Hornby, Linwood Still Unbeaten

Press, Volume C, Issue 29513, 15 May 1961, Page 15

Hornby, Linwood Still Unbeaten

The final games in the first round of the Canter bury Rugby League's championship were played on Saturday. Grounds were in surprisingly good condition after the rain and players appreciated the softer nature of the turf. Hornby and Linwood continued on their winning ways and are still unbeaten Result* are;— Hornby 15, Sydenham #. Linwood 12, Christchurch It. Papanui 24. Marist 11. Championship points are:— Hornby 9, Linwood 9. Papanui 4. Sydenham 3, Christchurch 3, Marist 2. HORNBY V. SYDENHAM Handling the slightly greasy conditions better. Hornby nad a convincing 15-0 win over Sydenham. Playing its typical game, Hornby excelled in making play from its opponent's faults and with fine cover defence. Both sides were without key players through a representative fixture, but generally the replacemenu all played good games. Sydenham adopted iU usual tactics in attempting to keep the game open, but made many handling mistakes, of which Hornby was very quick to take advantage. The winner’s biggest advantage came from the fine efforts of its forwards, who always had the upper hand. Neither back line greatly Impressed on attack, but lacked little on defence. Taking over the leadership of the Hornby forwards in place of M. Cooke, D. Neiman did a fine job. He was always up with the play, and his good handling, coupled with strong running, did much to keep his side on attack. D. Shadwell, F. Tinning. C. Barker and R. Woodgate were always in support with consistent good efforts. B. Butts, R Wakefield, and B. Barron were the most prominent Sydenham forwards, but most of their good play eame from individual efforts. Tries for Hornby were scored by I. Drayton. D. Shadwell and F. Tinning. W. Truscott converted one try, and D. Neiman kicked two penalty goals. The referee was Mr P. Yaxley. PAPANUI V. MARIST After leading at half-time. Marist succumbed to a strong second-half rally by Papanui to

be beaten 24 points to 11 in the curtain-raiser on the Show Grounds Oval. At half-time. Marist looked very likely to give last season s joint champion its fourth loss of :.he season but Papanui came very strongly in the later stages of the second half to score four quick tries and put the result well beyond doubt. At one stage of the second half Marist led by 11-10 but after that the players could not hold out Papanui s strong onslaughts. In the first half Marists bustling tactics paid handsomely. Twice the backs toed the loose ball through to score tries, the logical answer to a wet ground and a very slippery ball. However. Papanui’s combined play proved too much later and also Marist did not receive the same opportunities as in the first spell. Papanui’s two wingers. M. Higgs and N, Smith, scored two good tries each and the centre. R. Carey, proved to be a most formidable man to stop when under way. One of the best forwards on the field was the Papanui second row player. G. Neiman. His greatest value was in the loose where he. was seen frequently to open up play for the backs. R. Feutz, a loose forward, and K. Peters, the hooker, also had good games. For Martst G. Caldwell on the left wing revealed a lot of pace but was not able to use it very often. J. Costello, at second five-eighths, showed up on defence and did a tremendous lot of tackling in the 80 minutes. Mari M’s best back was the half-back J. Walsh. He tackled well and also had several runs with a penetrative effect. Scorers for Papanui were N. Smith (2), M. Higgs (2). G. Bond and I. Mclntyre. G. Bond converted two and kicked a penalty. For ’Marist tries were scored by M. O’Neill. C. Worters and B. Kennedy. B. Ellis converted one. The referee was Mr W. Gray. LINWOOD V. CHRISTCHURCH With seven of Its regular players unavailable. Linwood managed to beat Christchurch by only two points, and may be considered a little lucky to remain a co-leader of the senior competition. Down 10 points to four at half-time. Christchurch came back to score two tries to Linwood’s penalty goal and in the dying stages of the game thrust attack upon attack, coming within an ace of scoring on numerous occasions. As a spectacle the game left little to enthuse over, but tn the final minutes the crowd was in a frenzy, for it appeared that

Christchurch might easily gain victory. One player who was determined that Christchurch would not score the vital points was the Linwood captain, L. Blanchard. His play was outstanding and even after he received a leg injury he managed to lead his forwards to greater efforts, esnecially on defence. The Christchurch forwards have seldom played better as a pack. Behind a determined pack the Christchurch halfback, R. Bercini, was in brilliant form. His quick thinking and clever running were responsible for practically all of Christchurch’s attacking movements. It was fortunate for Christchurch that Linwood was unable to make more use of its backline. For Linwood. M. Carlyle scored two tries and J. White converted one try and kicked two penalties. Christchurch’s tries were scored by W. Walker and G. Clarke. S. Radford kicked two penalties. The referee was Mr D. C. Wilson.