FAMOUS FOOTBALLER’S DEATH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1604, 29 August 1916, Page 4

FAMOUS FOOTBALLER’S DEATH.

HERO OF AN HISTORIC MATCH,

A cable message last week announced that Captain Clifford Pritchard, the famous Welsh international footballer, had died of wounds. He played in the historic match against the All Blacks at Cardiff in 1900.

Cliff Pritchard, of Pontypool (says a writer in the Sydney Daily Telegraph) was one of the factors of success for (he little kingdom in .that famous match. He was given practically a roving commission as a “Hying man” to destroy the attacking system of the “All Blacks” (the only team entitled to the name) —a team which, in spite of its only defeat in this game, is regarded by the general suffrage of expert opinion as the finest set of players (he Rugby game has seen. \iales, with a magnificent side which included Gwyn Nicholls, Morgan, Llewellyn, Bush, Gabe, infield, Owen, and Pritchard, gave up the idea of playing its orthodox game, and laid itself out to “spoil” the apparently invincible New Zealanders, and Pritchard, perhaps the most, brilliant man among the dragon-marked red-jerseyed men, who sang hymns before'they kicked aff, was the spoiler in chief! He had the lion’s share of the tricky, studi-ously-planned movement," which gave the Welshmen the only score of the day. He shied the ball* across the scrum to Owen, who swiftly got it away to Gahe —the conspicuous cunning of this prematurely bald young gentleman is well remembered

nimbly and cleverly with BedellSeivright’s team. Gabo, at drawing the defence, was a master performer, and on this auspicious occasion he never did better than when he lured Wallace and his confederates away from the fleet., watchful, eager Morgan, on the wing. There was something of the pilot fish and the shark about this enterprising pair —they were never far apart, and they worked out their nefarious schemes as if they had been brought up to them. Gabe chuckled when he handed the ball and the burden on to “Teddy,” who, with plenty of space and rare pace, could not fail to set 45,000 Welsh patriots on fire, as he verily did to the apoplectic point, when he crossed the New Zealand line. It was a dazzling piece of strategy, and the soldier who has given his life in the greater game, was the instigator of it. There was no brighter player on the field that day than Clifford Pritchard, whose death adds another honoured name to the scroll of Rugby heroes who have died gal-' lantlv in battle.