ASSOCIATION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 532, 12 June 1909, Page 12

ASSOCIATION.

(Bt ObNTRS-HaLF.) With Diamonds and Y.M.O.A. topping tho list, Swifts one lpoint behind the leaders, and Hovers and St. Johns improving with every match, and' liable to upset the best in the competition, it may be rather early to pretend to sort out the ultimate winner of tho Bonior league competition, but this writer inclines strongly towards tho welltrained and stable Diamond combination as the best club operating. Wanderers are a mutable combination this season, and after last Saturday's defeat, anything might happen to them. Tho Old Country players do not appear to have recovered from the shock of the crushing defeat inflicted on them at Seatoun a few weeks ago, when Sohofield, Ferguson and Co. pluyed havoc with the Englishmen in the'.'second spell. After their initial gamo against Thistle, it looked at though Wautferers would bo something for tho best to ho afraid of, but who is afraid of them after the display at l'etone. Tho foregoing may not look very complimentary to Petone, but. the suburbanites are deserving of all credit for their win., They had tho best of tho play throughout, and tho changes adopted in tho placing of their warriors may have tho effect of forcing tho team even higher up the list. Vetone have held togethor in an uphill fight, and may good luck attend them.

A small field , and a gale of wind was not sufficient to rob the Diamond v. St. John's game of interest, and without wishing to discourage the promising St. John's team, it must bo said that Diamonds outplayed them in every department when they got really going. The combination of the ■ All Blacks, in spite of the wretched conditions, is something to look back on with pleasure. Roddy and tho two ..Lowes played grand football, but Thorley was not up to thoir high standard. Ho is too slow for his new position. Hathaway, one the Diamond reserves, "was pressed into service, and gave a real good exhibition in the second spell, although 'his form in the opening .stages of tho game was hot of the best. Taylor and P.. Roberts were the best of the backs, but Barnett' and Overend put in a good deal, of effective work. ,

Casting the oyo back over the game, it is difficult to find any more deserving man on the St. John's side than Martin, who played a fine game in goal. Five ' shots were got past him certainly, but he had ■no hope , of saving - any of them,. as they wero all rushed through, close to the posts. Some of his "saves" were really fino. Cross and Lindlay . both, did fairly well as fullbacks, but tho halves wore not np to form. Schofield was the best of the forwards; Fer-guson-also playing well, but not up to hie best form. . Moore, likewise,, has been seen to ■ more advantage, but he was not given many chances. .. Tho old order changeth. Time was when the "soccer" players never were sot on edge; when he used U> see, all too frequently, a round Association ball, drop-kicked and punted after the Rugby style. This used to happen whenever a "soccer" ball' got in amongst a crowd, but a change has como o'er the scene, and ono had only to go to the Basin Reservo on at least two days last week to see a crowd of youths and men turning a Rugby ball to account in the interests of "soccer. It is a sign of the tunesjSays .the Association enthusiast, who holds, with the Rugby scribe who wrote the other day, that, in ten years' time, there would be no Rugby,; or at least nothing worth speaking of,, and whilst talking of this subject, one of the clumsiest spectacles ever seen on a football field is the average Rugby player endeavouring to manipulate a "soccer ball. In.some mysterious fashion, most probably caused by statements in the press tiat the Celtic and Glasgow., Rangexe Clubs had, in view of tho congestion of the League fixtures of Celtic, approached' the Scottish F.A. for permission to phay their Cup final to a finish if drawn at .the second time of asking,. the greater part of the: huge attendance at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on April 17, holil the opinion that an extra half-hour was to bp played when Mr. J. B. Stare, who referred, signalled the close of the game, the scores standing at one goal each, and as the officials and some members'of'the two teams returned to make their way.to the pavilion, the general disappointment was voiced in no uncertain fashion. Hooting and yelling accompanied those who retired from the field of play, whioh wairenewed-again and again as the remainder of the players, who had stood undecided in the arena, at length soupht th« dressmg-rooms. When tho crowd realised that there, would be no further play, ihoy invaded the field, tore up the goal-poste, cut down and made string of the nets, and then rushed tho pavilion. A■' small cordon of pohco blocked tho. entrance thoro, and kept tho attackers at bay with drawn batons, but the invasion, backed as it. was by showers of stones and'whatever weapons came'handiest, was too much for the polico, who after an anxious and trying time had latterly to floe. Free.fights wore common, and not a few had broken heads to remind them of the melee.; Powerless to deal with the infuriated rioters, the guardians of the peace aban--52. v I(Jea 'of olearing the >ground although an attempt was made by a few mounted'men which resulted in disaster, as several were unhorsed and unmercifully pummelled when on the ground, and the police had to beat a retreat as speedily as possiblo to avoid maltreatment.

