DELGROSSO LEADS PONSONBY TO OVERWHELMING VICTORY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 401, 9 July 1928, Page 6

DELGROSSO LEADS PONSONBY TO OVERWHELMING VICTORY

NEWTON DEMORALISED Memories of great individual triumphs on many a hard-won field in Rugby, cricket, League and Soccer came crowding back on the memory at Carlaw Park on Saturday. Ponsonby’s smashing victory over Newton was in every sense a personal triumph for Delgrosso, veteran leader of a onetime great side,, now struggling in the grip of team stagnation. Delgrosso’s, triumps and in a lesser degree the fine work of Tim Peckliam, was the more notable from the fact that the conditions on Saturday should have suited Newton’s greater reserve strength. All the time, the Ponsonby skipper was finessing (desperately. at times, be it said), to pin down the formidable phalanx of Newton forwards, and prevent last year’s champions from swinging its heavy artillery into action. A LESSON IN TACTICS As a battle of wits between a keen, alert brain and a potentially superior side, it afforded a striking lesson in tactics. Apart from scoring 11 points out of 17 (a great individual performance in itself), Delgrosso was the master mind in the day’s play. So cleverly did he nurse an ailing pack, that few on the overcrowded stand and umbrella

draped terrace realised how weak the Ponsonby forwards really were. Half the time Payne pottered round with the disconsolate look of a Jew searching for a trouser button in a Queen Street crowd; Gardiner appeared as much at home in the pack as BeaLi Cavalier contesting a hurdle race, in hopples; and Stephens distinguished himself by rash and intemperate kicking; while, for once, the immaculate Fagan, usually under grave suspicion of dodging the heavy stuff, plunged into the thick of it with a cheerful abandon, which was shared only by the crimson-crested Ford and the adaptable fullback who came on to take Joe Peckham’s place in the pack. Good for ye, Donovan, me bhoy! A FATAL ERROR That Newton should have permitted the tide of battle to shift from its extremely competent forward division to the respective rearguards without making any more than an indifferent effort to regain the ascendancy in front is a question which might’ well form the subject of a useful “post mortem” next training night. Outwitted as they were by Delgrosso and sorely tried by Peckham’s exasperating facility for picking holes in their inside defences, the Newton XIII. showed a complete lack of tactical skill and that purposeful work in the pack which has been the secret of their success these past two years. All day, it seemed as if Newton could

do nothing right, while Ponsonby never as much as put a foot wrong. Thompson’s brilliant try, which cut Newton’s inside defences to ribbons early in the game, started the rout, and it was a half-demoralised side which took the field in the second half with a 12—0 scoring register against it. “Blucher and night” became “Delgrosso and the rain” in that long-drawn-out second spell, which ende'd in smoky darkness. with a barely recognisable press of mud-bespattered forms groping in a sea of slush for a slippery, slithering ball. PONSONBY GETS COMBINATION Individual credit in the game has already been allotted to most of those who deserved it. Ponsonby fielded the most effective back division it has had in two years. Apart from those already mentioned, Litton, Moore and Ken Peckham (before he went off) had all the indications of developing into a dangerous attacking trio, with Litton as the star performer. It is possibly a waste of honest criticism to devote much attention to New ton’s wretched display. On Saturday’s game, the 'side has no excuse for forfeiting the entire confidence of its loyal supporters, who have stuck to Newton through thick and thin. Selector Blakey, himself a fine footballer in his time, must have felt like reading the Riot Act to his hopelessly outclassed contingent after Saturday’s rout. Newton is too good a side ’to drop back into the ruck, . and the les son of Saturday should have a salutary effect on a team, which, man for man, can compare with any side in the competition. One of the few satisfactory features of the game from Newton’s viewpoint was the fine work of Murray who went to fullback after Herewini had to go oft. The Maori boy is hereby a\vaided Hill marks for a great display of solid, tenacious football at a time when nearly everybody else on the side (older and more experienced men at that) seemed to be suffeHng Wen P^yed?Mur?a d y| mental Paralysis '