Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-08-25

noon, when the Oahu polo team took
the long end of lop-sided score from
Maui's hard hitting and hard-riding
stick-swingers. The surprise was not
so much in the result, for although
Maui was slight favorite in popular
opinion, keen judges of the game con-
sidered it a toss-up between the two
teams, but rather in the superiority of
the Oahu team play, and the Oahu
moents. Previous to the match, the
talk was that Maui outclassed Oahu in
Ihorseflesh. The opposite proved to be
the case, and man for man the locals
were better mounted than the men
from the Valley Island.
1t was a great game, and an excep-
tionally fast one. In fact, so swift was
the pace, and so fast did the ball roll
toward the makai goal, aided by slope
and wind, that it worked to the detri-
ment of clean polo and accurate hit
ting. The sharp crack of stick meet
ing ball; flash of flying horses and
straining riders, and the white sphere
was over the line almost faster than
the eye could follow it.
One of the Maui players said after
the game that he never saw more than
one goal-post at time at either end
of the field.
THE pace was so fast" said he,
"that you didn't have a chance to take
any sort of aim when shooting for
goal. You were lucky to see one
post, and then it was mere guesswork
on which side of it the other was"
OF course that is a somewhat fanci-
Sui conception of actual conditions, but
the fact remains that the pace was
unusually fast, which explains why
there was more missing on both sides
than is usually the case when first
class teams are in action
Maui Opened Fast.
In the first period things looked
very blue for the local men. Maui
started off with rush, and Fleming
scored twice before Oahu knew quite
what had happened Those two goals
were the only ones of the game for the,
orange and black, as it turned out, and
for seven Misunderstanding periods the
four Maui men stFoYe desperately to-
get the ball through for another score.
At half-time the score was % to 3
in favor of Oahu, and it was anyOne'sI
game. Then, in the fifth, the entire
of the match changed, and
by scoring three times in rapid sue
eession, Oahu ran the count to So TO
9, and practically cinched victory,
for the backbone of the Maui team
seemed to be broken by this rapid-fire
work In the sixth and seventh
frames Oahu played a strictly defens-
i've game, taking the ball across field
continually, and trying to keep 1t out
of the danger zone rather than trying
to score when there was any chance of
a counter attack. In the final period
Oahu was knocking UPHELD, and when
Sam Baldwin shot clean goal at the
difficult end, leaving the local men
with a commanding lead, and the
slope of the field to help them, it was
apparent that only a miracle could
save Maui from defeat. Not until then
did Captain Dillingham; feel that the
game was as good as won. and put his
team on the offensive again. Walter
knocked the final goal OF
the game when A minutes and sec
onds of the period was gone,
Oahu Better Team.
Oahu's team work was better than
Maui's, and especially was this ap-
parent in the second half of the game.
The men kept better formation, and
their fresher ponies enabled them to
get just where they belonged, and to
get there in hurry. Harold Rice and
Arthur Collins found that their weight
was a big handicap when it came tol
a sprint for the ball against Sam
or Harold Castle. Weight is
an advantage to a polo player II he
has the ponies TO pack it, but In
tight game where mounts are limited,
the light fellows are bound to get the.
jump on the ball.
That's what Castle and Sam Bald
win were doing Saturday. They were
getting just one jump ahead of the
opposition and staying there. Sam
Baldwin was probably the best horsed
of the eight men. His mounts ran
and turned more like dogs than
horses, crouching low to the ground
to execute hair-raising turns that
would have been impossible with a i
heavier man in the saddle. Mutt, |
Comet, and Sure Kella seemed to play
on their riders signals, rather than
on any appreciate effort of his to
guide and check them, and conse-
quently left Baldwin free to pay ali
his attention to riding off and hit
ting. He did both to perfection, and
it was largely due to his hustling tao
tics that Frank Baldwin's usual runs
were broken up and checked. The
Maui captain and No. 8 wasn't given
chance to get under full Roadway. By
the time he got the ball lined out for
one of his famous runs, Brother Sam
was there with a good stiff bump, or
a hooked stick, that did the business
Fleming Star.
Dave Fleming was the bright, par
ticular star of fhe Maui team Satur-
day. He showed to worst advantage
against the Cavalry in Wednesdays |
game, and came back to top form
when he went against Oahu. Flem-
ing's backhanders were long and ac-
curate, and his hitting was all the
more creditable when it is taken into
that Walter Macfarlane
wac nlavip0 M I apainct him in on |