FOOTBALL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 48, 18 August 1911, Page 7

FOOTBALL.

THE RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP. WON BY OKAIAWA. j OKAIAWA (8) v. CLIFTON ('A). The weather was not very favorafol# for scientific football yesterday, when the play-off for champion honors of Taranaki took place at Stratford between the northern and southern division winners, Clifton and Okaiawa respectively. Heavy rain, which had .fallen during the preceding twenty-four hours, and; which continued during most of the match, had made the ground very wet, and it was expected that the game would be a mud scramble confined to the two sets of forwards. It, however, proved very interesting, and some good flashes of back play were witnessed, Clifton in particular handling the greasy iball well. The result of the match gives the championship to Okaiawa, but there was not much difference between the teams, the northerners putting up a determined fighi ajid having if anything tlje worse of the luck. The game was strenuous and at times' appeared' unnecessarily rough, the Teferee having occasion to caution players on both sides. The attendance was spoilt by the weather, and numbered considerably under 1000, the takings being £2B. Mr. Payne controlled the game.

The teams were as follows:—! OKAIAWA (red and black). : Fuß-iback. T. Luxton. Three-quarters. E. Luxton, Roberts, Lynskey. Five-eighths. McLeod. Half-back. McAllum. Forwards. Toro, McCracken, Johnson, Radford, Tamu, Koru, Growley (captain), Patterson and Leydon. GLIFTON (green and gold). Full-back. : S. George. : Three-quarters. : Goodwin, C. Tate,- V. Tate. i Five-eighths. j Eggleston. ! Half-back. Colman. j Forwards. ! Crowley, Kyle, Cain, Fairley, Hicks,! Loveridge, Thomas, Lash, Jones. J

1 Okaiawa won the toss. Colman kicked;' off, Lux ton's return being fielded by; Crowley. A free kick to Okaiawa saw the ii.ortherhers called on to defend. McLeod and Toro were nearly orer on two occasions, the former-going out at the corner, and the latter being called back. Clifton cleared their lines, but off-side play gave Roberts a shot at goal which went wide, and from the resultant play Colman lined at half-way. Crowley | '(Clifton) then headed a lone-handed rush! which McAHum stopped, and Patterson] retaliated, but was stemmed by Goodwin] a scrum resulting. In this Clifton* handled the ball and gave Roberts an-j other shot at goal, from which a force] resulted. McLeod marked the and beating several men found the linej at the 25. Colman, with a mark under) ribout six big forwards, relieved, and at little later a fine kick by Eggleston and' a speculator by Oolman took play across 1 the centre line. Eggleston passed to V.j 'Tilte, but'the latter kicked too hard, andl Okaiawa forced. From the kick-off Clif-i ton pressed, and McLeod failing to stop! a rush saw Okaiawn in danger, but Lyn-1 skfey aa-ved nicety with a kick to the! line.' Clifton forwards still attacked] Cain, Thomas, Crowley and HWks'bei'n# prominent, but off-side play neutralisedj Eggleston next got a clever mark, but/ the referee awarded a scrum. The greensj however, obtained' and lined at half-way i Thomas and JV.irley broke n/wav, but Mc-j Leod stemmed, and the reds set up an attack, faulty handling by the greena' I allowing Crowley to secure. He passed! j to McCraeken, to McLeod, to Lynskev/ Who scored. McLeod added the major points. •' ;

Okaiawa •••••• s'Glifton 0' i blifton fortWrds "got" moving ftoih - thd resumption of play, 'but Okaiawa, re--taJiated, and a well sustained ' rush carried the ball over the Clifton line with} Roberts and Toro in hot pursuit. Goodwin, however, with a hard 1 kick, found safety m the dead-ball line. Growley andi Tate were responsible for play moving into southern territory, and a passing rush between "C-olman", EggleStoh, and Yi Tate saw the latter well col hired byj 1 Luxton when dangerous. Clifton, still, kept up the pressure, and from a scrum! ! Co]man shot the ball out to-.-EgglestonJ who ran well before transferring to Goodwin, the latter ibeirtg stopped on the; line. The green backs were moving Wfillj ■ and. handling a greasy ball beftuMfullyj ' and an interesting few moments attiiekj ' culminated in Clifton getting over, but>) the ball went out of touch. From the: kick-off the greens again pressed, but! off-side play was responsible for Okai-j awa getting temporary relief. CrowVey. failed to line, 'but George's return 'was, true a-n'l found touch at the 25 flag.. From the throw-in Patterson broke, away, but was well up-ended by George,, and a counter rush by Fairley, Loveridgei and Hicks, aided by a useful kick by Goodwin, lined well.inside red territory.; Okaiaiwa were awarded a free kick for off-side play, and this caused the crowd to hoot, as they were of opinion the, referee bad awarded a. mark. Okaiawa,: however, made little use of the advan-i tage. From a scrum, Colman secured and kicked high. The greens over-ran the ball, and the reds attacked, but, George saved. McAllum secured the ball from a serum and opened piny among his backs. Luxton being downed by Tate when be looked like scorinsr. A strong kick bv Goodwin carried play to centre. A wild-pass by Oolman transferred attack into counter attack, but Georsre saved neatly with a kick to centre. Liixfon mis«ed the liflll. but snocnlflted. and Crowlev marked when most, of his onponents were ofT-side. Oolman found the line right at the corner, and from the line-out the ball went to C. Tate, who hung on rather long, and a sood chance went, a scrum eventuating on the line. Clifton hooked the ball, but the leather beat Col man and found the line. Off-side play gave Oka.ia'wa the usual relief with a free kick which found touch in neutral territory. Fairlev and Kyle broke away, but McT>eod ended the rush with a neat mark. Goodwin here got a nasty bump which delayed the game for a few moments. On resuming. McLeod initiated a movement that ended ill 11m reds attacking, but George stemmed and the greens came at it. A bad piece of obstruction on the part of a red man escaped- the referee's notice once. but.

