SATURDAY'S FOOTBALL.

Shannon News, 12 August 1924, Page 3

SATURDAY'S FOOTBALL.

WANDERERS ii, WERAROA 0. OTAKI 16, FOXTON 10. HUd MAI defaulted to SHANNON

WANDERERS WIN CHAMPIONSHIP. CLOSE GAME WITH WERAROA. Wanderers on Saturday, by defeating Weraroa by 6 points to nil, succeeded in winning trie championship oi foe Union—a rather disappointing rinuie as it would have been more interesting to have seen tw,o teams tie lor foe honour and play off. Weraroa entered, foe, field shorthanded and played two third grade players, Bull and Warren, and one junior, Welsiord, besides which foal sturdy hero oi a thousand fights, ■nangi Broughton, was absent on foe o.qu list. Under foe circumstances that the score was not larger w.as very creditable to the team and was largely due to the hard work put in by tne ionvards, amongst whom Mcflerron stood out head and shoulders above foe rest, with Cole prominent in anything doing. Weraroa’s back division was scrappy, one of the best men they had being the third-grade Bui), who played full-back, and but for his weight is worthy of a senior game. Wanderers took foe offensive from the kick off and penned Weraroa sfi their 25 for the first, quarter of an hour. Relying on their backs they were making the game as open as possible and repeated passing, rushes— Jacob, Wilson, Mollison, Stoker—just failed of scoring. An attempt -go relieve the pressure was made by Mackereth who led a. dribbling rush into Wanderers territory, a dangerous position being saved by Mollison kicking out at, the 25, Wanderers returned to foe attack and breaking through the Weraroa forward defence compelled Henderson to carry foe ball back and force. Immediately after a good passing rush from half way, Jacob to Mollison back to Jacob, failed on the line where Jacob was held up. Shortly after Mackereth took a mark on the line and kicking across the, field, a long kick bv Bull took play back.to half wav. The relief was only temporary, however, as from the throw in Hiwi got the ball and sprinted down the line, transferring to Mollison, (hen racing round into, position, took the ball again ten yards out and scored at Hip corner. A difficult kick narrowly failed. 3-0. From the kick-off a determined rush in which McHerron .and Cole showed up prominently, ended in a long scramble on Wanderers’ line, Stoker clearing from foe resulting scrum. Half-time went shortly after. From the opening of the second spell the Weraroa forwards dominated the game. Leading off with a determined rush, they had. Wanderers hard put to it to prevent a score for foe first ten'minutes. Tatana relieved and with Hiwi and Jacob took foe ball up field in a determined attack. Bull saved momentarily, and a spell of hard but, uninspiring play followed, which ended in a serum five yards out. From this Winiata.secured foe ball and dived across.

The kick again failed. 6—o. . The remainder, of the spell although full of incident, did not result in an alteration of foe scores, foe game ending with Weraroa still pressing hard, but lacking back support to put a finish on their efforts.