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Great are the blue-barred Athletics of the Garden City and they were the toast of lacrossedom last night as they kept their senior box record unsmirched and hanged the star-studded Toronto Marlboros with the gaudy coronation colors their second consecutive setback in the current set-up of the major box loop.

It was the Athletics official opener, and though they nosed out the famous Dukes by 15-14 and kept their string unbroken, there were jitters galore amongst the roaring crowd of around 1,500 box patrons when the battle was uncovered. For Eddie Powers’ Dukes were no mean foes by any means and they showed a burst of speed and deadly sniping that made them the terrors of old particularly the Indian line of the Isaacs duo, Young and Martin. It was the strategy of real opportunists that erased the lead of the A’s from 6-4 to 6-6 and then vaulted into the van at 7-6 for the halfway mark that had the bowl fans furious – at the seemingly partisan tactics of the pair of Toronto officials. That was when the A’s were playing 4 men to 6 and before the teams were at full strength, the Indian snipers had whirled in and whipped over a trio of precious counters. At that, A’s were not far behind them and then rifled in a pair themselves when short a man just to prove that they are worthy battlers of the desperate brand.

Any senior battle that sees the tally dead locked six time in an hour is the sort that keeps the fans on tip-toes and for a game that was packed as full of thrills as a centipede is with legs, the lid-lifter of the A’s takes the orchids. It was hammer-and-tongs, give and take, with no quarters asked and less than that given and checks that were handed out were bruising enough to suit the most rabid box fans.

The big night was ideal. The band was out with the blare and jazz, but remained only for the first period. The opening ceremonies were brief and thus pleasing. Mayor J.D. Wright, past president of the O.A.L.A., faced the ball between N.J.M. Lockhart, M.P. and President Jack Manning and that was all. The crowd revered the memory of ex-mayor Walter Westwood and stood for “The King” and then settled down to watch a battle that was all of that.

Just why St. Catharines should be burdened with a pair of Toronto referees cause a genuine ponder, when a Queen City club is involved. That was the part that really “got in the hair” of the club officers and fandom in general, when the A’s were penalized successively and left the homesters sadly in arrears of manpower. The referees left the box at half-time roundly booed and they squared the count later. In all, 19 penalties were ladled out, 11 to the blues and eight to the fancy Dukes, with four minor tangles enlivening the fixture, but Smiley Young was the lone victim of a dripping nose when he crashed Barnard, they did a shadow-fighting act to set the fans roaring. The checking was brisk and possibly not intentional, but the checking was a bit crude, when it comes to strangling acts to head off a rival.

At various stages, the stick-handling, passing and bullet drives were thrilling. At other times, when leaden feet failed to reply, as checks rolled around helpless defencemen to roar in and tally comparatively easy goals, it was disastrous. A’s were guilty of just enough laxity, to keep the railbirds in lather at times, but they showed a daring brand of courage that never admitted defeat and really pulled the game out of the fire in the final chucker, with the famous Morton-Teather combination sniping the goal that kept the game from overtime and a victory.

Athletics potted their first and Teather scored again, but disallowed, with Lance Isaacs tieing it up on a long pass. Lines changed and F. Madsen got the first rest for a cross-check. Fitzgerald put the A’s one up but big Eddie Dodds, who was the individual star for the Dukes and one hard man to stop as Steve Lines found out often, again squared the tally at 2-2. The teams changed and the Madsen-Urkie pair raised the A’s quota, only to have heady Tommy Scott feed Young a flip and it was tied at 3-3. Morton was robbed of three by Greenwood, who was hung with horseshoes and equally brilliant in the nets, but not any more than husky Bill Whittaker, who turned in a marvellous game and saved shots that were as good as in the twine. He held off 21 drives while Greenwood saved 27 times and both rated real orchids.

Barnard and Bill Isaacs squared off and were benched, then Brunskill followed, but the best the A’s could do was one from Morton to Teather for 4-3 at the period. Second lines started the next chukker and Kalinoski and Lembke clashed, then Carey cracked Fitz and Hope dumped Wilkes. Kalinoski speared the next from Jamieson, the brave doing a great chore in his first blue debut.

Lance Issacs got that back at 5-4, but Morton made it 6-4. Prudham back to 6-5 and Dodds speared a long pass and rounded Lines for 6-6 again. Teams changed and Hope got a bad break of 4 minutes for cross checking Cassidy and back talk to Spencer. Then Barnard and Cassidy tangled and things looked bad as Bill Isaacs put the Dukes ahead, with the A’s playing 4 to 6. The boys were still off in the third, so Bill Isaacs poured in two in a row at 9-6 before Morton sniped a rebound of Gus Madsen’s and A’s were still a man short. Whittaker came out and raced to centre to whip a pass to Morton at 9-8 and then the A’s were at full strength again, but still a goal in arrears.

Dodds backhanded in one that stepped Dukes up to 10-8 the Carey tripped Fitz, whose penalty shot was wide. Wilkes boosted it to 11-8 but Jamieson cut it back one on a star effort. Brunskill took a rest and A’s were too anxious to score. As teams changed, Urquhart was benched, but Teather zipped an underhand in and A’s were still short a man but only headed at 11-10. Frank Madsen sizzled in an angle tally to knot the count. Lines was kayoed on the boards, but no penalty resulted, his stick flying fifty feet away. A’s were unlucky twice on Jamieson riflers at the bell. It was anybody’s game yet as the fourth period opened. Then Saints drove in and Morton put them in the van in 20 seconds.Gus Madsen was kayoed on a check, with Morton giving Barnard the star goal of the night on a dashing race on the dead run. Lembke strangled Fitz and Saints forced a hot pace. Lines going off for back talk as Len Smith halted play. No damage resulted and Wilkes got a soft goal when Frank Madsen passed badly to Hope at 13-12. With an odd man rush Morton from Teather raised it to 14-12 and then came the brush of Barnard’s and Young’s air-fight. Bill Isaacs cut it back one when the A’s were loose in ball fielding and Lance Isaacs duplicated it with Whittaker out of the nets on his brother’s rebound, to set the count at 14-all and overtime staring the rivals in the face. With 15 seconds left, the Morton-Teather duo came right back to send the fans home joyful in a whirlwind finish that saw Greenwood hostile and squaring up to Teather, but the counter stayed and thus it was the mighty Dukes were humbled a second time.

For Athletics, Morton got five, Teather three, Barnard two and singles to Fitzgerald, Urquhart, Kalinoski, F. Madsen and Jamieson

Bill Isaacs topped the Dukes with four, Lance Isaacs and Dodds three, Wilkes two and singles to Young and Prudham.

Toronto Marlboros – Goal, Greenwood; defence, Scott, Cassidy; rover, Young; centre, B. Isaacs; wings, Martin, L. Isaacs; subs, Carey, Prudham, Box, Lembke, Dodds, Wilkes, Brunskill, Hurd.

St. Catharines Athletics – Goal, Whittaker; defence, C. Madsen, Barnard; rover, Cove; centre, Urquhart; wings, Morton, Teather; subs, Hope, Kalinoski, F. Madsen, Jamieson, Fitzgerald, Baker, Lines, Lamb.

Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame Inductee Bobby Jamieson played just one season with the Athletics (Toronto Telegram photo)