INTER-SCHOOL GAMES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 83, 22 June 1945, Page 7

INTER-SCHOOL GAMES

FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL WHAKATANE DEFEATS TE PUKE Excellent weather favoured the pupils of the Te Puke District High School on the occasion of their visit to WhaUatane recently for football and" basketball matches. Dry grounds made for good play | and some excellent games resulted. [ The football match between the \B teams of the two .schools provided rt,particularly close game that largely resolved itself into a dour forward struggle. The two packs were fairly Evenly matched, and for comparatively inexperienced players did fairly well. The handling of the backs of both teams was weak but should improve with practice. As the result of good combined forward . work D. Carson scored two tries for and after the only passing movement in which all the backs the wing thrcequarter ? J. Steenson. scored a try wide out. Murphy 'and Drabble scored for Te the game ending 9—6 in favour of Whakatane. B. Symmans at halfback played a particularly sound game for Whakatane. The match between the first fifteens .was probably the main attraction of the day ? and was watched by many children and a number of adults. Two keen and. well-trained teams provided a fast and sparkling display. Again the forwards were well matched, the Te Puke players breaking quickly from the scrums to harrass the. inside backs of their opponents, and also securing possession. more frequently from the linc-outs t while the Whakatane forwards dribbled and handled better. The deciding factor in the game was the play of the home team's inside backs M. Tiepa T. Davis and W. Rutherford whose •5 penetration of their opponents' defence was responsible for three tries. Rutherford scored the first between the posts as the result of a brilliant Tiepa converting. Then Tiepa made a fine solo run of 30 yards on the blind side of a scrum to score fairly well out and the third came from a snappy passing movement in which the ball went along the line of backs for f. Law to score. The good work of the forwards was rewarded when R. SchnelIcp touched down for a try from a forward rush. Although the Te Puke players never let up and came close to scoring at the game, ended 14—0 in favour of Whakatane. Among the forwards G. Goodall A. Mundy '9 and B. Skclton played particularly well. Four basketball matches were arranged between the two> schools'. In all of them the. standard of play was high and both sides showed good » co-ordination of passing movements. The Whakatane teams were perhaps speedier in footwork and in handling and passing the ball. Their defensive work also proved very sound. Although the scores showed a wide margin in favour of the Whakatane teams the play was on the whole very evenly contested. The scores were as follows: — Te Puke Whakatane A team 1 1G B team (5 1(3 C team 4 13 D team (i 21