Field Sport

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 15, 13 October 1900, Page 13

Field Sport

ON the federation question — the one that is of far more importance to the local footballer than the federation of New Zealand with Australia — my old friend W. McKenzie has spoken. From one standpoint his arguments are good, but all the same there is another side to the question, and mine is the other side. • * * " Wairarapa does not want to federate with Wellington, because it would lose its individuality " — one sentence ; another " there is a possibility of a "Wellington club snapping up a good man, with the result that he is lost to the Wairarapa." Is the first quotation correct? Would not the Wairarapa Union, with federation, be in exactly the same position as it is at the present time ? Surely it is not meant that the Wellington Union would undertake the control of the country union's cup matches, or even of its representative matches ? Not for a moment. The Wairarapa Union, as a Union, would be in exactly the same position as it is at the present time, with full control over all its own matches. # • • The Thames Union is quoted as the argument. It is surely within remembrance that of recent years Wellington has played the Thames, Wanganui has visited the goldfields this year, and the reason why other unions have not sent their teams there is not because several of its players have been picked in the Aucklad team. The real reason is that the Thames people forget to return the visits made them. The Wairarapa Union is not, nor is it likely to be, in the same position. It always returns the visits made it, and while it does that, touring teams are bound, if it has been their rule, to include it in their tours. • » • Then the possibility of a Wellington club snapping up a good man from the Wairarapa cannot be an argument against the federation question. One cannot help thinking that " Long Mac " himself was secured to Wellington before federation was accomplished or perhaps seriously thought about, and what has happened in the past without federation is bound to happen in the future whether federation comes off or not. * # • The main point is this : Is it fair to Wellington to play with a team picked exclusively from its city players a representative team from another place which includes players picked from the four corners of the province ? I say, no. The old argument about " we have stood on our own ' bottom ' and won in years gone by " is nearly played out now, and why ? A team representative of the city goes to Auckland, and meets one there whose players are drawn from the Thames, Waihi, Waikato, and northern Wairoa, besides the city. In Hawke's Bay the players come from Te Aute and Clive. besides Napier itself — although it is fair in this instance to say these teams compete in the Bay's senior championship. In Taranaki the team is drawn from all over the province. In the Otago team players from Oamaru find a place, and in the Canterbury one Timaru is represented. The old saw, " What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," applies here. If the representative matches are to be matches between the provinces then let them be such, and the players from the Wairarapa should be allowed to stand their chance of selection in a Wellington team. * # • The individual player would reap the advantage, and through him his union and club. It is well known that experience improves a man, and that the better the match the man plays in the more chance there is of improvement in his play. Travel, and seeing the game played under different conditions and with different ideas, improves a man in his play, and if several players from the Wairarapa are in one of Wellington's travelling teams it stands to reason that those players would go back to their several clubs with a much wider idea of how the game ought to be played, and how the matches could be won with the better advantage and lesser exertion. # # • Thus, although Wellington would benefit by the inclusibn of players from its

country unions the advantage would not be alone with " the town union. The tendency would be to improve the play in all parts of the province, and would thus bring about what those of us who take an interest in the game are mainly concerned about — an all round improvement in the play for the good old game.

What a howl there is if a football match is played on a Sunday — even the Bugby Union, and rightly so, passing resolutions discountenancing the gathering together of players on a Sunday to kick the ball about. This sentence is prompted by a thought that came to me when strolling round Oriental Bay on Sunday afternoon. At one place there is a sort of dockyard for yachts, and here were yachtsmen hard' at work painting, mending, and otherwise putting in -order their boats. *• ; * In the harbour, jjbself iweve , crews irom the boat-sheds in full , uniform — whalers, gigs, sculls, and so, on. And, again, a brake dashed past with a full load of hockey players returning from somewhere with the implements of warfare. # • • My conclusion is that if it is wrong to play football on a Sunday — and I am one that holds it is — surely other branches of sport should be complained against when it indulges in its sport on that day. This is not a religious paper — but my game is football, and if the kicking of a football is not the right thing on a certain day, I can't for the life of me see where the same rule should not apply to the fitting of yachts for the season, rowing, playing hockey, etc.

I hear that Hardcastle is wandering back over the Tasman Sea. Whether he is still a player is another • thing we will hear about when he comes back. * * * The match between the Ordnance and Battalion teams was the scene of nothing out of the ordinary, the match resulting in a win for the Infantry by 11 to 5. * • • The Auckland Beferees' Association have played a match against a University team, and won it handsomely — 11 to 3. " Curly " Ohlson is said to have played a fine game. » * # The Navals and Permanent Artillery are expected to play the final heat in the Ordnance Tournament on Saturday. But surely it is time now to ring the curtain down on the 1900 season. * • • St. Paul's and St. Peter's gymnasiums played each other on Saturday — a match at each game — Rugby and Association. The St. Paul's won both games — Rugby by 15 to 0, and Association 2 goals to 0. Mr D. McKenzie refereed in both games.