1921 Auckland Rugby League season
The 1921 season of Auckland Rugby League was its 13th. Seventy two teams played across its six main grades.[1]
Preceded by 1920 |
13th Auckland Rugby League season 1921 |
Succeeded by 1922 |
The first grade competition featured seven teams, City Rovers, Marist Old Boys, Maritime, Devonport, Fire Brigade (formerly Grafton Athletic), Newton Rangers, and Ponsonby United. City Rovers comfortably won the senior championship for the 4th time with a 8 win, 1 draw, 0 loss record ahead of Maritime who were unable to repeat their title win from the previous season. City had previously won the title in 1910, 1911, and 1916. This was to be the first of 3 consecutive titles for them. They also won the Roope Rooster knockout competition for the 3rd time after previous wins in 1916 and 1918.
Monteith Shield (First Grade Championship)
Final Standings
Monteith Shield FixturesRound 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6Round 6 was somewhat farcical. Devonport fielded several juniors and when the score got to 14–0 in favour of Maritime very quickly four Maritime players changed teams to make it a more even contest. The remainder of the game more resembled a practice match. While Newton defaulted their match with Fire Brigade as only 6 players turned out. The New Zealand Herald match report stated that "counter-attractions proving too strong for the Newton players".
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9Round 9 saw the opening of Carlaw Park and the first ever match played on its soil. City defeated Maritime by 10 points to 8 in front of 7000 spectators. The other two matches for this round were postponed. The captains of both Newton and Devonport decided to postpone the match, though the majority of the Devonport players were unaware of this arrangement and arrived at the ground ready to play. While on the same day the Fire Brigade players were called to a warehouse fire in the city at mid-day and were tired and late arriving to the ground so the match was abandoned.[28]
Round 10
Round 11The City v Newton game was discontinued at halftime due to the score line. Newton had started the match a man short and the score line had already blown out to 37–5 by the interval.
Roope Rooster Knockout CompetitionThe first round match between Marist Old Boys and Maritime ended controversially with Marist complaining that the match had finished early (when they were trailing by 10 points to 8. They protested and the match was replayed with Maritime winning 21 to 10. The final was won by City Rovers who defeated Maritime in the final in front of a large crowd by 30 points to 14. Over £230 were taken at the gate which was a record for Carlaw Park, albeit in its first season of use. From this 50 percent went to the Auckland League Sick and Injured Players' Fund, 25 percent to the Hospital Radium Fund, and 25 percent to the St. John Ambulance Association .[36] Round 1
Semi Final
Round 1 Replay
Semi Final
Final
Top Try Scorers and Point Scorers
Other Club Matches and Lower GradesLower Grade ClubsThere were 7 lower grades in 1921 if you include the Sixth Grade which was split into an A and B grade, and the cadet competition. Clubs with only lower grade teams were: Grades were made of the following teams with the winning team in bold:
Challenge ShieldThe Thacker Shield was held by Ponsonby United coming into the 1921 season however there was a dispute over whether the shield should be held by North Island teams as it was unclear if it had been intended for competition among South Island teams only. The New Zealand council decided that the rules should be amended to allow North Island teams to hold it but the donor, Dr. H. T.J. Thacker and the Canterbury Rugby League would not agree to them. As such the shield was returned to the donor. Mr. C Weaver donated a trophy to take its place and this became known as the Challenge Shield and it was this that Ponsonby went on to defend twice. They first hosted Petone from Wellington who they beat 18–13. In the curtain-raiser Petone juniors were defeated by Richmond by 14 points to 8. In the evening the Petone players were entertained at the Druids' Hall by the Ponsonby club and Auckland League. They later defeated Huntly 19–8 before losing the Shield to local rivals City Rovers
Exhibition Matches
Auckland Representative FixturesIt was a very busy season for the Auckland representative team with ten matches played. Though in reality B and C teams played some of the fixtures as matches were played at the same time in different centres. They won seven matches and lost three. On 20 August Auckland played three matches, which showed off their depth. One at Carlaw Park versus King Country, one in Hamilton against South Auckland, and one against Wellington on the Basin Reserve. They won against King Country and Wellington, with a loss against South Auckland. Auckland v New Zealand
Northern Union Challenge Cup
Northern Union Challenge Cup
Auckland v King Country
South Auckland (Waikato) v Auckland
Wellington v Auckland
West Coast v AucklandNo full team lists were published for this match and none of the scorers were listed either in match reports from any newspaper in New Zealand. The match report did however mention that the following players for Auckland performed well: Maurice Wetherill, W Flynn, G Yardley, T Peckham, V Thomas, and Bill Stormont. It is most likely that Auckland fielded the same touring team that played in Wellington 4 days prior and in Christchurch 3 days later.
Canterbury v Auckland
Hawkes Bay v Auckland B
Auckland v South Auckland (Waikato)
Auckland Representative Matches Played and ScorersThere was no scoring for the West Coast match where Auckland won by 47 points to 7. Bill Davidson led Auckland in scoring with 40 points from 6 tries and 11 conversions.
New Zealand Representatives from AucklandTeam to tour Australia Backs
Forwards
References
External links |