HOCKEY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 900, 20 August 1910, Page 12

HOCKEY.

(By "Bulitoff.")

The final series of the senior cup fixtures was played last, Saturday, Victoria College being returned champions. The chief event, that between Victoria College and Karon, the Reading teams which played off for top honours, was very uninteresting, and below the usual stand--ard of club matches. Karon v-rn "Vee up on College prior to last week's finale, but they failed to make full use of the chances which came their Way. The Greens excelled in attack and defence, the Karori players being fairly smothered throughout. College are to be congratulated on having beaten allcomers. Last year's champions, United, experienced,'a dramatic-finish to the'season, being beaten by T.M.C.A. by two goals to nil. ;•• As stated, the game between. Karori and College -was monotonous,'charge, shoot-goal being the order of the day.in favour of College on no,fewer than ten occasions. 11. seems incredible that Karori should have fullen away so much. They could hardly «xpect to successfully meet a team that had trained seriously, whereas they (Karori) appeared to be playing merely to fulfil-the engagement, so to speak. - ','.., ' The two Stracks and Smith were in' splendid form, and a faster pair in u forward line, would bu hard to find. Campbell, centre-half, and Chris. Davics, tull-back, for Karori, played solid defensive "nines, and saved many spirited uttaoUs? Kibblewhite, College full-biick, played a magnificent game,, his tactics in dodging and blocking boing , somewhat n-. markablo for the apparent ease with which they were carried out. On one oc-1 casion Ih'is player "stopped (he .bull, placed his stick a.few.inches in front of it, thus receiving his opponent's blowon the slick, and finally similing in n beautiful hut shot. This, stylo of beating his man seemiTto be n strong point with Kibblewhite. Bogle figured conspicuously amongst the College front-rankers also. He had, however, a tendency to fall too far bohind.' The remaining backs played a

fairly good game. G. Davies appeared, again after having had a spell. Y.M.C.A. seemed quite, content with Jiavinj; disposed of last year's champions, United, by a good margin. Loader playul b. grand game. A junior player was substituted as centre-forward', and he gavo a reasonably good account of himself. J?arton was very fair on the afternoon , .-* play, but Loader was the best wingforward 011 the field. Collie, as centre-half, played a safe game. Generally speaking, Y.M.C.A. defeated United for the simple but powerful reason that they were the better team. That covers everything. The other senior game, Wesley v. Metropolitan, ended in favour of. the former by four goals to the good, which is only what was reasonably expected in view of the fact that this is the first season that Metropolitan hdvo entered for senior club matches. Taking the season all round, Metropolitan have given u better account of themselves than many, anticipated. To-day Wangamii will endeavour to wrest the shield from Wellington. Thu game should bo interesting, and, given fair-weather conditions, a good game is anticipated. Very little is known regarding the strength of the Wanganui eleven. At the time of writing it seems like a walk-over for the local team, bnt who can foretell the result? Next on the list ure Auckland, and this is the match wjiich will doubtless attract a great crowd. It would be well for the local authorities to issue tickets shortly, and make every effort to get a substantial "gate." The following, from an Auckland paper, makfs interesting reading just now'— "Challenge Cup won outright.—Despite the unfavourable weather conditions, about 1000 people journeyed to the polo ground, Eemuera, on Saturday, to witness the final match for the championship between Auckland and United, and the meeting of the Tauranga and Auckland ladies'" representative teams. The latter match was won by Auckland by one goal to nil, their • opponents putting up a splendid .showing for so young a team. The Auckland-United game, was, as predicted, brimful of Merest, and resulted in a win for the former team by two goals to one. By their success, Auckland have again won the challenge cup outright, and they propose to present it to their captain, l< , . E. Mason. The other senior grade matches resulted in University defeating St. George's by three eoals to two, and Ponsonby and North Shore playing a drawn game, two goals being scored by each side." ; . •