Weir v. the Rest

It needed half an hour's heavy consideration and heavier post prandial digestion to impress us with the solemnity and august nature of the occasion. Weir House was playing the Rest ! How we envied those thirty stalwarts who in later life would be able to pat their offspring benignly on the head saying, "Yes, daddy fought in that first heroic draw for (or against) Weir House I remember . . ."

There we met tall George Sainsbury, the typical American team manager with slouch cap, cigar dangling disdainfully from a heavily critical mouth (fashion critics please note, he was dressed in old creaseless grey flannels, football jersey and an overcoat). The curtain-raiser was an excellent game except that it was upside down and the Fourths beat the Juniors. This state of affairs is preposterous; if the Fourths can beat the Juniors, why didn't the Seniors win? Anyhow the game ended—as all good games should do—and the Weir House and the Rest teams filed on to the field—discreet applause—silence we felt something was going to happen. Then the music starting softly rose to a universe-shattering crescendo, base, treble, flats, sharps and thunderclaps bounded all over the diapason. In the dim distance two specks were just discernible. Was it Henry VIII and Mae West, was it McGhie and the Lady Godiva—why no, it was Lord and Lady Bledisloe (disguised as Hall and Keating) charmingly attired in a bicycle built for one.

With a just appreciaton of the proprieties of the occasion and showing remarkable insight into the details of the game, His Pseudo-Excellency proceeded to plant a tree in the middle of the field. This somewhat. mystified Dick Wild at the kick off, for he didn't know whether to follow his native instincts and go bird-nesting or to play football. Subsequent events suggested a judicious combination. Max Willis, dressed as a chorus girl' only more so, and Tom Birks as a local "hula hula" merchant led a ferocious haka and then the players settled down to foot the ball. Weir led 9—0 at half time; Wild scoring after nine or ten tacklers had found Irish blood in Fitzgerald's veins; Powell followed with a magnificent penalty. Finally Bradshaw receiving the ball by mistake, slipped over under a misapprehenson and the referee happened to raise the right arm.

"In the second spell, due to a snappy try and a penalty from Rae and tries by Hislop and Cormack from long passing rushes and a further penalty from Powell the scores equalised themselves 12 all. Thurston's excellent play for the Rest and the good work of the Weir forwards stood out. O'Shea seemed to strike the imagination of the crowd; but, horrible thought, perhaps this "play boy" was playing to the gallery. We remember him taking one ball which should have been the fullback's by rights."