Tecs 08

The Tecumseh game on Saturday with the Athletics will be the greatest sporting event of the season. The reserved seat plan opened at Gilmore’s this morning and a large number of seats were taken, showing that great interest is being taken in the event.

The ball will be faced at 3 p.m. sharp for the Tecumseh- Athletics game here on Saturday. No referee has been agreed upon, but the Athletics expect to get the Tecumsehs to agree upon an official today.

The Tecumsehs have the biggest defence playing lacrosse to-day—Griffiths, Gradon, Stevens, Pickering and Davidson—all men over 175 pounds, and it will be remembered that big Griffiths always plays in his underwear, and his numerous friends will be on hand to give him the glad hand.

It will be interesting to see little Geo. Kalls check big Griffiths, and Jimmy Sullivan play big Stewart, and if the day is fine and dry, the fast home of the Athletics will certainly get in on the Tecumsehs’ nets.

PLUCKY ATHLETICS DID ALL THE PLAYING AND ONLY THE TECUMSEHS WEIGHT PREVENTED A BIGGER SCORE

St. Catharines has a lacrosse team that it may well be proud of, and certainly should support in every reasonable measure. The game with the Tecumsehs on Saturday recalled to those who saw it the old-time rivalry between St. Catharines and Toronto, and also the good old games seen on the Catherine street grounds several years ago. It did considerably more; it demonstrated the fact that this year the local twelve is capable of going up against the strongest teams in the Dominion, and of not only holding its own, but of surpassing them in points of playing and cleverness. There is but one drawback, and that is the light weight of the boys, but the game on Saturday amply showed that scientific work is more than a balance to light weight. From the grandstand they looked to be the heaviest dozen that ever appeared upon the field and it seems to have been a case of where appearances were no deception. At the outset it would appear as though the little twelve of the Athletics had no chance against their burly opponents, but the game had not been long in progress when it was seen that the balance in the chances of ultimate success was with them, and that it was the larger twelve that was forced to be defensive.

There can be no doubt of it that the visitors were in the best of shape. They had reason to be, as they had been on the field for some months. They certainly are a strong aggregation, and it is all the more to the credit of the locals that they won out over such a team. The defence work of the visitors was a feature; it is a good thing for the team that such was the fact, as the Athletics gave them plenty to do and plenty more to think about. The ball was with the locals the greater portion of the time, but they could not score., the visiting defence was certainly solid; it would not come out, and the boys could not do much in the line of getting past it, though they did slip in three nice ones, and several others barely escaped. But “Bun” Clark looked after many that were intended for the nets rather than his stick, and which would have been effective but for him. With Clark, Griffiths and Graydon before the nets some long shots were necessary, and of course they did not prove of much service to the boys in blue. They kept the big fellows at work nevertheless and showed that the clever home of the locals is a strong factor.

But the other end of the field was also a factor. The Tecumseh’s home is almost as strong as it’s defence; if anything, it is bigger, while the Athletics’ defence is quite as small as its home. But the great big home could do nothing against the little defence men. “Shooty” Richardson, Tufford and Harris were always in the way, and it was a difficult matter for either ball or player to pass them. And Dixon in the nets was a wonder; he played a game similar to that in Toronto when the Athletics defeated Brantford in a play off a few years ago. He stopped everything that came his way. Even the goal that was tallied against him was stopped on his first appearance and was batted out by him, but struck a player and rolled back into the nets.

At that rate the visitors were beaten all over the field. In the centre, O’ Gorman, Parke, Brown and Ripley did all that could be expected of them. “Parke is playing a horse of a game,” was a common expression along the stand, and at that it was none too fitting. Aubron and Kalls did great work; so did Sullivan and Fitzgerald. Kalls and Fitz were practically checked by two men at every turn; but at that, generally put it over the two of them.

