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FOOTBALL.

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FOOTBALL. I BY VETERAN. The Shrewsbury men though ousted by Oswestry for the Welsh Cup, have still a good chance for three—the Shropshire, Mayors, and the Amateur. On Saturday they met a very formidable team in St. Stephen's London, and after a spirited game emerged from the contest successfully by four goals to none. This score does not quite represent the play, though undoubtedly on the day's play the better team won, and a victory of 4 to 2 would be about the mark. The Londo team contained two or three famous Scotchmen, who performed admirably, but on the whole the Cockneys were not up to the standard of the "Clodhoppers" as some of the London sporting papers termed the Chirk and Shrewsbury players. How these clever men arrived at this term it is impossible to say, as there is not one of these useful agriculturalists in either team. The game was well patronised, and with the extra charge which the public have to pay to see amateurs play, the exchequer of Shrewsbury will be replenished. Right from the beginning the pace was a hot one. St. Stephens, in the tirst minute were very danger- ous and ought to have scored. The ball was cleverly worked up to the Salop goal, and the centre-forward put in a stiff one which Rufus was only just able to push away at the tirst attempt. Before he could get on to the ball the inside right pounced on it while the partisans of the home team held their breath and sent in a lightning shot which the invincible Rufus" met with his left fist and turned on one side. The foreigners deserved a goal, and if they had obtained it thus early the result might have been different. The home team from this time played up man- fully, and attacked the opposite fortress with great vigour. As at Oswestry, in the Charity match, they were about half-an-hour before they found the mark, than in less than four minutes the hat trick" was done. The-first goal was from a grand pass by Williams which fell at Hobin's feet. This player however muffed it, but R. Jones was up and did the needful. From the kick-off C. Bowdler raced down and landed a nice one across the mouth of goal, and Hobin rushed it through. The third was the result of about the best bit of individual play I have seen this season. E. Bowdler got the ball in the centre of the ground, and dodging all oponents finished up a magnificent run with a splendid goal which sent the spectators wild with delight. Even play took place in the second half, but Hobin managed to beat the goalkeeper once. The Shrewsbury men all round were very brilliant, but the special feature of the game was the really marvellous goalkeeping of "Rufus." Ordinary shots were easily dealt with, and the difficult ones were turned aside in the same comfortable style. Rufus had about eight scorchers to negotiate, but he was a match for all. Any ordinary goalkeeper could have been well excused if half of these had been netted. Shrewsbury now have to go to Bishop Auckland, to-day, and if the long journey and the consequent fag and excitement are not too much for them then, I shall confidently look forward to another good win, which they well deserve for their pluck in going such a distance. The clever and strong Morda, team added still another victory to their already long league list. On Saturday they met foemen worthy of their steel in the Whittington boys. The Champions had to put in all they knew from start to finish, but two lucky free kicks near goal were cleverly con- verted. A grand game in the Shropshire League between Ironbridge and Wellington, on the ground of the former, ended in a draw of 2 goals each. Welling- ton are still in the running for the Championship, but the Men of Iron are quite out of it. If they win all their coming matches, five in number, they will only total 19 points. The other League match was at Newtown, where the home team vanquished Oswestry United by 6 to 2. The game in the first-half was very even, but with the slope and wind in their favour in the second-half, Newtown had nearly all the play, and won quite easily as stated above. Owing to the International match neither team was fully represented. Newtown hive five more matches to play, and with 20 points in hand they ought to do the trick again. Wrockwardine Wood administered a heavy drubbing to Shrewsbury Reserve, in the Welsh Junior Cup, defeating them by 8 to 1. The Cup now seems a certainty for the winners of this game. They have simply romped home in every tie so far. The team to get off the lightest against them was Caersws. This ought to encour- age the Welsh team to practice hard for next year. A few visits to Newtown to watch the good and clever play of that team would also be of great benefit. The International Match showed Wales up most creditably in every respect. In addition to a splen- did victory there was a good attendance, the receipts (£147) being a record for Wales. In the first-half the Irishmen had the advantage of a strong wind and bright sun behind them, and made the pace a hot one. The