England v The Rest 1954
England at Lord’s
Front row: W.Crofts (Boardman & Eccles), E.R.Kershaw (Offerton), J.Buckland (Old Hulmeians), J.Griffith (Stockport), A.Clayton (South Manchester and Wythenshawe), A. Gibson (Heaton Mersey).
ENGLAND’S ATTACK MORE THRUSTFUL AND DIRECT
From our Lacrosse Correspondent
England beat the Rest 16-4 in a representative lacrosse match at Lord’s after a fast and interesting game. Perfect weather and an ideal playing surface provided faultless conditions and the England side, which was as selected, outclassed the Rest. whose team included Bradburn for Zizmor on defence and C. S. Smith for Gill on attack.
The Rest defended keenly at the start and England opened the scoring through Buckland only after some time. Slowly but surely however, England established a superiority and at half time led by 7-2. The game was played in two halves of 45 minutes instead of in the customary four periods of twenty minutes. The second half opened evenly and an early goal by Gibson was quickly followed by one from Gray for the Rest. England’s attack then confirmed its superiority by scoring seven goals before the Rest could reply
A marked contrast in methods of attack was the game’s most notable feature.
[Note: the right hand of this column of the article was frayed. We added what seemed to be the correct text, and marked any missing text with square brackets.]
Whereas England’s attacks constantly endeavoured to score by combined thrust which moved directly towards goal, Rest’s attack kept the ball moving wide with frequently combined movements ending with the ball farther from goal than it was when such movements began. The difference in the quality of defence play contributed to this contrast. England’s defence was excellent and Griffith’s polished play of goalkeeping gave the Rest’s attack no encouragement ; McClinton, who cleared well, and Clayton also were outstanding.
In England’s attack Buckland, who with five goals was in his best form ; his passing was particularly accurate and contributed to all of the three goals scored by Crofts and most of the six scored by Gibbons. Kershaw also scored twice for England. The Rest’s defence played hard but were never equal to its task ; Thorpe was the outstanding defender. Gray, who [sho… - “shot most”?] goals, played well and tirelessly at centre, and Ringham, who also scored twice, was the most dangerous of a Rest attack of which C. S. Smith was the hard worker.