. Having overcome ail opposition, the attention of tho mob was next turned to "anything destructible, and, surrounding the pay-boxes ■at the main .entrance in Somerville Drive, these wero quickly set ablaze. The arrival oi the. lure Brigade .lent'but additional fuel to theuvwrath, and tho firemen in the execution of their-duty were hampered by the cutting of the hose pipes and further fusilades' of ,stones and turf. The Fire Brigade of course, ■ were rendered almost. totally. holptlua ° fore water could be Erected on to the flames tho pay-boxes were soon a charred mass. Fortunately for those in-ad-jacent houses, the entrance gates were forty feet away, and what might have been a further disaster, had tho booses, too, caught fire, was only obviated- by the width of the street. Over one hundred injured were attended to m the pavilion by Dr. Jamieson one of the City Councillors, the 'injuries mostly being outs,and bruises'received from' the flying stones and bottles, while many suffered horn brutal kicks,. Six people were detained in the ■Victoria Infirmary, where they wore conveyed by the ambulance. : A corps of ambulance men who wero in attendance at tho game rendered yeoman service m dealing with the injured. It was a scene unparalleled m the history of football - Sportsman.' , The Scottish Football Association at a special meeting subsequently; decided' by 15 votes to 11, that "m order to mark our disapproval of the riotous conduct of a section of spectators a t tho Scottish final tie. and to avoid the danger of any further repetition, the Cup Competition for this season be not hnished, and the cup and medals withheld" thS-XSIS' ooncemed w A frequent remark heard on the 'Association playing grounds at Miramar on Saturday asV was tho apologetic; "It's blowing tei hanl fox- epod football." Thus expresses a popular fallacy, and it is. time to say some: thing about it. Strange as it may appear to W?'ii I "n r f th -S ,v ! n( ? tho better the football should be. Footballers talk with an appearance of wisdom of "scientific football " It is to be feared that they talk of what they (o not know, or, ever will know, unless they do a little thinking. It is as necessarv for a footballer to think as it is for a Cabinet Minister to think. -Whether tho game bo football or politics, brains win every time Brawn and muscle may probably carry tho odds on a still, clear, winter afternoon but whon a northerly galo hits tho plaviiiß ground, the brainy footballer comes out on top, and since still, clear winter afternoons are very few, and very far between, the intervals beiii" monopolised by northerly gales or southerly, "busters," wo arrive %y a simple process of reasoning, - at tho conclusion that in Wellington the brainy men arc the men who count in tho long run for tho championship honours. Tho Swifts-Hovers match at Miramar on Saturday furnished an example of what can bo done by two teams who don't think. A hard northerly swnpt the ground—which'was miserably deficient in length and breadth— on the quarter, and becauso this adverso condition was not sufficiently studied, play was mostly confined to tho leoward sidoi Bad football. Tho left wing of tho windward team,, and the,right of tho leeward team', practically carried tho burden oi tho ploy,

while the others did very little more than run up and down the field waiting for a kick at the ball, which camo not. I saw Oldnall (Rovers) send a long, straight kick down the Ice side of the field j it bounced and was blown over the line. The throw-in was captured by Swifts, who nearly scored with a concerted rush, assisted by the wind. I saw a Swifts' full-back do precisely tho same thing. It was worse than bad football) it was sheer foolishness. Under the conditions of a game like the Swifts-Rovers match, strict attention ehould be given to the following points:— L Long kicking should be reduced to a Huuitnum.

2. Tho ball shonld be kept well under control. '■

3. Tho windward side of tho field of play must Ret a fair share of the work. ut j» and backs should always feed to the windward forwards. f>. The tactics of the forward line, in dribbling nnd passing, should be so developed that the ball may, at the moment of "shooting bo delivered from tho winward flank or tho centre. ■ \ To accomplish all these things requires brains. Verb. Sap. " The cleanest contest I havo ever witnessed in connection with any sport." Such reports "Left Wing" in the Otapo "Witness," was the Tefereo'e verdict at fho close of the match between Southland and Otago. As is the case in Otago, the relations between Rugby and Association officialdom in Southland are altogether • pleasant (and in Wellington?). One outcome of this is that the Southland Association received half of tho gate money, although there wore two Rugby fixtures and only one "soccer" match on • tho grounds during the afternoon. Of the spectators present there was obviously a fair proportion who had never seen Association football played. When the same opened with a iprotty liont of heading their surprise evidenced itself in repeated ejaculations of candid merriment.