Welshmen did not show up very prominently in the first part of the game, and as the half-backs could not properly feed their forwards a vast amount of work was thrown on Taylor, Arrige and Trainor, whose defence is des- cribed in all the papers as being excellent. On one occasion only was Trainer beaten, even under these circumstances. In the second-half the Wrelshmen played up magnificently, the play of the half- backs being especially brilliant. They fed the for- wards splendidly and what they could not do Taylor and Arridge had no trouble in doing. Our local players showed up very prominently. New- town had the distinguished honour of playing two men. Chapman at centre-half was acknowledged by all as the best half on the ground, and he can- not be omitted from the list in the English match. Taylor was in his best form at back, and further praise is unnecessary. In the first-half he had an enormous amount of work to to, and he had to meet an exceedingly clever youngster in Barrow, the Irish left wing, who was a continual trouble to him. Jack Evans was about the hardest worker on the field, and if he occasionally missed a few good chances near goal he made up for it by good all round work. Some of his centres too were of the old sort. Rea, Aberystwyth, was very speedy and tricky. In the first-half he scarcely passed enought to his partners, but in the second-half he was as near perfection in every way as possible, and the goal he got was a real beauty. James of Chirk, was a perfect forward and he fed Rea splendidly. The two Lewises were also in fine form. The spectators were delighted with the success of their countrymen, and the Rugby men must now look out or the Soekers" will lead the way. Association Football will now make rapid strides in South Wales. Most of the reports of the match in the South Wales papers are very poor indeed. They were evidently written by Rugby press men. The best report I have seen is in the Atheletic News, a copy of which is here given :—Wales were the better team all round. But for very hard luck they should have scored twice in the first half, when they had to face a strong wind. The Welsh forwards, once they settled down, played a beautiful game. Their halves fed them badly up to the interval, but afterwards there was a great improvement. Taylor and Arridge at back made good substitutes for Parry and D. Jones. Their kicking in the first half was very powerful, and in the second half they kept the Irish front rank well in hand. Arridge was the better of the two. Chapman did the best of the halves, Jones coming next. W. Lewis and the two outside man, Rea and Evans, were shining stars of the Welsh attack. Lewis displayed wonderful resource, and Rea made some brilliant runs. Evans was the hardest worker on the field, and was continually back assisting Hayes, who had more than he could attend to in the Irish left pair. Trainor in goal should not be forgotten. He had a good bit of work to do, but except for Stanfield's goal, which he had no chance of stopping, he kept his charge intact. Coming to the losers Gordon was not an overwhelming success in goal, and Torrans did not come up to expectations. Stewart had the mis- fortune to have M'Keown, who did nothing during the game, in front of him, but nevertheless he got through the double work with credit. Milne was the better of the halves, Burnett coming next. Stanfield played a great game in the centre, and no fault could be found with the Cliftonville young- sters, Barron and Gibson on the left. Barron was the more prominent of the pair, but both did very well. To-day the Welsh semi-final takes place at Wrexham between Chirk and Oswestry. Both teams are in fine form, Chirk especially, as the result of their matches for the Amateur Cup show. Their cleverness is unquestionable, and it remains to be seen if this will be a match for the dash and strength of Oswestry. The English Cup ties on Saturday were the centres of attraction and the gates were enormous, Something like 70,000 spectators witnessed the contests. The match of course was at Sheffield where the Yillans met Sheffield Wednesday. The home team are noted fighters on their own ground, but not- withstanding this nearly all the football world ex- pected the victory of the Yilla team, as they have this season proved themselves to be the finest team in England. Many good judges even go so far as to say that they are the best team we ever had, and are much superior to Preston North End in their palmiest days. However, they have fallen to rise no more this year in the English Cup ties. Their defeat is attributed to the great amount of work the men have gone through in the last fort- night, but there are other factors to be considered the principal one being their own sad want of dis- cretion when they had the game safe in their hands. With the whole of the men thoroughly done up they ought to have strengthened their defence in the last ten miuutes or so, and have eased them- selves in this way. This is just what the Wednes- day team did after putting on their goal in the extra half-hour, and every sensible person