The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-09-23
PLANS FOR POLO.
Qnsi Whether POrt'anl Will Be
in the League.
MEETING OF MAINE POLO LEAGUE
HELD HERE YESTERDAY.

Bangor. Aewistons AoS"''
Rockland VIII Be In the League Any.
wav and the State VIII Surely Have
the Game.
Tt was definitely decided yesterday af-
+ernoon that Maine is to have polo this
vinter and the outlook for the sport at
nresent in much better than it has ever
been before. Polo is the fad in Maine
in the winter time and with the strong
combination at the back OF the game this
wear it is bound to be more successful
than ever.
Unfortunately Portland is SO situated
that thers is some doubt about the lovers
of the game having chance to witness
it here this winter. A new floor, costing
about $500 or whereabouts has been put
in City hall, and the public buildings
committee decided some weeks ago that
there should ue no more polo played in
the building. Last season polo paid the
city for rental of the hall about $1,000, sand
those who know about the. matter claim
that the game does not hurt hoor nall
as much in proportion as does fair or
big exhibition. Since the decision of the
public buildings committee to refuse to
lease the hall for polo this winter, Au-
gusta and Lewiston, where they have
brand new City buildings, have voted
to lease their halls for polo, and it would
seem by this that those in authority IN
these two cities do not consider polo very
damaging to the floors. Further than
this the public in Lewiston and Augusta
demand polo and to please the public the
CITY halls in both places have beenaleased
for the game.
When all of these matters are taken
into consideration it is very likely that
the public buildings committee here will
reverse their decision and lease City hall
for polo under proper conditions. 1t is
to be hoped that this will be done for the
game is very popular here and a great
many people would be disappointed II
Portland was not in the polo league.
The meeting of the polo managers yes
terday was held at the Preble house.
There we're present at this meeting repre-
sentatives from Portland, Bath, Lewis.
ton, Rockland, Augusta and Bangor.
W. ". Burnham of Portland was elected
president of the Maine Polo league, and
81. NJ. Bigelow of Portland was chosen
secretary and treasurer.
1t was voted to give Bangor franchise
and this was allotted to w. G. French
of Rockland. j. E. Phelan was award
ed the franchise for Lewiston. Rockland
will be owned and managed by "A. e..
Bird; Bath by D. T. Dougherty and the
Augusta franchise was awarded to III.
J. Kelley of Otto River, Mass, and M. j.
Finn of Natick, Mass. Portland will be
controlled by W. W. Durham if the city
has team this year.
The new league, for it is practically a
new league, starts in with very fattering
prospects. Manager Burnham holds in
reserve all the men who played here so
successfully last year and hopes to bring
all of them reSforL another. year should
the city have a team.
Bath will have about the same men,
with possibly one or two new ones.
Rockland will probably begin the season
with those who finished with the team
last year and there may be few new
ones there Also The men who played with
Lewiston last year, onsthe Lewiston team
disbanding, were reserved by the league
and at yesterdays meeting it was voted
to allot three of the old Lewiston players
to Bangor and three to Augusta. Tar
rant, q. Gay and White were allotted to
Augusta. Whitewater, Fitzgerald and
Jason were allotted to Bangor. Furbush
of last years Lewiston team was not
wanted by anyone, and is still held in
reserve.
The league voted to.open the season on
November 1 and close the season on
March 18th. This will give several more
games to each town and will make the
season longer than it has been before.
The meeting finally adjourned until
October Goth when the league will meet
In Bath to arrange schedule.
Bangor has always been very anxious
to enter the Maine Polo league, but here
tofore has never been admitted. The
people of the Queen City love sports OF all
kinds and have shown great deal of in
terest in polo. Mr.. French who takes
the Bangor franchise has long been iden-
titled with polo anu knows the game tho
roughly. He is sure to land winning
team for that city and when Bangor en-
ters the races she will come in7 with the
intention of landing the championship.
M. j. Finn and 81. ]. Kelley, who have
secured the Augusta franchise have in
view a fine team for that city. This
winter the legislature will be in session
and Augusta is always lively place
when the legislature is there. With two
men who know polo from the.ground VI
to manage Augustus team there is fine
chance of Augusta getting into the game
IN good shape.