END OF SEASON

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 77, 28 September 1933, Page 20

END OF SEASON

FUNCTION TONIGHT

SEVEN-A-SIDE TOURNEY

The basketball season in Wellington is ended, and this year's ejul-of-season I function is being held tonight. This "wind-up" takes tho form of a handicap seven-a-side tournament i'or 1933, and 40 entries have been received. The teams .will be divided into sections, and the games so arranged that each team will have at least two games. Play will commence.at 6.30 p.m., and teams aot present when called on to play may bo defaulted. Following are the officials for the evening:— • Tournament committee: Misses M. E. Armstrong, Q. McLean, O. Wharton, O. Lawlor, and Mrs. A. Muir. Referees: Mrs. Granger, Misses Beeles, Wills, McGuire, Stairmand/ Whartou, Messrs. Brewin, Bryant, McPherson, and Moller. Stewards: Mesdames B. M. Smith and Allan, Miss McLean, and . Mr. Crewes, During the evening the opportunity will be taken to present the following trophies which were won during tho season: —Championships: Senior A, Wellington East O.G. A; senior B, Kia Toa; third grade, Newtown O.Gjj fourth grade,-Melrosc; fifth.grade, iNewtown 0.G.; sixth grade, Melrosc; seventh grade, Island Bay O.S. Tournament: Senior A, Wellington East A; senior B, Kia Toa; third grade, Newtown 0.G.; fourth grade, Melrose; fifth grade, Wembley; sixth grade, Melrose; seventh grade, Island Bay_ O.S. The club championship goes to Wesley with 101 points. ' The trophies will be presented by Mrs. J.-G. Coates, patroness of the New Zealand Association. Melrose (Club's Record. An outstanding record has. been put up by the Melrose Club, which with teams in the lowest five grades —third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh—has gone through the.season with only two losses sustained prior to finals. Both these losses were debited to the seventh grade team. In the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, Melrose contested the final, winning the fourth and sixth, and being defeated in the third by 14 goals to 13 by Newtown O.G. and in the fifth grade by the same club team by 15 to 2. A record like this re-

fleets groat credit not only on the coach but on the club members gonerally, and Melrosc Club is to be congratulated on their fino performance. Besides the championships mentioned, -Mclrose successfully contested tho fourth and sixth grade tournaments, and altogether ivill carry off four tropliios tonight. As a result of the decision of the Xow Zealand Council to permit an j entry in the second grade New Zealand tournament from those major associations having sub-associations affiliated to them, it is possible that next year Wellington may send two teams to tho Dominion tournament at Dunedin. Under the new arrangement, any major'assoeiation with sub-associations may send two teams, the second grade one to be drawn from players in such sub-associations. At present the Secondary Schools Association is a sub-asso-ciation of the W.8.A., and it is fairly definite that next year tho North Wellington Association, comprising teams from Paekakariki, Plimmerton, Paraparaumu, Pahautanui, Porirua, and Judgefotd Valley, will also affiliate. As there are a number of major associations entitled to enter two teams, it will be interesting to see what effect the extra entries will have on the number participating in the tournament. It seems likely that the second grade tournament will bo woll patronised. Progress of the Game. At tho end of the 1933 season, it is of interest to review the last ten years of basketball in Wellington. Ten years ago, on September 22, 1923, the first representative inter-provincial match in New Zealand was played. This ■was between teams from Wellington and Canterbury, and was played at the Clyde Quay school ground. Wellington proved too strong for the southern team and has held tho advantage in all matches against Canterbury since. The game then was not nearly so speedyas it is now, rules and tactics both having been improved. The following year representatives from Auckland, Welling-j ton, and Canterbury were present at the inaugural meeting to form the NewZealand Basketball Association, while Otago, although not represented, wrote supporting the move. Since then, more and more' associations have been formed, ana have linked up with the parent body, until now, leas than ten years after the initial meeting, no less than eighteen associations are affiliated with an approximate aggregate number of 8000 registered players—these exclusive' of secondary and primary school players.