SOCCER SIDELIGHTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 426, 7 August 1928, Page 11

SOCCER SIDELIGHTS

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Chatham Cup Struggles: The Auckland Y.M.C.A. Club has received many congratulations on its well-deserved victory after a costly and weary journey to the Far North, and it still remains as Auckland’s hope in the elimination matches to determine the champion club of the Dominion on the knock-out system. The form shown last Saturday encourages every hope that the Young Men will follow in the footsteps of Ponsonby and Harbour Board, and return with the trophy from Wellington after the final between the North and South Island winners is played. The competition this season is a heavy financial undertaking for any club, and it speaks volumes for the keenness and sacrifice of the Young Men to find that each player guaranteed his own expenses for the Northern trip, and the same 11 is eager and willing to journey to Wellington on the same terms, if fortune favours them that far. The Y.M.C.A. is arranging a concert to raise funds for assisting the venture, and the appeal is meeting with an enthusiastic response. The Next Two Rounds: The match on Saturday between Y.M.C.A. and Pukemiro Junction will decide the Auckland finalist to meet Petone, and the Young Men will again have to stiffen themselves up to knock out a hardy combination of burly miners. Most of the Huntly players learned their Soccer in the old nurseries of the game in Scotland or the Black Country, and are always hard to beat in a “death or victory” struggle. Usually the miners’ teams adopt shock tactics, and endeavour by repeated hard rushes to batter down the opposing defence. After witnessing several Chatham Cup games between town and Huntly teams, the victories of the town teams has usually been found due to cool and clean defensive work, and better combination among the forwards. If Y.M.C.A. succeed in keeping the town flag flying on Saturday, a severe test awaits them the following week to put Petone out of the competition. The “Pets” are by no means an invincible combination, and have some palpable “holes” in both defence and attack, but there are some outstanding artists in both departments whose appearance at Blandford Park is awaited with keen interest. The situation in the South Island is not clear at the time of writing, but it is understood that Thistle (Canterbury) now meet Northern (Otago) to decide the finalists.

Inter-Pro. Secondary School Match: The North Island final for the Chatham Cup at Blandford Park on August 18 will be the occasion of the first in-ter-provincial secondary school game to be played here, and it should prove a curtain-raiser of unusual interest. The Auckland representatives will be selected from the 16 lads now in training from the Auckland, Mount Albert and Takapuna Grammar Schools; the Seddon Technical College; and the Northcote Junior High School. Since the secondary schools’ competition was initiated last season it has made rapid strides, and the school clubs form an invaluable connecting link between the primary schools and the association clubs. A word of praise is due to Mr. R. M. Beswick for his energetic and enthusiastic organising work which is now productive of so much good. The Wellington boys come North with a great reputation as clever exponents of the code, and the Auckland lads will pay a return visit to Wellington to stage the preliminary game of the Chatham Cup final. It is

PASSING NOTES

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hoped the Y.M.C.A. Club will have the privilege of playing the part of Big Brother to the Auckland secondary schoolboys for the trip down. —* * * Soccer at the Olympiad.—The international Soccer competition at Amsterdam for the Olympic title drew enormous crowds, and the laurels, for what they are worth, have again gone to South America. Uruguay won the title in 1924, and this time it goes to the Argentine. No British countries were represented, owing to the Football Association declining to recognise the contests as an “amateur” competition, and withdrawing from the Federation of International Football Associations. The view of the F.A. impressed itself so on the British International Associations of other branches of amateur sport that a general withdrawal of British representatives from the Olympiad was imminent. A cablegram in last night’s Sun states that the International Olympic Committee supports the view taken by the English Football Association, and finds the International Federation of Football Associations’ definition of an amateur is no longer in accord with Olympic rules. The “1.F.F.A.” has been notified that in future contests the amateur status of the players must conform to the accepted rules, or its members will not be allowed to compete. So the attitude of the F.A. has been fully endorsed by the Olympic authorities, and the next international Soccer tourney may find many parts of the Empire represented.

International Games.—lt was regretted that the efforts to secure a Soccer match between the Japanese warships and the New Zealand Navy failed to finalise. Several of the visiting officers were proficient players of the round ball code, and would have enjoyed a game, but there were very few players among the sailors. The officers were greatly in demand for the many functions and trips arranged in their honour, and there was also a matter of etiquette, where the Oriental viewpoint differs from ours. Their officers only play among themselves, and would like to have met a team of British officers if possible. That could not be done, and the proposed naval match had to be abandoned. In the British defence forces, officers and men play together in both football codes, and . the inter-service matches between the army, navy, and air forces are among the brightest amateur games played.

Argentine Footballers. Auckland was also unlucky in not getting a visit from the Argentine warship Presidente Sarimento, as the training ship had a wonderfully clever Soccer team among the cadets on board. The chairman of the A.F.A., Mr. Andrew Menzies, saw them defeat Petone in Wellington by five goals to three, and says the combination and shooting of the forwards was a revelation to the Wellington Soccer fans. The Soccer code is all the rage in the South American Republic, and this winter Motherwell, the Scottish professional club, received £IO,OOO to play seven matches there. The receipts for the first two games nearly realised this amount, the gates drawing about 50,000 people to see the Argentine “amateurs” defeat the visiting professionals, by the odd goal in each of the first two games. As the cream of the Argentine was then at Amsterdam winning the Olympic title, the game must have developed marvellously in the Argentine Republic in the few years since it “caught on” there.