Football in the Province

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 94, 12 July 1927, Page 14

Football in the Province

(From THE SUN'S Sp HUNTLY Rugby Pukemiro juniors settled Gordonion on Craig's paddock after a very willing go. The winners deserved the honours, for they battled it out a bit better than the opposition. F. Delloway, who played a fine game for the winning town, scored both tries. H. Cross, F.. Rayner and T. Curragh were the best of a toiling fifteen of winners and for the losers Peach. Davidson and Smith were the best. Mr. J. O’Sullivan refereed. League Huntly seniors had a holiday, and no doubt fully appreciated the day off, for it turned out a wretched day, and as there is practically no shelter on the local recreation ground, the attendance at the Huntly-Ngaruawahia junior game suffered in consequence. The visitors put good dash into their play from the kick off, and on the slanting ground with a slight wind behind them, put on eight points before adjourning for lemons. They finished up with the good tally of 14 before referee Burke sounded the close. The fast backs of the losers were at sea in the weather, and they Lire not a wet day team. Up and under, and let the forwards do the job, should have been the orders, for it was nigh impossible to handle the oval. Northmore, at fullback for Huntly, was out of his class. His brother, Clive, received enough attention from the opposition to prevent him from running up a tally. In justice to the losers Whorskey, Raumati, Smith and Watkins were away, and they played a man short for the first half. A different story may be told next time, but Tittleton, half, Dwynn, centre threequarters, proved a tower of strength to their side. Knapper, half, and Connolly, who hooked the bag of wind regularly to him, were the pick of the maroon and golds. School League Huntly A and B toed the mark at 2 o’clock, and the A’s won easily over their smaller opponents, many of whom seemed frightened to tackle their big brothers. Too much talk was indulged in by the players, and they should learn to obey the referee’s decisions without demur or comment. A noticeable feature of this game was that the whole 26 players were barefooted, and that factor did not prevent some of them kicking well. For the red and whites Nuki Ralph and Cross were the best, and George Miki played well, but should learn to run straight and not across the ground. For the B’s George Whittaker, Roy Singer, Bill Collins and Frank Hilton were the pick. Singer was head and shoulders above his mates, and is always on the ball. Soccer The senior fixtures were called off to let the selectors see the Probables and Possibles in action at Hamilton with a team from these parts. The Thistle players were not nominated by their club, hence none of that team were included, and it will be interesting to note what the opinion of the selectors is in regard to that action, more particularly as in the list of players submitted by the South Auckland Association to Auckland they have recommended Whitelaw for inclusion. This player has played once since the Brown Shield competition,

