rugby ball. Goalposts quickly loomed on the horizon; after them came special rules for the rink, and finally a brand new game. Of course, it was a bit risky at first—this dexterous collaring of flying skaters —and it is not surprising that on the first occasion when an important match took place one man was hurled to the ground and broke three ribs. But a few regular practice games, a few mutual understandings among the players, soon eliminated grave danger. Since that first day, though risks are ever present—and in what manly game are they absent?— there has been no accident to chronicle.

Fifteen men aside are not required for Rugby on skates, for the rink cannot be much over fifteen yards wide, and thirty men rushing pell-mell on skates after an e gg* s haped ball would provide chaos and a few accidents into the bargain. Six men aside is the regulation field —two forwards, two three-quarters, and two backs. The goalposts at either end of the dumbbell-shaped rink are about six feet high and eight feet apart, and are fixed in barrels. There is no cross-bar, for as no kicking is allowed there is no question of converting a try. Indeed, a try counts as a goal without any further ceremony.

To score it is necessary for the skater to convey the ball between the posts and deposit it on the floor immediately behind. If he attempts to score without passing

through the posts, the other side can claim a foul, and a scrum is thereupon formed on the spot. The scrum on the rink differs from the scrum on the meadow in that the eight men who compose it dive for the ball with their right hands, putting their left arms over the shoulder of the neighbouring player. The back throws the ball into the centre of the group, and the eight forwards and threequarters each endeavour to “hand” it out. So when the game is* started, or after the scoring of a goal, the four forwards all bend over the ball at the centre of the rink, and touch it with their outstretched hands; then, when the whistle sounds, the scramble on skates begins. Considerable skill is required, it goes without saying, for there is no firm foothold as on turf. Passing is by Rugby rule—backwards; a breach of this law leads to a scrum, which on the rink is a far livelier affair than it often is on grass. Of course, the forward’s work is more dangerous than that of either the threequarter or the back for the former is going at full speed most of the time and a false movement may bring disaster.