FOOTBALL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 671, 24 June 1882, Page 2

FOOTBALL.

The East Christchurch Football Club tried conclusions with the local Club on the Domain Ground this afternoon. The visiting team arrived by the morning ex ■ press from Christchurch, and lunched at Quill’s Hotel as the guests of the local men.

The weather was glorious, the sun being sufficiently strong to render “leather trundling” unusually warm work. Play commenced at 3 o’clock. The following were the players ; —East Christchurch : Atack, Blanchard, De Castro, Fisher, Fuller, Hinge, Kesteven (captain), Mountfort, Pringle, Boss, Roberts, Shand, Fuller (2), Wright, Woledgo. A.F.G.; Brett, Fooks, A. (captain), Evans, Fooks, J., Lechner, Winter, Fooks, E., Hugomin, Pauling, Hart. Groves, Church, Hunt, Hepburn, and Hutchison.

The match was commenced by Ashburton kicking off. For some considerable time, the ball was kept in mid ground, the play on both sides being pretty even. By dint of a great deal of hard scrimmaging, Ashburton gradually forced their opponents back within Christchurch’s 25 yards. Some close play here ensued. By some really smart play, the Christchrch men then took the ball within two or three yards of the opponents’ goal, where Atack narrowly escaped getting a touch-down, but was smartly prevented by Fooks, who touched the ball down in self-defence. The ball was again taken out and again kicked off, but was quickly returned within close proximity to the Ashburton goal post, when a tough fight ensued between the two teams, and Ashburton were again compelled to touch down. At the end of the first spell there was no score, but the game slightly favored the Christchurch men. During the second spell nothing of particular moment occurred with the exception that the Ashburton men got the ball pretty close once to the Christchurch goal. Mountfort (Christchurch), however, came to the rescue just in the nick of time and quickly removed the ball to a safe distance. A. Fooks and Hart especially distinguished themselves for Ashburton, and indeed the play, as a whole, was very good, being watched with keen interest by the spectators, who included a few ladies. During the third spell Ashburton was compelled to touch down once more in self defence, and this advantage was followed up by a hard scrimmage close to the Ashburton goal-line, which resulted in De Castro obtaining a touch-down for Christchurch, but at so difficult an angle that the visitors resolved to punt it out, and the Ashburton men were quickly on to the ball, and prevented any further advantage being gained by their opponents. Time was shortly afterwards called, and the spell ended in favor of the Christchurch men to nil.

The game resulted in a barren victory for Christchurch by one touch-doam to nothing.