FOOTBALL.

NZ Truth, Issue 84, 26 January 1907, Page 3

FOOTBALL.

I(By "Pakeha.")

It will soon be difficult to get a man to captain any team of English athletes to tour New Zealand, on account of the strange fatality that appears to attach to the position. When the first English football team started for the colony it was under the captaincy of R. L. Seddon. The illfated Seddon was, drowned m the Parramatta, and his mantle fell on Stoddart, the team now tein«r generally known as "Stoddart's." Stoddart himself was rendered hots de com ba<t before the tour came to an end and was a spectator at several contests, including the one m Wellington when the local men made a draw against the redoubtable visitors, per medium of a superb potted goal by Andy Thomson, now acting as Stipendiary Magistrate at Palmerslon N.. The last time the British footballers were with us m 1904 their skipper, Bedell-Sivright, was incapacitated, though not sufficiently to cause his retirement. Maybe the light let-off m Sivright's' instance can be attributed to the fact that he was a Scotchman—and Scotchmen are pr overbialr hard to kill. Then 'thfla-st 'Mv^G. ' cricket team 1 * that came here had' barely been dubbed "Lord Hawke's team" when an untimely family bereavement prevented the" -s Kipper'-leav-inn: England; and the""c6nfbinatibn is now spoken of as WaEnejr's team. Now we have the instant*' of Captain Wynyard's misfortmne, necessitatinfr a premature return home, leaving do Trafiord m charge. There have been several instances of remarkable goal-kicking m England recently, but that of C. J. Greenwood, who for Lennox A v. Marlborough. .Nomands A., secured eleven out ox a dozen efforts will take some .beating, , especially as the afternoon was windy and the ball very wet. The solitary failure was due (says an English writer) to faulty, placing, and one was the outcome of a really magnificent kick from . the touch-line. Dufty. op his own dung-heap, couldn't excel this performance.

"Quidnunc," m the Canterbury < "Times," gets'" the -following off his chest anent a proposal which hie fathered many years ago. "Of three cl asses of kicks recogni sed why should one be blacklisted when it comes to goal-kicking ? Simply. I suppose, because the conservative Britisher, who makes the rules, regards 'it as deuced bad form to score by such a common kick as the punt. Yet the punted goal will be recognised one of those days, the ch.ar.ee will be abolished, the drop from the "-twenty-live after a force will f.o, and other alterations which appeal to intelligent men as necessary m the interests of the »ame will come about. The colonial has earned , tlie right to have a, say m the making of the rules, pnd when he jrets a hearing he will brine: about some of the reforms he has -urged on occasions." And " Gim" Gprrard. nays gjoeh. to all of the aforesaid. '" At r> roeetihsvof the members of the j London Referees' Union, m the course ; of an address, Mr' Eloper urged that I. prompt action should be taken m j ,casej3 of "feet iip,",Tvhich was_one ol , the chief troubles , referees had to, con- ' tend with at present. ' It. has 'grown ! to such an extent that, he personally would favor its abolition. Dealing with the charge, the speaker also favored the idea .that it 'should be done away with. He urged that every necessary measure should le taken to stamp out foul play, which, happily, did^ not often occur. In the course of the discussion, the chairman' (Mr Rowland Hill) mentionrd that m conversation with the South Africans he had been informed that their, players had l>e«i specially warned on the question of "feet up," but his informant had been disappointed to notice that Fn-rlish referees were not very strict on tire point. Personally he thought it mi?hfc be advisable to ; get the "feet up" rule abolished. Personally, I favor the abolition of the rule for, as one writer points out, it does seerri the height of absurdity to, say,-pen-alise a team for a breach of the rules, and subsecfuently proceed to minimise the punishment; by allowing the delinquents the chance to render the penalty ineffective. "Gun" Garrard and I join forces for once n advocating the obliteration of this idiotic rule. ' i In three games the Exeter College (Oxford) Rugby Club scored i. r >G points without having even to touch down. .

The gate receipts at the IrelandSouth Africans' match at Belfast amounted to £830.

We have heard of dogs and even horses invading a football ground during the progress of a match, and now the pigs of Yeovil have , developed a fondness for the game. During a match m that town a number, of pics sauntered on to the field, and the Fame was temporarily turned into a ■ i^-hunt. E. Gwyn Nicholls and Dr. G. T. Morpran, the two Welsh Internationals, have definitely decided not to play anv'more football. C. M. Allen, the Irnfct captain, led Lancashire against the South Africans, who won by only 11 to 8. The Lancashire foTwards' quite beat their adversaries all round. In the England v. South Africa match, the English forwards eclipsed the visiting pack on a wet ground. For the first time they played the men m the scrummage m special positions. Although the , receipts from the Wales v. South Africa match were a record, the attendance was only 38,000. The amount taken was £2560, beating all other Welsh records by £200. At the annual dinner of the Wasps' Club, m London, the toast of the evening was entrusted to Mi Rowland Hill" (President of the E.R.U.), who uttered a splendid vindication of the policy of the Rugby Union m its determination to maintain amateurism m sport. Incidentally. he referred to the important part which the Wasps had played m the, fight amateurism m the Rugby frame was seri- j ously threatened. Hf>d Rugby ffone, | every other branch of amateur sport j would have been prejudicially affected, i ?n<l no one knew to what a deplorable pass amateur sports mi<*ht have come. Those who h?d carefully watched the struffie for am^tpur sport must have been struck with the * remarkable chanen m PuMic opinion , and this was emphaticaliv exemplified by the Pre^s, wh'^h formerly fre-"-'ipntl^ ur?ed that wh'.i* 1 th^ir principles were admirable, they were 'not suited to the times, whereas now it I

was fully' recognised that they were working, on the right lines. The chairman, m his reply, pointed out that during its long career .this VSasps had played something like 1680 matches, .and had provided opportunities lor 40,500 players to indulge 1 m" the fine old. game of Rugby. ' He did not mean that they had had "that number' oE players, becauss some had played, hundreds of times, but these figures, would give an idea of what oTwbrtunities they had provided for their meinkers.