ASSOCIATION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 811, 7 May 1910, Page 10

ASSOCIATION.

(Br Centre-Half.) The defeat of the' Swifts by Ramblers last Saturday came rather as a surprise to local enthusiasts, though supporters of the Swifts' Club were not at all sanguine, as both Sparrow and Hey were not available for the match. However. Swifts have nobody but themselves to blame for the loss, which should have the effect of waking them up. M'Leair gavo Ramblers one goal,, while ' a mistake in law spoilt ono excellent chance for the. Swifts. However, the Ramblers ployed a very good game indeed, and may be expected to give every cluh. they meet a good shaking up. Webster was iii excellent form in goal, and made many clever saves.: The backs all did well, Jackson and. Cross being probably the best. The writer; is glad to. see Jackson oat once more, as ho is far too good a player to bo on the line. . Some pretty. pieces of. play took place amongst the forwards,.and . Smallbone, Anker, and Trovethiek. were often, conspicuous. Waters has returned, to.. the fray, and he acquitted 'himself well ,on the wing. ■':.-'..', The Swifts' baeks were as a: rule safe, Pye-Smith and Graves .'especially so,-but Wilson was;very poor,', and will surely be called to account if, he-does not train along' with vthe. rest'of.','the team.... The forwards we're \-absolutely ,-dis- : •jointed. W. Mouot.was pressed into servico at' outside left, and acquitted .Jimiself well, but was honipered throughout by Swift, who was far .below-.his. form, at insido left. ; Scott wautfcSvalting. up '.at inside right, and also shako, his side up., occasionally. V'eSse'y''.was wasted* at mitsid*.riglii. ■ v :.,,./i;., ," r : v V Tho Diambrids-'lynsri&v.gumeX'.at J.Jitel-: burno Park 'was a very disappointing' one, and calls for no special mention. The writer would, however, liko' to point .nut,'that itlookcd very bad to see two Thistle■ players ou the field 'in their ordinary\ clothes. Wo know they, were .filling: vacancies at the last moment,, but still the effect from a spectator's point of view, was,bad. Clubs might',lake/a note.of this, and .havo a : spare Sot: of -."togs'' rcadv for emergencies.. '■■„'.';.' •'•"'■:■'.■'■ •'"'.'."' The Wednesday' presented to the 'IVJ/ I :A.' by .Messrs.'Walker, and Hall, is «a very handsomevtrpphy. • Tho donors ImVo also-exi'iiessed,,their intention to havo whatever,:'inscription the association desires "engraved on the cup. Certain huekey players ou Kolburne Park, with a fine disregard for the conventions of true sport,; have been guilty of walking across the Association football ground at. the .park on Ihe.way. to. their dressing shed, instead of skirting the field of play. ■ Tho Management Committee of theW.F.A. has decided to make formal complaint to the Hockey Association. A contrast to the liockey players'' behaviour was that of .the Oriental and Victoria Collego Rugby men, who were playing on No. 1 Newtown Park last Saturday. ' The Rugby players made a long detour in order to avoid crossing the soccer ground during the time play was in progress. ,It is not generally understood by soccer players that men leaving the field, except, in the case of accident, without the permission of the' referee, may be held guilty of misconduct, and penalised accordingly. Last Saturday several members of the Marist "B team left the field about ten minutes before the call of time, and the remainder of the game was moro or less of. a farce. At Wednesday's meeting of the Wellington Association a letter was received from Mv. G. A. Anderson, refcreo in the Wednesday League gamo Union v. Artillery, congratulating the association on the excellent start made in tho Wednesday competition. Tho referee stated that the game was fought out in nn excellent spirit, throughout, and he did not have to whistle once for. a foul. There wos Borne excellent defence, and the combination of the Artillery forwards would have done credit to Saturday players. - Unquestionably an excellent start has been made with the Wednesday matches and properly managed there, is no doubt but what this competition has come to stuy. At the present time the Wednesday football is controlled by a sub-coro-inittoe consisting of ono or two members of tho W.F.A. Management Committee, and one or two Wednesday delegates, but would it not ho better if tho whule business was taken over by the Management' Committee to which, tho Wednesday clubs might elect a delegate? Such "an arrangement should bo much more satisfactory to all concerned. Talking recently,to an old player who took part in the competition of some reasons ago tho writer was informed that the Wednesday matches woald never. have lopsed had they been properly controlled by tho W.F.A. Unquestionably the duty of the W.F.A. is to, advance'soccer .in Wellington, and I am sure a much greater 'success could bo made of the Wednesday league if the above suggestion was adopted. . The Examination Board of the Referees' Association has been hard at work of late examining new' candidates, and tho method adopted seems to be an excellent one. Two of the board examine tho referees verbally on the general knowledge of the rules, whilo in another room the other two havo q plan of tho field of play with 22 figures and a ball on it, by meons of which some very excellent questioning on the off-side and penalty, etc., rules was the means of upsetting more than one future referee. Messrs. B. Ij. Salmon and J. B. Paton, f, understand, asked some "fair hummers" of questions which set nearly every candidate thinking. Much credit is due to Mr. Hi Yeoman for introducing tho board system, and ho should prove a very useful addition to tho Refertcs' Association.