did lint a moment Inter, and Clifton wore awarded a free kick. Column kicked liitrli and tlie hall crossed the line, 011alilina' the reds to foree. The kiek-ofT was returned to the 25, where Olifton i tried to open- the game up, Imt the greasy hall was too hard to manipulate, ami the reds intercepted and' set, lip an attack. A rebound from Tate again reversed positions and Fairlev a.nd Kyle set lin a nHi which found the line nt 25. From Hie '-."win 01 If ton were -i warded n free kick in a nice position. George I made a wood attempt, hut it was rcswlt- \ less, and half-time sounded immediately. Crowley's kick-off was returned to ' touch at ha.lf-wav. From a scrum C. I Tate ran ami kicked high, Goodwin smothering Roberts' return. A fine kiek

by tvuiu saw the ball out at the greens' corner flag. From the line-out Okaiawa I attacked hotly, but over-eagerness gave' Clifton a fr«e kick, and George found | the line at half-way. Okaiawa attacked again, Crowley slinging the ball across t* McLeod, but a pass forward spoilt the rush and enabled Eggleston to find the line near Okaiawa's 25. Here, Goodwin secured the ball and beat several men, but mis-kicked and the reds swarmed down once more only to be checked by C. Tate with a line kick, and again by Colman with a clever mark. From the loose, Toro obtained and running strongly passed to McLeod, then to Lynskey, the latter being forced into touch. The reds still pressed and were only checked by a force. Koru, Tamu, and Growley still kept up the pressure, and a free kick enabled Tamu to pot a great goal, which made the total

Okaia-wa 8 Clifton 0 On resuming, a,mark by McLeod placed the reds in an attacking position, Koru pasing to Roberts and the latter to Luxton, who threw forward, and from the scrum Eggleston lined at half-way. Minor injuries caused a temporary stoppage, and on resuming a nice attacking movement was spoilt by Roberts hanging on. The greens, headed by Thomas, Hicks, Kyle and Fairley, set up an attack which reached the full-back, who checked them, and the ball being over-run he was able to kick well down the field, where George found the line at the 20. Clifton came •again, and a hot attack forced Okaiawa to carry the ball behind, and force. A scrum was awarded, and from this Okaiawa cleared', a piece of off-side play by one of thfir men passing unnoticed. 3Tie greens were playing with great heart, and from a free kick for obstruction George made a poor attempt, at goal, though awarded a no-charge, Luxton finding the line at the 25. Goodwin broke away, -but was well taken by Lynskey, and a little later V. Tate slipped when in a handy position. Tamu, Koru, and Radford bfoke away, but Colman was solid and stemmed the onslaught, a scrum resulting, from which ,the greens were awarded a free kick. •Okaiawa next attacked, and aim est ■ scared on two occasions. Oolman kicked high. Roberto, however, secured, and, kicking high, set sail after the ball. George failed to take, but kicked behind the; line. Roberts .outpaced all oppositi»» and fell on the ball—a fine effort—but just too late, as the ball had reached the' dead-<ball line. Immediately on kicking off Tamil headed a rush and the ball was punted' across to Luxton, who I beat Tate and George for the ball, but j failed to ground' it, and George was able 'to force. Off-side play by Cain gave Okaiawa a free kick, but very little advantage, resulted, and soon after Clifton secured a free kick which enabled them to transfer play to the corner flag, and from another free kick Goodwin kicked a 4 g«jil,,,making the scores

Okgjawa 8 !'•; ,dlfton" 3 On- resuming Okaiawa attacked, but J'.JTa-tf!,, with a. lucky kick, well followed up, 'was enabled to smother Luxton. a place in neutral territory, ( secured a mark. Goodwin *jgntred the return from Roberts to the latter's kick rebounding off llcLcod left the latter a clear field and a SfjoreJooked inevitable, but George gpt,vp in time and booted to touch-in-goal. On kicking off Clifton set up a .aitack, but were unable to score. I Ifj) tjpie was sounded without any addiUipW score.

, „7, THE T ARANAKI REPS. following team has been chosen to ,maikp.,the southern trip, when matches will .be played against Manawatu, Wellington, Southland, Otago, West Coast pjid (Caßtfjrlrary:—Hill, Cameron, Stohr, .Rqbijrts.,,. Mynott, McLeod, Brown, Colpian, Taylor, Prince, Osborne, Cain, .Taiiin, .Young, Hawkins, Dewar, Whittington, Ward, Kissick. In the eyent of ,any of the above being unable to make ,tbe, .trip, Patterson (Okaiawa) and C. S'heehao and Smith will be included. !(-. '•! ' '■