NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 1008, 1 July 1909, Page 13

NOTES.

The time for the Ponsonby Club’s departure for Sydney is drawing near, and on Monday, the 26th inst., the blue and black combination leave for their three weeks’ Australian tour. As some of the players are reported to be unable to make the trip, a good number of the first juniors should fall in for the tour, as the club should take at least half-a-dozen emergencies. If the Ponsonbyites reproduce their proper form on arrival over the other ■side, they are certain to come back with a very fine record.

Now that the professional football season has closed at Home, it is reported that Lance Todd, of the Wigan Club, intends returning to Auckland. A. Carlaw, who is well known in Auckland football circles, is at present with the New Zealand professional team in Australia. Carlaw was cabled for after the team’s arrival in Sydney, there being a vacancy in the pro-Black’s rear division.

Football will be continued at Alexandra Park under “ dry” conditions on Saturday, the Epsom Hotel having come under the ban on Wednesday. Followers of the Rugby game will suffer great inconvenience as a result of this foolhardy legislation, and in future a novelty of the matches played at the Park will be the absence of “ shouting.” “ Where there’s a will there’s a way,” however, and it is safe to say that thirsty individuals will still find a way of having their social glass.

A member of the professional team now playing matches in New South Wales, writes to a Wellington friend that the first two matches played across the water had the effect of arousing wonderful interest in the northern game. The attendances exceeded the most sanguine expectations, and the exposition of football given by the contestants thrilled the spectators. He says that the great crowds which attended the initial games give the lie direct to the statements that the Northern League game was dead so far as Sydney was concerned.

J. Coleman, the All Black and Taranaki representative, has made another application to the Taranaki Rugby Union to have his disqualification removed. The northern body is going to recommend the N.Z.R.U. to remove the suspension at the end rf the present season.

Referring to the Ponsonby team’s visit to Sydney, an Australian football critic says:—Beyond all doubt the match of the tour, if it can be arranged, is Ponsonby v. Newtown. It would, in a sense, decide the club championship of Australasia, since Ponsonny is the champion club in the champion province in New Zealand, and Newtown is the champion club of the champion State of Australia.

Despite the low standard of back play at the end of this season, Otago should be able to place a tolerably useful team in the field against a foreign invasion. While the backs for the main part are poor as compared with the rear divisions Otago has had in the past, the forwards are of a fine type—tall, powerful, and fast withal. As a protection for a weak rearguard, the Otago forwards of 1909 should hold their own against allcomers.

Wellington referees are blinking this season at the law regarding the failure of a player to part with the ball directly when on the ground (says a Southern writer). Flagrant violations of this law crop up Saturday after Saturday, but nothing is done to check the practice. If players were penalised for the. offence we would have cleaner and more attractive football.

The Ponsonby Club’s five matches in Sydney will probably include three against club teams and two against combined teams, to be played during the absence of the New South Wales team at Brisbane.

Meetings are to be held by the various Dunedin clubs shortly to discuss the question of the district scheme of football. This question has been brought up at various times, but has always been thrown out with emphasis.

George Spencer, of Wellington, who was injured during the first N.Z.-N.S. Wales match, will not be likely to play again for some time, as it was found necessary to send for a doctor to attend him in the dressing room. It was feared that his jaw was broken.

Miss Nellie Stewart, as the patroness of the Newtown Club, Sydney, was presented by the members with a handsome cake at Her Majesty’s Theatre the other night, when she appeared as “ Kitty Bellairs.” Its design was that of a stage in miniature, with Miss Nellie Stewart as “ Sweet Nell ” shaking hands with a Newtown player.