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From the Hamiton Herald – The Hamilton lacrosse team is fast rounding into shape, and the players are showing up better at practice. The players are all here now, and full practice will be held to-day and to-morrow in preparation for Saturday’s game at St. Kitts and for the game here on Monday with the Shamrocks of Toronto Junction. The game on Monday will give Hamiltonians a good opportunity to get a line on the players that will bring the Globe Shield and the Minto Cup here this season.

From the Standard – To-morrow will witness the opening of the lacrosse season in this city and to the credit to the men who are behind the Athletic lacrosse club be said, that they are providing gilt-edge sport for the people of this district and should be encouraged and patronized in every way possible. They not upholding the honor of the Garden City and made this city famous, for wherever our national game is mentioned, St. Kitts will be talked of and is not their record one to be proud of, organized in 1877 and for over thirty years have had a team representing St. Kitts on the lacrosse field. And since the C. L. A. was organized in 1887, have competed for senior honors with but one exception ever since.

The Athletics won the C. L. A. championship in 1889, 1890 and 1901, when they played and lost to Cornwall for the world championship. After their defeat by Cornwall, most of the old players dropped out of lacrosse and a young bunch took their place and fought their way from year to year up the ladder till finally in 1905 they won the championship, and held it ever since.

ATHLETICS WIN TWICE

EASILY DEFEATED HAMILTON IN THIS CITY AND BRANTFORD ON THE LATTER TEAM’S GROUNDS

The lacrosse season opened in the city on Saturday under the most favourable auspices, but despite the beautiful weather and the good attraction provided by the management of the Athletics, the attendance was rather disheartening. Of course the event was but an exhibition game and may have had some bearing on the matter but the local lacrosse club is a winning team and they certainly demonstrated the fact that they are worthy of the most generous support.

The game was scheduled to start at three o’clock, but owing to the late arrival of the Hamilton team it was almost four when the ball was first faced off. From the start it was evident that the Athletics would win; they appeared to have the speed, the combination and the staying qualities so necessary in a lacrosse match of any degree of fastness. The visitors, when they entered the field, appeared, on the whole, to be much bigger men than the Athletics. Certainly they had the weight and as the game progressed they showed that they had some lacrosse judgment too; but it was mostly of the individual type…though occasionally they fell into a combination that worked out very well. It may have been intentional, but the team did not appear to be sufficient shape to permit of a real judging of their actual abilities. Though the plucky home boys outclassed them both on the home and in the defense field, they put up an argument which made the contest interesting to the spectators and showed that the Hamilton team will be something to count upon in the disposition of the Globe Shield, though from the lacrosse supplied by the homebrews there can now be no doubt that the final result will retain the Shield in this city for another year.

The game at times was fast; then again it was slow. Above all it was clean and friendly. One or two penalties was dealt out but nothing serious occurred to mar the afternoon’s sport. From the time the first whistle sounded till the victory had been won, there was not a moment’s unnecessary delay, which speaks well for both teams.

There could not have been a better referee than Charles Lowe and as judge of play Joseph Murphy of Hamilton gave satisfaction. The ball used was a type of the one shown by him at the convention.

Athletics	Position	Hamilton
Dixon	Goal	La Londe
Tufford	Point	McPhail
Harris	Cover	Hawkins
Richardson	Defence	E. LaRose
Baker	Defence	Ramsay
Parke	Defence	Corning
O' Gorman	Centre	Smith
Sullivan	Home	McDonald
Ripley	Home	Tanguay
Aubron	Home	E. La Londe ("Newsy")
Fitzgerald	Outside	McInnis
Kalls	Inside	Heffernan

The first quarter saw some good playing as the teams went at it to size up their opponents. The first face-off, went to Hamilton but that was about all. O’Gorman would invariably draw the ball which he would pass to Sullivan or Ripley and it would then travel all over the field. Both goal tenders had some shots to look after and did so. Dixon displayed very full form and looked after most that went his way. The first few minutes saw the first mix-up when Aubron and La Rose went to the fence for five minutes for a trivial affair which both looked upon in a good-natured manner. The first goal was tallied by Ripley in six minutes and in three minutes Hefferman tied the score. After some hard playing the quarter ended with honors equal.

Not so in the second quarter. With the score four to three, “Newsy” La Londe received a slash over the head, and Harris who did not do it, was penalized for ten minutes, which he took without murmur. La Londe had to retire for a while. Five minutes later Aubron scored and in a minute and a half later Kalls led a rush into the nets, carrying the ball with him. Just two minutes were left to play but a few seconds previous to time being called, O’Gorman tallied and half time closed with the score Athletics 7, Hamilton 3.

In the third quarter the Athletics continued the scoring. Fitzgerald made a pretty one in front of the net in two minutes and Parke shot one in four minutes later. O’Gorman scored the next in five minutes and Sullivan did likewise in two minutes. The quarter ending, St Kitts 11, Hamilton 4.

