SATURDAY’S SOCCER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 33, 2 May 1927, Page 10

SATURDAY’S SOCCER

Some Stirring Struggles and a Plentiful Crop of Goals BRILLIANT INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES With brilliant sunshine, cold, ca Im weather, and a splendid turf surface, the Soccer players and fans enjoyed ideal conditions for some sparkling displays of the round ball code on Saturday, when the second round was played and produced a prolific crop of goals. Thistle won narrowly against Pon sonby; while Navy after having the better of the game against Trams, sustained a couple of casualties in the closing stages and Tramways v/on comfortably at the finish. Shore was in good form against their Northcote neighbours, winning in fine style at Devonport, and Y.M.C.A. made a great recovery at Onehunga with a surprise win when Hoban scored a "hat trick” in the final quarter of the game. Spencer for Trams notched four neat goals, and all three goals for Ponsonby came from Booth's boot.

A good attendance lined the stadium at Blandford Park, the majority of spectators preferring the sunny bank to the bracing shade of the .stand. The arena was in first class order and shows a wonderful improvement on previous years.

Thistle v. Ponsonby.—When the teams lined up for the opening it was seen that Murray Kay was absent from the Scots’ front line owing to ankle trouble, being replaced by his younger brother, Peter Kay, who took up the inside position on the left. Hislop going on the wing. The change did not improve the Thistle combination, and their play was disappointing compared with the previous Saturday, when such brilliant form was shown under unfavourable conditions. The Ponies went off with great dash and a smart right movement ended in Innes crossing to Booth, who beat Ferguson and scored from close in. Thistle retaliated with a similar movement when Hislop equalised from a long centre off Cummings. A ding-dong struggle followed, Ponsonby taking the lead again on two occasions through the agency of Booth, while first Stewart and then Dickson equalised for Thistle. With half-a-dozen goals evenly divided there was keen play for the winning point, which went to the Scots, some good centres from Innes and Booth finding no one on the spot to connect. The game was lively but combined play was missing, the forwards on both sides being too speedy for the defence, while the luck of the play favoured Thistle.

Tramways v. Royal Navy.—The second game provided a rousing encounter which was full of incident and individual effort. The men-o’-wars-men were strengthened by the presence of the Diomede players, while sickness had weakened the Corpora tion defence, but the Trams’ front-line got going in good style in the closing stages and put the issue beyond doubt. Navy opened the scoring with a nice centre from Pitcher, which Miles banged past Batty, for Trammies to reply with a brilliant solo goal from Spencer. Handling in the danger zone by Watson gave May n ell a penaltykick which Batty saved cleverly, only for Meynell to net from the rebound. Simm forced a corner, which he dropped in the goalmouth and Spencer evened matters. The second half was a willing bout, with honours to the Navy, whose weakness in the centre caused some perfect placements by ' "cher and Miles to go begging. Then clier was carried off after crashing with Simpson and Meynell was a ‘‘lame duck” at centre-half. The Trams seized the opportunity by collecting three goals in the last quar-ter-of-an-hour and winning by 5-2, a score which in no way indicated the run of the play. For the victors Batty and Simpson were very sound in the defence, and Tinkler showed improved form. Spencer repeated his brilliant display against the Renown and Simm was always dangerous. For the luckless Navy Lawrence and Meynell were the mainstays of the defence, while Pitcher and Miles on the two extremes of the vanguard, were right up to the best senior standard.

North Shore v. Northcote.—There was a big attendance at the Devonport Domain where the home team scored a somewhat easy victory over their old rivals from up the harbour. The Shore have a fine team of players with plenty of youth on their side, eight of the eleven having worked through the junior grades from the district schools, while Jones, Baxter and Bradshaw are a tower of strength in defence and attack. Thanks to training and teamwork they -were able to overwhelm the blues’ defence, and only some brilliant saves by Lyon kept the score down. Whitley at centre-forward is proving a dashing pivot for the speedy forward line, and scored two splendid goals, while Woolley was at his best filling Dacre’s old possie, and beat Lyon with a couple of ‘‘hotties out of the bag.” The fifth goal came from Mowat with a neat snapshot from long range and this colt is showing good form at right-half. Cleal on the right wing is fast and clever, putting the ball across the goal in great style. Lipscombe only handled the ball half-a-dozen times, Hall beating him on one occasion from a melee close in. Lithgow at full-back put up a gallant defence for Northcote and was ably assisted by Hibbert; but the half-line failed to hold the speedy Shore attackers.

Y.M.C.A. v. Onehunga.—The Young Men had strengthened their team for the visit to Onehunga, where the home club was strongly supported on the line by a big following. The grass was on the long side for clean footwork and a flock of sheep (or lawnmowers) would soon remedy this small fault. In the first spell the local men gained the advantage and led by one to nil, Thomas netting from a corner. Y.M. missed some good openings through lacking the final thrust, while Hilton was unlucky in some strong Onehunga attacks, Baton defending his goal in good style. In the second half Hoban shifted to inside left and the Y.M. front line combined better. Gale and Humphreys played well on the right wing and Hoban was so smart in fastening on to the openings which came his way that he scored a “hat trick” to give his side victory by 3-1. Weak finishing lost Onehunga several golden opportunities in the final spell. An even game ending in an unexpected defeat of the home club. Secondary Schools.—A feature of Saturday’s matches was the initiation of the first secondary schools’ competition played under Soccer rules in New Zealand, and the junior M.C. are to be congratulated on their enterprise in this direction. A feature of the day’s play was the success of the St. Stephen’s College Maori lads, who showed a great adaptability in the change of code and defeated Technical College B by 5 goals to one. St. Stephen’s owe their success largely to the self-sacrificing efforts of Mr. R. M. Beswick, the energetic secretary of the Junior M.C., who has taken special pains to coach the native boys in the rules and strategy of the Association game, and his efforts have met with a keen response from his enterprising pupils.