old time lax 20

It is now definitely announced that St. Catharines is to see a senior O. A. L. A. championship match on Civic Holiday when the Excelsiors of Brampton will meet Niagara Falls on the old corner lot on Catherine street.

Of the team that will play under the name Niagara Falls, there is little that is foreign about it, for many of the players are native of St. Catharines, so many that the spectators will not have far to stretch their imagination to the point that the St. Kitts Athletics are again in action.

Hence, the first Monday in August will be looked forward to with considerable interest.

Niagara Falls have taken a hitch in their knickerbockers and announced their determination to win the remaining four games.

If they play consistent lacrosse they can be assured of good crowds for future games in the Garden City.

On Monday the blue-ribbon lacrosse event will be pulled off when the Excelsiors of Brampton will play a senior O. A. L. A. fixture with a team that will bear the name Niagara Falls, but which in reality is a St. Catharines organization. The only Falls men on the team will be Russell of Cornwall fame, Fraser, Vanstone, and Pat Haffey, a former St. Kitts player now making his home at the Falls.

Among the St. Kitts players who will be on the team to meet Brampton will be Pople, “Red” Millar, May, Purdy, W. Kalls, Harry Flynn, Eberhardt, Kinghorn, Crowe, Switzer, and Hedley Marriott. Some of the promising lads from the city league may also be given a chance as substitutes.

Over 2,000 people attended the first O. A. L. A. senior game played here yesterday when Niagara Falls, wearing St. Catharines uniforms and with nine Garden City players, lost to the Excelsiors of Brampton by 4 to 3. The game was a real struggle and had the crowd on its toes all the time. Referee “Bert” Booth of Orangeville, in refusing to allow a goal scored by Niagara Falls, almost precipitated a riot. He accepted the word of the Brampton timekeeper declaring the game over despite the fact that nearly a minute of time remained to play, further angering the fans.

The referee made a hasty escape from the grounds, but not before he had been roughly handled by some of the spectators. Police Sergt. Brett furnished safe conduct for Judge-of-play Dr. Campbell of Orangeville.

Niagara Falls	Position	Brampton
Eberhardt	goal	McClure
Purdy	point	Beecham
Russell	cover point	Mara
Crowe	defense	Blain
Marriott	defense	McLean
Haffey	defense	Moore
May	centre	Stevens
Millar	home field	Sproule
Switzer	home field	Ushley
Flynn	home field	Erson
Pennie	outside	C. Anderson
Kinghorn	inside	Charters
Gayder	spare	Burrows
Kalls	spare	-
Herr	spare	-

It was just such a game the St. Kitts fans needed to get them in their old-time lacrosse humor. The play was three times as fast as was expected and hotly and evenly contested from beginning to end.

The visitors found the nets first, and the wise ones in the stand were ready to predict that this was the beginning of a big, one-sided score. But when Switzer and Harry Flynn started a little semblance of combined play on the Blues home and notched two goals in less than two minutes, the crowd began to sit up and take notice. Right back came Brampton with a counter in 20 seconds that tied the score 2 – 2. All four goals were scored in the last six minutes of the first quarter.

In the second quarter Pennie succeeded in putting the home team ahead again. Two minutes later Brampton had it tied once more, the half-time score standing 3 – 3.

The Excelsiors made the only tally in the third quarter just after Norman May was obliged to retire from the game through an injured leg. With the score 4 – 3 against his team, May returned to the fray in the last quarter and backed up by an extraordinary performance by Eberhardt in goal, the visitors were blanked in the final quarter.

Early in this period came the disappointing feature of the game. The referee, whose work was none too good, made a complete success of his little stunt of getting in wrong with the crowd. A Brampton home player had been temporarily incapacitated when struck by a ball thrown by one of his own team-mates. He lay down and the ball traveled to the other end on home team sticks. Brampton contested every each of the play, but failing to get possession of the ball. The referee had not blown his whistle, and rightly so too, for the home team had not lost the ball. But the St. Kitts – Falls aggregation scored a goal that should have tied the score.

When the referee went down the field and refused to allow this goal and faced the ball off in front of the nets, the fury of the crowd knew no bounds and he was “booed” for the balance of the game, cries of “robber” growing into stronger invectives as the game advanced. His action in terminating the game before the time-keepers had agreed capped the unpleasant climax. It is altogether likely that Niagara Falls will protest the game.