With the determination to win so evident on both sides, it is little to be doubted that the contest was somewhat rough and ready. The checking was very close and quite heavy, and petty scraps or threatened scraps were somewhat more numerous than usual, though when the final whistle sounded no one had been seriously hurt, though the stops during the game were quite frequent. Felker, the judge of play, got all that was coming to him in the way of compliments from the spectators. The players got all and probably a little more than was coming to them in the way of penalties, but they took all that was given, just or otherwise, and won out by the nice little score of three goals to one. Billy Elliott as referee was impartial at every stage, and gave every satisfaction to both sides.

Tecumsehs		Athletics
Clark	Goal	Dixon
Griffiths	Point	Tufford
Graydon	Cover	Harris
Davidson	Defence	Richardson
Stewart	Defence	Brown
Rountree	Defence	Parke
Felker	Centre	O' Gorman
Pickering	Attack	Ripley
Murton	Attack	Sullivan
Whitehead	Attack	Fitzgerald
Durkin	Outside	Aubron
Adamson	Inside	Kalls
Tod Downey	Umpire	Jno. Dawson
W. J. Westwood	Timer	H. O' Loughlin

The draw in the first quarter went to the visitors, and the ball remained in their possession for over two minutes, when they lost it behind the Athletics’ goal, a scrimmage following, and a face-off resulting. Then the draw went to the locals, the ball being passed to Parke who forwarded to Harris, and the whole team made a rush down the field and Eddie made a pretty shot which passed the whole defence and rolled into the net, the time being exactly three minutes. For several minutes after the next face-off, which went to the Athletics, the ball traveled all over the field, Tufford making two clever interceptions which showed the visitors that they were up against something strong. Finally the ball rolled past the net, and Dixon went after it. While he was out of goal, and the whole defence was with him, Adamson obtained possession and with a clear opening ran up to the nets and dropped the ball, which failed to roll in. The ball was recovered and passed up the field, where it was lost to Graydon, who was nicely checked by Fitzgerald, who received a poke in the ribs with the butt of Graydon’s stick and was laid out for several minutes. Graydon was given a five-minute’s rest and Durkin went off to even up. It was shortly after this that the visitors scored their first, last and only game, the time being seven minutes. Then Georgie Kalls got busy and made an unusually clever play, but missed in a pretty shot. Clark hit Aubron, who made an attempt to score, and was given five minutes rest. A minute later Aubron followed to the fence for a like period, and with the two of them off, the quarter ended with the score one all.

The second quarter saw some slow playing, but the interest did not lessen. Whitehead missed a nice opening and soon Parke, Sullivan and Rountree were sent to the fence because of a scrimmage in which Parke had taken no part. Again Graydon hit Fitzgerald and was given another five minutes’ rest. Sullivan again got two minutes and Murton got five. In the meantime the play had been affording some opportunities to Dixon, Harris and Tufford, who took them all and supplied the dull moments with some very neat playing. The quarter ended with the score still one all.

The last half was somewhat more interesting—the draw went to the locals and in no time Kalls was performing behind the goal. He baffled Clark and Graydon, and made a very fine score in two minutes’ time. Then Fitzgerald took the ball from two men and scored, but the whistle had blown for a face-off and the goal did not count. The judge of play called a foul on Fitzgerald for cross-checking Murton, and Aubron protested. The play continued very fast throughout the quarter, but despite the efforts of the locals to score they could not get in close enough and the score at the close stood, Athletics 2, Tecumsehs 1.

Soon after the play in the last quarter began, Elliott ruled Griffiths off for five minutes and after four minutes and thirty seconds he returned to the field, but was called back by Time-keeper O’ Loughlin to complete his sentence. After eight minutes play Aubron secured the ball and ran right into the nets; he was knocked down by Clark but retained possession of the ball, and while on the ground made a pretty shot, which was effective, and made the third goal for the Athletics. Graydon was given ten minutes for hitting Aubron. Kalls and Rountree each got five minutes for minor offences and were not in evidence at the close of the game, when the score remained, Athletics 3, Tecumsehs 1.