will say that they did quite right. The winners were miles behind the Villans in style and finish, but they ex- ceeded them in strength and dash, and as I have often said this nearly always pays best in an ex- citing game. Blackburn Rovers had no trouble with Derby, and the same may be said of the Bolton Wanderers with Liverpool. For the winners in the last named match, D. Jones, of Chirk, did wonders at back. The two Nottingham teams have yet to fight it out. Supposing, which is very probable, that Notts County gain the day, then we shall have two of the lowest clubs in the League and one in the Second League taking part in the semi-final, while their supposed betters have bitten the dust. FIRST CLASS LEAGUE TEAMS. Up to and including Saturday last. Played Won Lost Drawn Points Aston Villa 25 16 4 5 37 Blackburn Rovers .23 14 7 2 30 Burnley 2,3 13 7 3 29 Sunderland 23 13 7 4 28 Wolverhampton Wan.25 13 10 2 28 West Brom. Albion .26 12 10 4 28 Derby County 22 11 8 3 25 Notts Forest 22 11 8 3 25 Everton 25 11 11 3 25 Sheffield United 26 10 11 5 25 Stoke 24 10 11 3 23 Sheffield Wednesday 27 7 12 8 22 Bolton Wanderers 23 8 13 2 18 Darwen 25 6 14 5 17 Preston North End .25 6 16 3 15 Xewton Heath .20 4 15 1 9 SHROPSHIRE AND DISTRICT LEAGUE. Goals Played Won Lost Dr'n F'r Agst Pts Newtown .13.10. 3. 0.55.20.20 St. George's 11. 8. 2. 1.29.15.17 Shrewsbury 11. 7. 3. 1.38.27.15 Whitchurch .12. 5. 5. 2.40.34.12 Wellington 11. 5. 5. 1.27.27.12 Newport 14. 4. 8. 2.31.40.10 Oswestry United 13. 4. 8. 1.25.48. 9 Ironbridge 13. 4. 8. 1.22.41. 9 Market Drayton .10. 4. 6. 0.21.35. 8 Hereford 12. 4. 8. 0.28.29. 8 VILLAGE LEAGUE. Goals. Played Won Lost Dr'n F'r Agst Pts Morda 14.12. 0. 2.49.12.26 Porthywaen 14 7. 4. 3.42.30. 17 Pant 13 6 5 3.40 48 15 Lodge 13 6. 4. 2. 50.21 14 Whittington .13. 6. 6. 1.31.23.13 Criftins 11 4. 4. 3.24.23.11 Gobowen 14 3. 9. 2.22.54. 8 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES v ABERYSTWYTH EXCELSIORS. These teams met for the third time this season on Saturday on the Barracks Ground, Aberystwyth, in the presence of a. large numb"r of spectators. The first match between them resulted in a draw, and the second in a win for the Excelsiors. The encounters have invariably been of an uninteresting and monotonous description, combined with wretched shooting, and last Saturday's contest was no exception to the rule. The display by the Collegians was shocking in the extreme. When hard pressed the Excelsiors packed their goal to perfection and thus staved off disaster, but they unluckily had to retire vanquished, the score at the call of time being:- U. C. W 2 goals. Excelsiors 1 goal. H. Smith, T. Hughes and Bob Jones, played extremely well for the Excelsiors; and Cadvan kept his charge in good form. Ellis and Kinsey were theJcontributors to the College score; while W. Michael was the executant for the Excelsiors. w. c. w. Goal, D. T. Cadvan Jones backs, F. E. Seedhouse and R. J. E. Bryant (capt) halfbacks, E. W. B. Jones, R. M. Kinsey and J. H. Bunford; right wing, D. M. Jones and J. Lloyd Roberts; left wing, J- R. Blackhurst and J. H. Keall; centre, Dewi Ellis. EXCELSIORS. Goal, D. Thomas; backs, W. S. Dougall and Robert Jones; halfbacks, H. Smith, Thomas Hughes and Robert Ellis (capt) right wing, Llew. Owen and Jack Davies; left wing, R. D. Evans and W. Michael; centre, D. J. Jones. Linesman-Mr. J. Garner. Referee—Mr. J. A. Stuart. FOOTBALL FIXTURES. March 3-Oswestry United v Wellington, at Os- westry. March 3—Aberystwyth Reserve v United Schools, at Aberystwyth. March 10—Aberystwyth v Towyn, at Towyn. March 10—Aberystwyth Reserve v Excelsiors Reserve, on Excelsiors ground. March 10—Oswestry United v Whitchurch, at Whitchurch. March 17—Newtown v Wellington, at Newtown. March 17-Aberystwyth Reserve v U.C.W. Reserve, on College ground. March 23-0swestry Old Boys v Aberystwyth, at Aberystwyth. March 24—Newtown v Market Drayton, at Market Drayton. March 24—R.W.W. (Newtown) v Aberystwyth, at Aberystwyth. March 26—Aberystwyth v Welshpool, at Aber- ystwyth. March 26—R.W.W. (Newtown) v Excelsiors, at Aberystwyth. March 27—Aberystwyth v London Welsh, at Aber- ystwyth. March 31-Aberystwyth Reserve v Ardwyn School, on Town ground. March 31—Newtown v Shrewsbury Town, at Shrewsbury. March 31—Oswestry United v Wellington St. George's, at Oswestry. April 14—Aberystwyth Reserve v Towyn Reserve, at Aberystwyth. April 21-Aberystwyth v Excelsiors, on Excelsiors ground. April 21—Newtown v Whitchurch, at Newtown. April 21-Aberystwyth Reserve v Ardwyn School, on School ground. April 28—Aberystwyth Reserve v United Schools, at Aberystwyth. April 28-Oswestry United v Aberystwyth, at Aberystwyth. THE TOWYN ROVERS CHALLENGE CUP. PRESENTED BY MR. ROBINSON, TOWYN. 8TSCOND ROUND. February 3—E. Winner of B v winner of D. February 17-F. Winner of A v winner of C. FINAL. Winner of E v winner of F INTERNATIONAL MATCHES. March 12 Wales v England, in Wales March 24.Wales v Scotland, in Scotland WELSH SENIOR CUP. March 3 Semi-Final March 26 Final WELSH JUNIOR CUP. March 10 Semi-Finals April 14 Final Tie

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