The last quarter was live at the first, each team scoring twice. La Londe did the hat trick for Hamilton in three minutes and Aubron for St. Kitts in the same time. Parke followed in five minutes and Hamilton took the last, Heffernan scoring in four minutes. Baker went off for ten minutes for heavy checking, though he hit no one, and LaLonde, the visitors goal tender was also given a rest for hitting Georgie Kalls. Mention of the local players is unnecessary save collectively. For the first game, they all put up an excellent argument and all are deserving of praise as the game was won on the teamwork and the victory is due to the Athletics and to no one or two players.

Brantford, May 25 – St. Catharines defeated Brantford in the opening game of the C. L. A. senior lacrosse at the Agricultural Park by a score of 8 to 4. The Athletics seemed to be in better condition, as they outplayed Brant at mostly every point and had the better of the game except the last quarter when the locals outscored them 3 to 1. St. Kitts scored 3 goals in the first quarter, one in the second, three in the third and one last. Brantford tallied one in the first quarter and three in the last. Hamburg was the best of the home team. The game was clean and void of roughness. The teams were:

Athletics	Position	Brantford
Dixon	Goal	Gilligan
Tufford	Point	Camplain
Harris	Cover	McDonald
Brown	Defence	Hamburg
Baker	Defence	Ions
Parke	Defence	Hawthorne
O' Gorman	Centre	Moffat
Ripley	Home	Taylor
Aubron	Home	Collins
Sullivan	Home	Campbell
Fitzgerald	Outside Home	Kearns
Kalls	Inside Home	Pinkerton

The Hamilton lacrosse club is the latest sporting organization to give up hope in this city. The management, at a meeting held yesterday, decided to give up the effort to make the game popular here, but the players have decided to stock and will finish the season on the co-operative plan. The team will go to St. Catharines today under rather discouraging circumstances, but the players feel that it is their duty to play all the remaining games and although their salary has been cut-off, they are showing a sportsmanlike spirit. The team will be managed during the balance of the season by Russell T. Kelly, who has taken a great interest in the team this week and will act as field captain in the game at St. Catharines today.

The men who tried so hard to make the game popular here have lost money this season and last, and have given up the attempt as a bad job. It is said that the promoters have lost over $2,000 this season, and that the deficit last year was nearly half that amount. The expenses of the team were nearly $300 a week, and as the C. L. A. schedule called for only four home games, the men behind did not have much chance to break even on the season. They tried to arrange some good exhibition games, so as to give Hamiltonians an opportunity to see some of the best teams in action, but the public did not appreciate it and the club lost money in the experiment with the Nationals. The Nationals are one of the fastest teams in Canada and put up a splendid exhibition, but the gate receipts were not large enough to pay the expenses of bringing the team here and the management naturally lost heart.

The men behind the movement were in it for the pure love of the sport, but they did not expect to lose as much money as they have. They knew from their experience of former years that it was a losing proposition, but they decided to get a winning team here at any expense and see if that would work up the enthusiasm any. At the beginning of the season, the Hamilton team was strong enough to make a runaway race of the senior C. L. A. series, but as the outlook for a prosperous season in the C. L. A. was none too bright, the best men on the Hamilton team were coaxed back to the N. L. U., where the gate receipts were larger and the salaries more tempting. Bun Clarke was the first to throw the local team down after he promised to come here on his own terms. Then Newsy Lalonde and Fid Cummins got restless and the result was that the management was kept busy hunting up talent to keep the team in good shape.

And right here it might be mentioned that Lalonde do not treat the Hamilton management as fair as he might have done. He signed many players who were personal friends of his and who were not of the proper caliber for senior company. They managed to show up well in practices, but when they were put to the real test they lacked the ability they were expected to show. Carrying this deadwood cost a tidy sum of money and the result was that the management was put to a useless expense before the season really opened.

The failure to make the game go here practically means the death of the senior C. L. A. Brantford is having a hard time struggling through the season and will not attempt to play senior again for some summers to come. Danny McLean tried hard to get a winning team in the Telephone City, but before he had a chance to get the enthusiasm worked up, the players went on strike and a team of Indians had to be signed to save the $200 deposit that Mr. McLean is said to have put up. With both Brantford and Hamilton out, there is no territory left for senior lacrosse outside of Toronto, and the N. L. U. has got too strong a hold in the Queen City to make a C. L. A. team prosper there.

If the players who are on the Hamilton team at present will stick together during the balance of the season, they will doubtless be given good support by the people of Hamilton. The team has made a fairly good showing this season and there is not much kick coming about the way it was played. The next game in Hamilton will take place next Saturday, when the famous Indian team that is representing Brantford will be here. The Indians have adopted the white man’s style of play and as they are fast runners and good stick handlers, they should give the locals a hard game. The game will be played at the cricket grounds as usual.

For a time yesterday afternoon, it looked as though it was all off with lacrosse for this season. The players had their trunks all packed and were making arrangements to leave the city when they were asked to think it over and at a meeting in Mr. Kelly’s office decided to take the steps mentioned. The management of the team had collected all the sticks and uniforms and were preparing to have the club’s fixtures at the club house removed, but at the last moment it was decided to allow the team the use of the club paraphernalia for the balance of the season.