SOCCER SIDELIGHTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1054, 19 August 1930, Page 13

SOCCER SIDELIGHTS

PASSING NOTES

(Bp

PERSEUS.)

After Ten Years.—By winning over Thistle on Saturday the Y.M.C.A. becomes this season's holder of the senior championship, an honour which has not fallen to the Young Men since. 1920. and they have been warmly congratulated on all hands in adding another honour to their long list, after a weary decade of waiting, during which the "Y” has always been in the thick of the fight and kept the flag flying. Its objective has always been to find good and clean sport for the bona fide members of the institution, rather than to win trophies and competitions, although wherever the harlequin colours of Y.M. are seen you will always find a team of triers, no matter what sort of a gruelling they may be getting.

A Well-won Honour.—Y.M. lias fully deserved the honour which has crowned its persistency this season. It has been the most consistent of the senior clubs, while the others have been showing the most unaccountable reversals of form, and at its full strength It is a shade better all-round team than Trams or Ponsonby, although Ponsonby has been Y.M.’s greatest hurdle in the championship, and claims a %vin a < * raw over the champions y two games played. But the en 3 of 13 games with wins. 2 draws and 1 loss, scoring 46 goals against 20, speaks for itself as a clear-cut triumph, which has nothing in the nature of a fluke about it. The nnal game with Tramways, the runnerup. should be the last test of championyi'P strength, and a fitting curtain to n interesting season’s play. * * *

tv, *®nrT rams Second.—lt seems certain nat Trams will now fill the role of runner-up to Y.M.C.A., although it has .! lre f Sames to play, and last Saturday , ra nsporters were unlucky in jour’i strength to Onehunga t.o ~r~ no official referee available. It a pity one could not have been u-Sk a « re ed upon on the spot; but jail the Thistle-Y.M. match in the ***- and an outsider’s chance of Ppmg Y.M. on the post for the race, *°°k no risk and was content h “ a friendly bout. The transporters ■•r suffered more than any club *si° u 1 casua lties and sickness, and owl handica P has been the greater ftn ♦*° a shortage of spares. So thft tWo Years at the top of the ladder tent~ r Trarr imies must be con- - B«a ßq* the seconci rung after a lean

T , . * * * Whiu Against Relegation.— tibia honours at the top of the b att , are now decided, there is a lively mln»°♦u aKing at tbe bottom to deterSo d . e clubs to lose seniority and Thl*ti WI J amon S the B’s next season, ■s nnt las improved its position, but hard 1 out of the wood yet with two Pointa® 11 ! 11 * 8 to so, as it is only two md °f Onehunga, Corinthians anurewa * w ho are all three bracfis.h, a e 9ual with 8 points each. The , .® e tween the bottom half should ; *verao- erest * to the finish, and goal the may be the final test to decide ®V*rvj P laces * This means that everv singr * e f?oal counts, and so does *, e h savec h With equal points 'reek , rinth ians’ draw of 4 —4 last Man* 3 * worth much more than avw eWas draw of I—l from a goal test. eJJ* Battle of the “B .V’—There is an B di3s ba ttle going on in the senior tion j 0 for the privilege of promoita., ° foil seniority next year, and closing stages will be hard-fought a *hong the top teams, which headm, * lnsly be given a turn at uionnt« rtei 3 to var y the somewhat Boa. no H 3 menu there this sea- & " ore is still top and turn tn’ and is tipped to reflesepvo i SGnior ranking after an unsea3on in the shade, but. in tht *“ ere is sometimes a slip ’twixt and V? anc * tbe tip, and with Philomel Accord in hot pursuit, the hag * l3 stm very undecided. Shore with th A ll pped one Point in a draw b . ' ew ®°n Accordians, who in ;ir ® '»n| Ve only lost one game and strong. Last Saturday the SJS, ** e lniont had a hot bout in cal Uerby at Devonport, the

parent club winning narrowly by a goal to nil; but “Phillies” got a shock when Rangers put it over the matelots by six goals to two.

Keen College Boys.—College Day Soccer was only started last season, and as the years roll by it will no doubt become one of the gala days of tho season. Thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of those keen recruiting agents in the secondary schools, much of the prejudice against the round-ball game is now disappearing, and Auckland should be able to send a strong side to Wellington next week for the Dominion tourney. Last year the competition here for the Skerrett Cup, and the junior championship, was confined to Auckland and Wellington, but this year other centres from both islands are entering, and our secondary schools should now prove the most valuable force in' sending the game ahead. The senior clubs would be well advised to keep an eye on the many promising youths seen in action last week in the college knock-outs, and secure them when leaving time comes to provide much-needed reserves for our senior clubs.

Control Board and Judicial Committee.—Reference has been made previously in this column to the friction which has developed at times between tho Judicial Committee of the A.F.A. and its Control Board. Last year a serious crisis occurred which was patched up when the board ceased interfering. But the trouble has cropped up again in a more acute form, and the matter is expected to come to a head this evening. The Judicial Committee consists of Messrs. W. E. Grant, F. M. Ritchie and F. C. Jacobs, who are appointed by the Control Board, club delegates and referees’ association respectively. All three gentlemen have long and practical experience of the code as players, referees and administrators on executive bodies, and have no direct or indirect interest in either players, clubs or sub-associations. They have voluntarily undertaken the unpleasant task of sitting in a judicial capacity to peruse reports, hear evidence, and give findings on offences against the laws of the game, recommending what discipline should be dealt out to proved offenders.

A Capable Body.—The Judicial Committee has the confidence of clubs, players and referees, and those who disagree with its findings may appeal to the Board of Control. Instead of supporting this committee in its functioning, the Control Board, or certain members, have endeavoured to nullify its work by criticising its findings (without hearing the evidence), and now the Control Board has taken on itself the varying of the punishments recommended, without rehearing tho cases, or without any appeal from the culprits. That is a fatal blunder and, if persisted in, must mean the scrapping of the present method, and a return to the old method when the whole of the executive spent many hours a season hearing evidence, and then wrangling about sentences, when it might well have spent the time doing something to send the game ahead. There is plenty of hard work for the board to do without interfering where unpleasant work is being done efficiently and inpartially.