The Portland daily press., 1898-02-25


Season.
1t was by all odds the most exciting,
the best played, the toughest and hardest
fought polo battle of the season. len
star players, all of them the best in the
business were working like fiends from
the beaining to the end and Portland
won the game by a score OF three TO MOTH
ing. Bath was desperate and played a
pluoky, dashing game. Again and again
they volleyed the ball at Allen, Portland g
goal tender, untiIit seemed as II that
player could not possibly stop the drives.
They came SO fast at times that Allen
had to fly from one side of the cage to the
other as if he We're on springs but ne
managed TIC stop every ball and had the
honor of shutting the Baths out without
single score. For the third time in
a week the Portland took game away
from Bath and they have now demon
strated even to the satisfaction of the
people of the ship building city that they
are the crack polo team of the Maine
league and deserving of the champion
ship if they do not succeed in winning it.
Bath needs every game from now
out to land in first place and they are
pretty sure of winning every game, ex-
cepting those they play with the Port
lands. Last night they came here with
the expectation Of taking the game away
| from Portland. Every man on the team
| was prepared to fight for the victory as
| they have never fought before and when
for the beginning of the contest each
and every Bath man settled down to
| work in way which threatened to
sweep everything before. them. Mckay
and Turnbnl1 assisted by. Campbell, had
their hands full guarding the Portland
Ecage, and John Allen found at the.very
send off that he must keep his eyes fixed
on the ball all the time or the visitors
would win out. Almost the first thing
Allen did after the game commenced
| was to make two or three marvellous
stops and as time went on he continued
to make these stops again and again,
kicking the hard shots of Mooney and Nc
Gilvray out of the danger circle. At the
Bath end of the hall Whipple and Camp
bell were making things lively for Bur
CESS occasionally, but that player was
also keyed up to the highest point of
effectiveness, and he proved to be too
strong at first for the Portland men.
Murtaugh was here, there and every
where, and he put up the finest work on
defense that he has yet shown in this
city. WhenIthings hadsgot SO warm that
1t did not seem as if the players would be
able to stand the hot pace much longer,
| Mckay drove the ball from the Portland
end of the hall towards the Bath goal az
if it had come out of cannon. The ball
struck the fence behind the cage and
bounded out in front of it. Burgess saw
the danger and tried to kick it out Of
harms way when Whipple came dowE
| towards the goal like whirlwind an6
as he came lifted the ball with him ant
shot it into the cage. 1t WAS hard to do
termine whether the ball was kicked Of
struck Whiprle's stick, but 1t scored {
point for the home team and the audi
ence showed its appreciation of the fac
by applauding until the ball was put into
play once more. s,ts
A few minutes later Murtaugh got int
scrap with Campbell. 1t was by no mean.
the fault of the Portland man as Muir
laugh was trying to hold him in corner
and Campbell in trying to get away
ruffied the temper of Baths star hall
4 IL
might have been expected with Referee
Snowman officiating. He called fou
on,both men which added nothing to tt
gentleness Of the contest from this time
out, Shortly afterwards Campbell broke
the plate of his skate and had to retir,
from the floor. O'Malley took his plac,
and until the end of the period the Port
land team played strictly on the defen
sive. Bath. Selling the opportunity whiol
came with Campbell's forced retirement
played harder than ever and yainly en-
dsayored to score. The ball was ofte,
seemed impossible for the Portland NAL
to stop the drives, but stop them he did
and it was relief to tho crowd whel
the bell sounded the end of the frs
period with Baths efforts still represent
ed by large sized goose egg. In thi
period Allen made IS stops and Burgess
10.
Then came the hottest period of tn,
game. The ball was in the air three
fourths of the time and the crack player
on both sides were batting it about a
if they weIe playing tennis. Whippl
and Campbell made Burgess's life miser
able for greater part of the time, blu
Allen distinguished himself by maxim,
some of the finest stops ever seen in Port
land. Nothing could get past John las
night. They could not come swift
enough to rattle him. The mix-ups ant
scraps were continuous while sucl
blocking and passing on both sides ha
never been seen here before Mckay ant
Turnbull showed what they were mad'
of and they had plenty to keep then
busy. Both men had chances to save Batf
from scoring ano there were moments
when their timely appearance at th'