Feilding Football Tour

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 125, 15 April 1890, Page 2

Feilding Football Tour

(By The Umpire.) (Continuedfrom last issue.)

I cannot, I am sorry to say, give anything like an idea of tee Masterton match owing to considerable excitement.

On the men taking tee field it was seen at a glance that the local men were heavier, especially in tee forwards. Whisker kicked off, and a scrum wafi immediately formed. The Feilding men were awfully shaky, which I attribute to nervousness, and which allowed the Masterton men to threaten their line, but pulling themselves together they changed the state of affairs, taking the ball past tee centre flag. The game was fast, and neither side seemed to gain an advantage, tee ball travelling from one end of the ground to tee other, and. at. the call of half time neither side had scored. The second spell was fast and furious, the play being slightly in the favor of “Our Boys,'*’ who now played with the wind. Johnson obtained a mark not far from the local men’s line, which “ Our Joe ” converted into a goal. The Masterton men now were on their mettle and made things lively for their visitors, but Gregory and Whisker leading the rushes made matters even. Gregory getting away with tee-leather crossed tee coveted line, but falling lost tee ball, one of the Masterton men touching it down. From the kick put tee ball was taken down into Feilding’s 25, where A. Perry from a pass secured a try. Thomson took tee kick, but failed to place a goal. Play was fast until time was called, Feilding winning by three points to one. It is needless to say how jubilant we all were over such a victory, which was undoubtedly a surprise to everyone on the ground. The following is an extract from the .Wairarapa Daily;—“ The visitors were heartily congratulated on their win, they being the only team that has had tee pleasure ,of lowering tee Masterton colors for many years.”-’ - ••• The game was played'in a friendly spirit from start to finish. Gregory played a first-rate forward game-all through, and was ably backed up by. the rest of tee forwards. The backs on one or two occasions were slightly at sea, but pulled themselves together at critical moments, and saved a defeat by good play. Parr’s collaring was a feature of the game. In tee evening the whole team attended' tee Red Star Football Club’s annual hall, complimentary tickets having been kindly' provided by tee Masterton Club, and here let me chronicle that the attractions of the Masterton ladies were too much for tee susceptible Feilding boys, who instead of being in bed at an early hour, made the mistake of dancing all night. This may be very pleasant, but it is not exactly the thing when a tootball match has to be played tee next day, and lam of opinion that tee cause of our drawn game with Grey town was that our boys could not stand the many charms of the fair ladies who graced the ball. However, we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and on getting up to catch tee early train to Greytown, pale faces and sleepy eyes were tee order of the day. - ■ We were all sorry to leave Masterton with perhaps the exception of Nicholson, who seemed to be anxious to get owing to the fact of his having had a terrific encounter with a bull dog and a barbed wire fence, which left his clothes, so I heard, in a very delapidated state. If any of your readers require any further information on the subject I know he will be glad to oblige, them. Our visit was .marked by tee. kindness which we received, not only from tee footballers, but also from a large section of the public. Everything our hospitable opponents could'do to make pur stay amongst them pleasant they did, and I can assure them that the names of Owen, Hirschberg, tee Perrys, Bob Thompson, and numerous others will be ever green in our memories. Should they pay Feilding a'visit in tee time to come, we will do our level.best to keep our honors, and at the same time give them as hearty a welcome as they accorded us. Our worthy host, Mr Thomson, made us as comfortable as it was possible to be, and on behalf of tee team I thank him as well as Grandmama, Auntie, and Dolly for their many little kindnesses.

I forget to mention that the Wharepuni at Te Ore Ore is, I should say, one of tee handsomest in tee cqlony, the carvings repaying anyone for their trouble in visiting it. Greytown was reached - on Tuesday morning, and most of us went to bed till dinner time. The match started at halfpast three, Feilding facing a fairly strong wind, and this, together with tee fact of our dissipation of the previous night, was a pretty heavy handicap. The refereeing all through this match was<hot tee thing, tee decisions given being at utter variance with the rules. Parr got over tee line and was collared by one of tee opposing backs but touched the ball down, but to the amazement of every on’e tee referee gave his . decision against a try, on tee ground of Parr being collared inside tee line, a most absurd decision, which if our captain had protested against would have been tee means of our winning the match, but to prevent any unpleasantness he wisely ordered tee tee game to proceed. The game was slow compared to tee two previous matches and the play up to time was even.. The Grey town men entertained us at a smoke concert which was kept up until the. small hours. Homeward bound on Wednesday morning, everyone in good spirits but terribly sleepy. Wellington was reached at dinner time, tee City Buffet being our resting place, Onr fellows were congratulated on their victories by several leading members of different Wellington Clubs, and from remarks which fell from them it seems very probable teat Feilding will be visited on Queen’s birthday by one of the strongest clubs in the Empire City. Our arrival in Feilding is to be remembered ; tee crowd of friends, the band to play us in, our skipper tied down to a stretcher and carried shoulder high, and tee hearty welcome home everyone gave us was duly appreciated. Our secretary managed the financial affairs of the trip splendidly, and the thanks of tee team are due to him for his good management, and T can assure him that he earned tee admiration of tee whole of us by tee way in which he trained for the Masterton- match, walking very nearly to Carterton and back with a wheelbarrow to get himself into fettle.