Hamilton v. Huntly.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2347, 26 July 1887, Page 2

Hamilton v. Huntly.

On Saturday the Hamilton Football Club journeyed to Huntly to play the first match of the season there. A strong representative team went down, consisting of Guird, back; Gwynne and Pilling, threequarters; Box, Wright, and McKenzie, halves; Hopkins, Steele, Quinn, Gribble, Lawson, Hinton, McSweeney, Linden, and Odium (captain), forwards. Huntly played Connolly, back; Ralph and L. Harris (captain), threequarters ; Banks (Ponsonby F.8.C.), Buchanan (Pnnsonby F.8.C.), and Boswell, halves; C. Smith and Manktclnw, wings ; Hammond, Bailey, J, Harris, Williams, Carter, Turner, and G. Smith, forwards. Mr McNeil umpired far Huntly, Mr Stevens for Hamilton, and Mr R. Ralph was referee. The last appointment was objected to by Mr Odium, the Hamilton captain, as Mr Ralph, ho maintained, was not a footballer, nor conversant with the roles. Mr L. Harris, however, insisted on Mr Ralph being referee, claiming that as. at the match played in Haindton last year, a Hamilton referee had been appointed, ho was entitled to a Huntly referee this time. To save a dispute Mr Odium conceded the point. Hamilton (blue) won the toss, and Huntly (maroon) dribbled off the ball against the wind. Play was in the Huntly 25 for some little time, and eight minutes from the start they were forced down, the ball being carried over their lino by a rush of the blue forwards. A series of scrummages and short dashes were the order of the day for the next 20 minutes, nothing remarkable taking place, but two or three of the Huntly forwards continually were down on their knees in the scrums, and played as much with their hands as their feet. In fact, the game as played by these men was not football at all. After 30 minutes’ play Huntly rushed the ball down right on to the Hamilton line, but Oldum and Pilling by sharp short runs relieved their side and carried the ball back to the centre flag where some hard play took place, Banks and Harris making brilliant dashes for the maroons, but wore well .stopped by Quinn and Gwynne. Up to the call of time nothing more of moment occurred, hard scrummaging being all the go and the first spell finished with the ball opposite the Hamilton 25 flag. Boring this spell the blues had decidedly the best of the game, the ball being in their 25 only seven minutes out of the forty-five. The game was the roughest and most unsatisfactory as regards playing rules that has been seen for many a day in Waikato, and it was quite evident that neither the umpires nor the referee were at all up to their work. The referee was nearly all the time watching the play, and more than once both flags were up, but no whistle went. Again he blew more than once when no flags were up at all, notably once whan Banks, (of Ponsonby) thinking his side were getting the worst of it, called out, “blow the by whistle,’’ and it blow accordingly. This naturally disgusted the players very much, and caused no little ill-feeling, so that the second spell was not started in a very nice frame of mind by most of them. Bailey, Smith and Williams, who had been playing so unfairly for Huntly in the first half, managed to keep their hands off in the scrums a little this time, and so made s better game of it. Hinton kicked off, but Hammond, who was within about four or five yards of him instead of the regulation 10, stopped the ball, and with a good rush Huntly carried it down towards the blues’ goal, where it remained for some time until Wright, by a good run, relieved his side. Ho was well collared by Banks, but in a minute or so got possession again, and carried the ball into the maroons’ 25, where Banks was again to the fore and stopped him well. From a throw in Banks got the. oval, and made a slashing run, but was stopped by Wright. Boswell meantime was doing good work, but was too well watched to do much harm, Pilling being on him time after time. From a scrummage near the blues 25, Hammond broke through with the ball, and with two or three others got a grand rush on, but Guird fell on the ball and stopped it. From the scram tho maroons again got through, and rushed the ball over the line. Banks following up well, but Guird secured the ball, and the blues were forced down for the first time. Shortly after this, and 30 minutes from the start of the spell, Pilling got a nasty knock on tho head in stopping a rush, and had to retire for the rest of the game, and from this out the maroons had the best of the game. Banks secured the ball and made a good run, passing to Ralph, who was collared on the hue, where a serum was formed, and Smith claimed a try, which wa- - objected to by Odium, who maintained that Box had the ball and touched it down, Smith knocking it out of his hands and claimed the try; Umpire Stevens upheld this, but Umpire McNeil and Referee Ralph gave it a try to Huntly. Odium protested, but Connolly had the kick at goal, and made a splendid attempt, just failing to land it. Shortly after this Buchanan (Ponsonby) got the ball from a throw in, and, making a slashing run, touched down in a good position. Connolly took the kick, but did not make nearly as good an attempt as his first ope, and the game ended in favour of Huntly by 4 points (2 tries) to) nill. For Huntly, all their backs played a fine, fair game, notably Banks, Harris and Boswell, while C. Smith was always to the fore. Boswell is hard to stop, but is not very fast, and plays selfishly, sticking to the hall too much. Banks (Pousonby) allowed them how to play in this respect. Amongst the forwards j. Harris, Hammond, Mauktelow and C. Smith played well; the least said about the unfair play of the others the better. For Hamilton Pilling never played bettor, while Wright and Box played hard and made no mistakes, several times saving rushes. McKenzie showed up well, but hadn’t many chances. Odium, Hinton, Quinn, Hopkins and Lawson did fine work, the latter getting, through very smartly on more than one occasion, and once was very near scoring. Huntly won, and, I think, on their merits, as 1 fancy they were a bit the better team of the two, hut they played a disgraceful game, and the Association should certainly take notice of their tactics, it being well known that their captain’s orders were “ Get the ball as best yon can, no matter how.” The audience was fairly numerous, and the language strong beyond description. Fcix Back.