ecial Correspondents.) and a very poor exhibition too: yet, before the Lower Waikato-Hamilton trial match is played he is recommended for selection. The action is one which is hard to follow. The nominations of Buchanan and Chalmers may be all right, but Hunter is certainly not put in on Saturday’s display, for his vis-a-vis, Hazell, for South Auckland, gave the better display. Williams is a good man and fully deserves the honour, for he played a solid good game on Saturday, and was second only to Latimer. The latter was streets ahead of anything on the ground at Seddon Park, as was Williams. for his side, Hamilton, and to leave Latimer out of the selection is making it farcical, for this player is a model of consistency. Though Alex Moon was played right half in the second spell for Lower Waikato, and played fairly well, he is not as good as Gardner in that position. As the sole selector has since resigned and a committee of three appointed in his stead, it may be that this district will have better consideration, for Huntly district supplies four teams against Hamilton’s two in the senior grade. As for the trial itself, it was a good work out for our Lower Waikato boys, and in giving credit to players for their good work, Robertson, Deakine and Latimer were the laurel-winning trio from here. Deakin especially put in thorough good work, and incidentally a goal, though another player received the credit for it from other scribes. The result, 3 —2, in favour of Hamilton, just about signifies the run of play, thoug none would have disputed a draw as a fair criterion of Play. School Soccer Glenmassey, the unbeaten team in the district schools competition, met Huntly B on the local recreation ground, and there was a good collection of barrackers to see if Mr. Nairn’s boys would keep on winning. The locals had a win by two goals to nothing, Sillick and Beadle being the scorers. The losers were not at full strength owing to illness, and had to draw on Standard 2 for substitutes; but nevertheless they played pluckilv. For the winners Bob Harris. Ted Smith, George Beadle and Jack Whorskey were best, and Leslie Topliss, Jim Marshall, Wally Montford and Wilber Brown were hard toilers for £he losers. This makes the competition even more interesting, and the closeness of the points ensures good enthusiasm for the second round. The referee was Mr. J. Douglas, jnr. Huntly A met Pukemiro at Pukemiro and drew with their opponents, one goal apiece. Jack Thornton scored for Huntly and Jack Fleming for Pukemiro. For the “Puke” boys Robinson Brothers and Fleming were the hard workers, and Bate, Thornton and Stevens for Huntly did best. ROTORUA Rotorua B v. Mamaku.—Mamaku was again called upon to fill the gap to play Rotorua B, Forestry notifying at the last moment that it was engaged elsewhere. Mamaku deserves the union’s thanks for its keen interest in helping Rugby football along. A good fast game was witnessed, both sides preferring the open play to the tight. Rotorua B finally ran out the winners by 13 points to nil. For the winners tries were scored by Basham, Kameta and Dittmer, Morgan converting two. City v. Kahukura.—The match between these two teams for the Ingram Cup was the chief attraction on Saturday. Kahukura won by 29 points to 3. The City forwards played well for three-quarters of the game, but faded away at the finish. Their backs did not support them, however. All Kahukura men played well, Corlett and Dohut doing outstanding work in the backs, while Scott, Booro and Richards in the forwards shone out. Rotorua should now have some good representative 'football, being now the holders of the Hurinui-Apanui Memorial Shield for senior reps.; the Shalfoon Shield, junior reps,, and Mclntosh Shield, junior champion clubs. THAMES Rugby Hamilton won the first Peace Cup contest of the season on Saturday at the Thames racecourse, in the presence of a record attendance, about 2,500 being present. Thames has held the cup for the past two seasons. Previous to this Hamilton has been successful on two occasions and Cambridge and Thames once. The cup was donated anonymously in 1920 for competition among the Rugby Unions of the Southern portion of the Auckland' Province. During the second spell, Winder, the Thames full back, injured his knee and though he stayed on the field, he was of no use to his side. Time was called, Hamilton winning the cup by a margin of 12 points to three. In the junior representative game Hamilton beat Thames by 11 to nil. The third grade representative match provided Thames with the only win for the day, the local juniors putting on six points to Hamilton’s 3. CAMBRIDGE Rugby The Putaruru senior representatives visited Cambridge on Saturday, and despite sodden ground and the fact that half the game was played with rain falling, it was the most exciting contest seen locally this season. The visitors eventually won by the narrow margin of 18 points to 17. Although the standard of play could not be classed as high, nevertheless it was a stirring game and full of exciting incidents from bell to bell. For the winners tries were scored by Brown, Faulkner and Pitherwock, the last named also kicked a penalty goal and converted two tries. Cambridge’s score was made up by tries by A. Thompson, H. Mclvor ~ and Collett, while W. Bourke kicked two penalty goals and converted one try. WHANGAREI Rugby Interest in Rugby is brightening in Whangarei as the senior competition draws on. The beating of the leading team last Saturday by Kamo gave Mauugakaramea a chance in the finals, providing this team could also score a victory over Hikurangi—a feat thought impossible a , couple of weeks ago. With this object in View the ’Karamea boys got into extra training, with the result that on Saturday they scored a six to nil victory over their doughty opponents, and placed themselves one point in the lead. The game was played in pouring rain from start to finish, and the sloppy ground and greasy ball were all in favour of the heavy Karamea forwards, who were all over the lighter Hikurangi pack, time after time. During the first spell, Beehre snapped up the oval from a ruck in the Hikurangi 25 and dived over. Kerr just failed to add the major points. A few minutes later. Mclnnes, the Hikurangi rover, came round the scrum too soon and was caught off-side. From a comparatively easy position Kerr was successful with the penaltv kick. No further scores were added during the next three spells, although

Hikurangi was unlucky. Wyatt shortly before the final whistle made a great run and was brought to grass a scant six inches from the score line an(l , Mclnnes took a penalty, the ball’ striking the post, falling to the bar and dropping on the wrong side With the smallest margin of luck, these efforts would have resulted in scores evening up the game. Kamo and Old Boys met at Kensington Park, and the inclusion of the redoubtable “Bunny" Finlayson again made all the difference to the former team, which, until last Saturday, was at the bottom of the list. After a strenuous game Kamo was victorious by three points to nil. The only score was made by Harris, who notched a try for Kamo.