Normnn, who played for Y.M.C.A. Inst season, and who was suspended until Ma ( y 1 this season has signed on for Swifts and will play outside right, for last year's champions. The whole Swifts forward lino will be reorganised (and this was badly needed). Vessey is going into the centre again now that a man has been found for outside left. The Wednesday matches have brought to light quite a number of old players, amongst whom I might mention Sharkey (Old Queen's Park), tho Mouatts, and Sampson (old Thorndon). There is very little to be said about tho Y.M.C.A.-EoTors match. Tho most use-

fu! man on the Eovers'side was W. Gib-1 son, who did an immense amount of work. Gibson did almost too much on ocoa-1 sions, and roamed at will all over the I field. On one occasion his roving came' off with advantage to his side—viz., the occasion on which he scored after a fine piece of individual work on the right win.?. Casliman put in a lot of hard work, but. might havo shown more skill. Bcthell was probably the best of the, Rovers', backs, his defence being most, valuable. Bradbury did well in patches. He displayed plenty of dash; but it was not always effective. On tho Y.M.C.A. side Timperly and Phillips were consistently to (be fore,, and It. Gibson was also responsible for some clever work. A matter of detail which might bo attended to by referees is the question of the costume they wear when controlling a match in which Rovers are engaged. 'As a rule a referee wears a white sweater, and when. • in addition, short trousers are affected, it leads to confusion, as the ball is frequently passed to the referee, whoso uniform leads to the belief that he is a player. To sort out a distinctive uniform for the Rovers' matches Mill not be asking too much of referees, and the matter probably only needs this reminder to be rectified. The positions to date of the various teams in tho first division competition are as under:—

Considerable satisfaction is being expressed in refereeing circles at the capable and impartial way in which Mr. C. E. Fordham, chairmnn, conducts the meetings of the association, and it is to bo hoped that the troubles of the past are over for good and all. Mr. Fordham is' one of those courteous and capable business men whose association with the game does good, and his roturn to active harness is welcome Referring to the England-Wales match tho "Athletic News" says:—"We should add that 631 was received in gate money at. the match,- and that this amount did not include tickets sold prior to the day. Thero appeared to bo fully IG,OOO people at "the Cardiff Arms Park—a wonderful assembly in:.a centre sacred to the Rugby game. The men came down' from the hills and'up from "the. valleys." .

•a ' P S S a * « JS .° o 2'3 £h"£ t-1 P & Diamonds 3 3 0 0 G Swifts 3 2 1 0 4 Y.M.C.A 3 1113 Eovers 3 J 1 X 2 Thistle : 3 1 2 0 2 Ramblers 3 12 0 2