THE ELEVEN IMPROVING

The Practice Yesterday was of an encouraging quality, as the men played with a spirit and dash that has been lacking recently. Some elementary work was gone through, tackling the dummy and falling on the ball. The men were given practice in breaking through and getting down the field on punts, and also in receiving punt-outs. After this the first eleven lined up in the strongest combination obtained this year and went through signals. The line-up was as follows: r.e., Clark; r.t., Cutts; r.g., Barnard; c., Sargent; l.g., Lee; l.t., Bladgen; l.e., Campbell; q.b., Baldwin; r.h.b., Ristine; l.h.b., Putnam; f.b., Kernan.

In this signal practice the men worked well together and the interference formed smoothly and compactly. Ristine was a little unsteady in starting with the interference, and Blagden and Barnard were slow in getting into the plays. Baldwin ran the team with spirit and got into the interference in good style. Lee ran well and put much strength into the plays. Campbell was fast and accurate in getting down under punts.

After the signal practice the first eleven lined up against the second for 20 minutes of play. The first scored one touchdown in short order by steady gains through tackles, but after the touchdown fell off in its playing and was unable to score again. This failure to score may be partly attributed to the presence of M. Donald 3L. in the line of the second eleven. Cutts was unable to handle Donald, who broke up the interference and frequently tackled the runner. There was still some fumbling, but on the whole the men played a careful game. They did not tackle cleanly, but managed nevertheless to choke up the line plays. On the offensive they did not play as well, allowing their opponents to break through. The interference was effective at times, but frequently failed to get the ends out of the way. Cutts and Blagden at tackles showed contrasting faults. Cutts paid too much attention to his opponent and was consequently often drawn away from the play. Blagden, however, paid not enough attention to his opponent and allowed him to slip through frequently. Cooper got down well under punts, but showed too much eagerness in interfering with a free catch. Clark was quick to recover the ball but was slow in getting down the field. Barnard did not get his man out of the plays. The three centre men, however, worked together with more speed than heretofore.

The first eleven kicked off to Noyed. Failing to gain, Boyd punted to Marshall, who ran 15 yards. The second recovered the ball on a fumble but lost it again on a blocked kick. By steady gains through the line the first rushed the ball to the 8 yard line, whence Ristine carried it over. No goal was kicked as the ball touched the ground in being placed for the try. No further scoring was done, the only feature of the rest of the playing being a 25 yard run by Derby around right end.

The line-up: FIRST ELEVEN  SECOND ELEVEN Clark, r.e.  l.e., Litting Cutts, r.t.  l.t., McGrew, Fox Barnard, r.g.  l.g., Davenport Sargent, c.  c., Turner Lee, Greene, l.g.  r.g., Grew Blagden, l.t.  r.t., Fox, Lewis Cooper, Motley, l.e.  r.e., Thayer, Holwill Marshall, q.b.  q.b., S. Noyes Ristine, r.h.b.  l.h.b., Tenney, Kerans Derby, Mifflin, l.h.b.  r.h.b., Ives Greenough Graydon, McGrew, f.b.  f.b., Boyd