History of the A's

Where have all the rovers gone?

THROUGH THE SPORTS GATE

by Jack Gatecliff

The St. Catharines Standard

Tuesday June 30, 1953

The days of the “rover” are numbered. When box lacrosse was first introduced in Ontario 22 years ago, it bore a striking resemblance to hockey in all but one aspect. Where a hockey team had a goalie, two defensemen and three forwards, the lacrosse side had the same positions plus the addition of a “rover”, the only holdover from the days of field lacrosse.

Originally the job of the “rover” was exactly what the name implied. He could be used either as an “inside home” stationed directly in front of the opposing goal , or could fall back as an additional defenseman. In later years, however, lacrosse has become more and more an attacking game and at the present time there is actually little difference in duties of a forward, defenseman or rover. An indication of this is that defender Doug Smith of the Athletics is the club’s top point scorer.

At a meeting of the senior clubs in Toronto over the past weekend, it was decided to experiment in the last month of the schedule and drop the rover, leaving just six men on the crease at one time, the same number as hockey. At the same time the size of the goals will be decreased from the present 4 feet 6 inches to an even 4 feet square. This should give the goaltenders a little better chance and may also serve to cut down on some of those mountainous scores.

All these innovations will go into effect Monday July 6th. That means that the Athletics will have one more home game with the seven-man brand and that is the big one next Saturday night against the Peterboro Trailermen. Six men will then be used for the remainder of the schedule and a meeting will be held before the playoffs to decide whether to carry on the same way or revert to the original seven men. Personally we believe that six-man lacrosse is here to stay.

Odds and Ends…twelve players were listed in the most recent release of the senior O. L. A. top scorers…of this dozen, nine learned their lacrosse in St. Catharines…Skip Teal is one of the few players in sport to wear number 13 on his jersey…three times he has scored the 13^th goal this year and on each occasion it proved to be the winner…Orillia will be known as the Terriers, not the West Yorks and are supposedly controlled by Orillia interests instead of Toronto…incidentally, Terriers did the A’s a good turn by defeating Peterboro on Saturday night but suffered a severe blow themselves when rocket-shooting Jim McNulty was bounced by Don Ashbee and may be out for the remainder of the season with a wonky shoulder…Petes have now lost four games, Terriers five, Athletics two…there may be the makings of a full scale feud between Orillia and Peterboro…just five weeks ago George Masters was clouted by Nit O’Hearn and sat out three weeks with a badly bashed beak…now with McNulty out via another Peterboro slash, full scale war is apt to break out at any time.

SPORT DONE BROWNE

by Clayton Browne

The St. Catharines Standard

Tuesday June 30, 1953

Adoption of six-man lacrosse should result in general improvement of the game in Ontario, as has been proved out at the west coast. Maybe not to the larger Garden City Arena but certainly so in the smaller ones, Fergus for instance. With one less man on the floor, it eases bodily contact some and also will open up the game and produce more spectacular individual prowess.

Cutting the net sizes down six inches each way also places a premium on accuracy and with the four-foot square rigging, a stoutish guy like Moon Wootton could pretty well fill the opening. The dual innovation won’t be too much of a handicap to the St. Kitts Athletics, since it is observant here and also generally agreed, that the city double blues have the legs of the entire O. L. A. circuit.

A far more important ruling in the minds of the majority of boxla patrons and likewise with certain clubs (particularly the Orillia Terriers, now that the Toronto Yorks are out of that amalgamation) would be for Pres. Art Brown of this city to get his colleagues to unite in stamping out unnecessary roughness. That liability is certainly doing a major share to help kill the game. The handwriting is on the wall.

One of the O. L. A. units has created quite a name for themselves as hatchet men and the Terriers become the worst sufferers. George Masters had his nose flattened, a la pancake and now Jim McNulty of this city is said to be too badly injured to move home over last weekend, with either a broken shoulder or fractured disk in his vertebrae. There was a time when such tactics brought suspensions. Why not continue these ways?

A lethal weapon, like the hickory in lacrosse or the ash wand in hockey, can be employed to very devastating effect in the tension of the game and pads cannot cover all exposed parts of a player. When it comes to the stage where a boy is wrapped from waist to neck in gauze and tape and just a mass of black and blue bruises, it’s time to call a halt. A’s may be lucky but ask them if any are bruise-less.

The six-man game may help in removing two men from action and alleviate a little less cluttering-up plays. It also give each team 15 men to dress and thus provides for two sets of defensemen and three forward trios, with goalie and sub, as in hockey. Still and for all, it is agreed opinion that far too much tough play goes on and the inference is that the refs permit it to increase tensed action. It is rather a pity, for the national summer game can be dispensed cleanly on occasion and that’s where sheer artistry comes in, as one of the top assets a club could boast and which has been a pride and heritage here for around some 80 years.

THROUGH THE SPORTS GATE

by Jack Gatecliff

The St. Catharines Standard

Saturday July 11, 1953

The first major change in lacrosse rules since boxla replaced the field game will be unveiled at the Garden City Arena tonight. For the general information of lacrosse followers, here are the switches that will take place.

1. The “rover” position is eliminated. This leaves one goalie, two defensemen, a centre and two forwards playing at one time. Exactly the same as hockey.
2. Goals have been decreased in size from 4 ft. 6 inches square to 4 ft. square.
3. The delayed penalty rule goes into effect after two men of one team have been penalized. Formerly three men had to be serving time before a replacement could be used.
4. Teams will now be able to dress a goalie and a sub-goalie, two sets of defensemen and three complete forward lines. In the seven-man game era, there were two complete changes and one extra man.

Those are the changes and now it’s up to the paying public and the lacrosse executive members to judge whether they are for the better, or if the game as first devised with seven men should be continued.

As far as Doug Cove is concerned, it’s all for the best. “The game was definitely opened up and the smaller goals gave the goalies a better break,” stated the Athletic coach, following the first game of six-man at Orillia on Wednesday. Apparently the idea caused a bit of a stir in Orillia as the largest crowd of the season turned out for the experiment.

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