NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 1011, 22 July 1909, Page 13

NOTES.

On Monday next the Ponsonby team leaves, by the Victoria, for Sydney, where they will play five matches, returning in three week’s time. Their principal match will be against the Newtown Club fifteen, the crack district team of Sydney, the result of which game will enable one to judge of the . standard of club football in Sydney as compared with Rugby in Auckland, or for that matter, New Zealand. The following twenty-one players have been chosen to represent the Ponsonby Club in their Australian matches:—Backs: Blakey, Clarke, O’Leary, Murray, McGregor, Morse, Bater, Webb, Wolfgramm, McDonald. Forwards: Sellars, Elliott, Cunningham, Savoury, Hall, Nicholson, Francis, McKinnon, J. Dervan, Grundy and Barrett. Mr. T. Aitken, delegate to the Ponsonby Club, will make the trip as manager, while Mr. E. Whaley, secretary of the Club, accompanies the team as assistant manager.

We understand that “ Bob ” Magee, the popular City five-eights and Auckland representative, has played his last game of football, having definitely decided to retire from active service in the field. Magee first made his appearance in senior football at the age of fifteen, and has been a playing member of the City Club for the past eighteen years. He has represented Auckland during the years 1905-6 7-8, and is one of the soundest defensive players that ever donned the blue and white jersey. His retirement will mean a big loss to the province and the City team in particular.

H. Thomas, who last season was a member of the City fourth grade fifteen, is evidently making a name for himself in football circles at Waihi. Referring to the Waihi-Waikino senior match “ Looker-on” in the Waihi “Daily Telegraph” says: “ H. Thomas (half-) was the pick of the Waikino backs, and is a sterling player. His defensive play was a revelation. He is a very young player, this being his first year at senior football. With a little more experi-

exciting. At Lancaster Park the stand and banks provide music (remarks a Christchurch writer).

In conversation with a Southern writer, W. Johnson, the one-time All Black, but more recently professional, who returned from England some ten days ago after playing a season’s Northern Union football for the Wigan Club, states, that the professional game is of a very strenuous character. One has to be in the very best condition to last it out. Training for the professional game is an art, and I have learnt it. Johnson, who witnessed a Rugby Union match at Dunedin on Saturday, was disappointed at the standard of play. The pace of the game was slow, and did not compare at all favourably with Northern Union football. This, of course, is Johnson’s opinion. He ought to know, as he has played both games. The one-time Otago forward does not intend to go back to England next season, but will remain in New Zealand to assist in organising another New Zealand professional team for the Old Country.

Parnell and Grafton will provide the principal attraction at Alexandra Park on Saturday and as both of these teams are equal in championship points an exciting game should take place for third position. On the occasion of the last meeting between Parnell and Grafton the former team won by 11 points to 3.

After a lively game football players have been known to leave the ground minus a few molars, but the committee of the Otago Rugby Football Union was recently called upon to adjudicate in a case wherein a player had lost his teeth in the Carisbrook dressing shed. It appeared that the teeth were movable and that, for fear of accidents, the player had left them in his coat pocket. After the game he found the pocket rifled and the teeth missing. Eventually it was decided that the Union could accept no responsibility in the matter.

Considerable interest will be taken in the doings of the Ponsonby football team in Australia, and the results of their five matches will be eagerly awaited in the western suburb by the Club’s supporters. It will therefore be good news to many to learn that the the enterprising Mac, of Mac’s Ponsonby School of Billiards,, corner of Renall street and