The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1896-10-20
F0OIbnIl.

| As captain of tho Eddystone football
! team, would esteem 1t a favor il you
would allow me small space In your
paper to answer the charge made against
us by the captain Of the Warren football
team and published In your Issue Of Tues
day, October l3, 1896, relating to the game
| played between our respective teams on
their (Warren) ground. the Saturday
| previous, October 10, 1886. i would like
| to draw attention to the assertion which
they would like us to believe as a fact
that we the visiting team roasted them on
their own grounds. In my experience ii
Is quite the reverse for If there was any
roasting done at all 1t is generally the
home team roasts the visitors. And this
| is NOS taking into consideration ut all the
| fact that the Warren team is composed of
players who would not allow us to take
| advantage OF them on their own grounds
for ono moment
The plea, they put forth for not scoring
is due to the roughness of the Eddystonc
| players, such Is not tho case as the true
solution of the matter is that they met
foemen worthy of their steel, and could
do nothing with us. In regard to their
plea of our being invariably 'otfside, such
statement, to say the least about it Is
erroneous,a as the fact of the matter is, their
slowncss in getting into play enabled us
to have the opportunity OF downing them
on their track before they could make
formation and we as trained foot ball
players were not slowin taking advantage
of such an opportunity, We are exceed
ingly well pleased with Captain Prentiss,
calling attention to a play where they
were losing ground, and where McDan-
nell intended on tho fourth down, to lose
twenty yards as they tWarren) could re-
tain the bull, us it affords us an opportun-
ity of demonstrating their slowncss.
In The play 1t was not necessary for Nc.
Dannell 0losc the twenty yards US he
had the option OF either Kicking the ball,
or running with it. 1t was to prevent
this our end (not being mind reader, md
therefore did not know what play was
going to be enacted) charged forward and
succeeded in reaching him before he (Mcs
Danneil) had time to enact n play and the
m0ncntho called down, our end didn't
tackle him, but simply bumped into him,
as he was running too fast to recover him
solf Anyhow the idea Of Horace McDan-
mel. Wmrron's Pugilistic instructor, talking
about u man weighing $50 pounds using
him roughly, In regards to the long
runs they made not one Of ther players
gained over l5 yards except when they
kicked the bail OUT Of bounds when they
rcgaincd the bail by foul rtirrec!ng. In
reference 10 their cancelIIDg Of the return
game at Eddystono, | know nothing in
that matter AS our nlhhdgnf attends that
part Of the business.
In my opinion it would have been more
gcntlemanly conduct on their part in
stead OF rushing into print, especially
when so great distance separates us and
the only means we have Of seeing what
they print is by the mcrcst kind Of an aC-
ctdrnt; if they had written to US peraUi.
ally, we would have some chance Of
trying to vndlcate ourselves If Warren
wants us to play according to the London
prize ing rules we must decline, as we are
not aclAppers and have no pugilistiU in
strlctUr
III conclusion, I would like to say if
Referee Mphaify, or any of the Warren
players, st!lI hDId the same views in re-
CARDS to the Girside rule ON an out of the
bound bull, that we still stand ready TO
back cur OpiniOn that they are in error.
Yours respectfully,
$. D rnEETHAM,
Capt Eddystone Football Team.