Invercargill

New Zealand Tablet, 12 September 1918, Page 22

Invercargill

(From our own correspondent.) September 9. The schools' senior football competition was brought to a close on Saturday, August 31. Considerable interest was taken in the meeting of the two leading teamsthe Marists and St. George's. Both teams had good records—the Marists had not.sustained a lowi, but had one draw the St. George's had a loss to Marists and a draw. The pessimists predicted that the Greens would go down before their powerful rivals in the second round. The weather was fine and the ground in good order. The play was strenuous throughout. A feature of the game was the fine dribbling rushes by the Marist forwards, who kept their opponents defending their territory during the greater part of the game. The first spell ended-.Marists 3, St. George's nil. In the second spell St. George's were defending most of the time, but in the last few minutes they scored in a favorable position, but failed to convert; the game thus ending in a draw. This result gives the Marist boys the schools' championship for 1918. Though the Marists have their name on the championship banner 1\ times during the past 18 years, they were particularly keen this year to emulate the Old Boys (the Athletics), who have won the senior championship. It may be mentioned that the Athletics had six members in the Southland team that defeated Otago here recently. Both the Athletics and their younger brothers deserve to be congratulated on this season's football successes. The Marist boys in Auckland, Napier, Christchurch, Timaru. and Invercargill have won the championships this season. Mr. Lindsay, captain of the Athletics, and an "All Black" player, mentioned at the presentation of the shield to his team, that in the New Zealand team which visited Australia just before the war, eleven of the members were Marist Brothers' Old Boys; and Mr. Isaacs, a non-Catholic, who was manager of that team, and who also spoke, said of these Old Boys that not only were they good players, but they were good men, who nevor neglected their religious duties on Sundays. Those are. the boys that the Dunedin Head Masters' Association would keep out of athletic snorts altogether. Happily the sporting bodies have no time for such narrow-minded-ness.