PROPOSED FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5031, 9 May 1877, Page 2

PROPOSED FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sin,—Referring to the proposal that has been made by the Dunedin Football Club t 9 hold a tournament here during the coming football season, I would crave a small space in your paper to suggest that the proposal is hardly complete enough. The Dunedin club proposes to play Christchurch on its way up, and to play Nelson, Wellington, and Auckland here ; but it appears to me that this will not settle, or may not settle, the merits of the different teams competing. If Dunedin should be victorious in Canterbury, it would be very well, as she would then have to hold her victory against the other clubs; but if, as seems to me most likely, she should be beaten there, the comparative merits of the Christchurch and the other club 3 would be left undetermined. Again, the Dunedin men seem to consider that the clubs they have named are the best that can send representatives ; but from your own knowledge of the Wauganui play, as shown by their match here two years ago, and from my own knowledge of the players at Napier, Taranaki, and the west coast of the Southern Island, I think, and I have no doubt you will agree with me, that there can be no certainty of the leading towns suggested by Dunedin comprising the winning team. Let Wellington then undertake the tournament on a larger scale altogether, and ask the attendance of teams, from Auckland, Napier, Taranaki, Wanganui, Hokitika, Nelson, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Thus with eight clubs there could be played seven games, extending over a week, and the merits of all players would be satisfactorily settled. Then would be seen n picture to gladden the eyes of all who beheld it, and to gladden the ears of football-players throughout the colonies.—l am, &c., An Auckland Footbaij&ee. Wellington, May 8.