cause, Cooke rashly charged this with his boat, which forthwith lay by the side of its big brother quite helpless, as the bow side couldn't possibly use their oars; by dint of orders on cox's part, in language prompted more by common sense than nautical knowledge, and of super-human pushing on the part of the crew, the boat was speedily released from bondage. And only just in time, as meanwhile Bryans' boat had been coming up steadily, and had got dangerously near; Hamilton, who had kindly volunteered to steer this boat, vice young Charon resigned, here emulated Cooke's feat. Attempting to bump the other boat as it lay helpless and harmless under the lee of the barge, he made a bad shot at it; the result was, his own boat glided into a like state of imbecillity. Here the boats were, nearly side by side, and longing to be up and away, but totally incapable of so-doing, for the trifling reason that the bow side hadn't water to row in, only the smooth side of a barge, which can't be said to offer much resistance to an oar. As we have inferred, Mellor's boat got out of this quandary first. Its career was but short; Bryans' boat, not wasting much time over the barge, started in hot pursuit, and caught them nearly directly. Thus once more did this gallant boat display its great bumping faculties. As for the other two boats, they behaved in a very matter of fact and tame sort of way, J. Reid again resorting to his strategic movement of paddling quietly over the course, and the first boat having nothing to do, but to enjoy the fun going on behind. Now comes the all important time race. The boats started as follows:-Fitzherbert's (i); J. Reid's (ii); Bryans' (iii). Of course there was no bumping, the coxs. had only to look after their own respective boats to keep them down the middle of the stream. Consequently, the instructions from the bank were all directed at the rowers. The order of coming in, was Fitzherbert's (1); Bryans' (2); J. Reid's (3). It would be invidious to make any comment on the rowing of any particular man in a race, in which all rowed well. We may mention that the bow of the second boat was unfortunately knocked up with the two previous races, and thus in the time race, soon became a passenger, though rowing pluckily the whole way. Curiously enough, Marshall and Fitzherbert were in the winning boat last year.

F. J. Diction

football.

THE FIRST TWELVE v. THE NEXT TWENTY.

The Twenty had it all their own way at first, and Arundell kicked a goal for them before twenty minutes had elapsed; after this, however, the Twelve played like demons, and soon demoralized the Twenty, who made but small attempts to support each other. The Twelve obtained some seven or eight kicks at goal, but by some strange fatality they were unable to kick them; had they been successful in this part of the business, it is impossible to say what would have become of the Twenty, for the Twelve all played well; but, if we are to particularise, Steuart's back and Bramwell's forward play were most noticeable: on behalf of the Twenty, Lawrence and Arundell played best.

MR. BROOK SMITH'S AND MR. BOYCE'S HOUSES
v. THE COLLEGE.

This match was perhaps the most extraordinary we have had this year; at first the College had it all their own way, and at one time were nearly two goals to nothing, but the Houses, ably sup-ported by T. Bramwell, Turner, Renny-Tailyour, and J. Bramwell forward, now mettled up, and Chandler touching a ball down in the College goal, Filgate kicked it. From this point the Houses carried all before them, although Ommanney, Laurence, Allen, and Smith did their best to support the flagging energies of the College. The Houses were very weak in back play, but Brice and Filgate, by their exertions, partially made up for the deficiency of the others.

THE CHALLENGE CUP MATCH.

This concluding match for the Challenge Cup came off on Saturday, December 14th. Mr. Boyce's House, weakened as it was by Strachan's absence, seemed to have a chance, but no more, and the match appeared almost reduced to a certainty for Mr. BrookSmith's, when, by the toss, they obtained the advantage of a considerable wind. The 'diabolical blacks,' as we heard the Boyceites called, obtained the first point, and afterwards drew slightly a-head. Two kicks at goal were missed by the 'blacks,' and one by their opponents, and at twenty-five minutes to time, no very decisive lead had been obtained by either party; at ten minutes to time, however, the lead of four rouges, which Mr. Boyce's House had gained,

looked formidable, and the last point was severely contested, but at the call of time, the 'black' had just got another kick at goal from a touch by B. K. T., which was this time kicked by Filgate. The play of A. P. Young and Chandler for the victors is well worthy of praise, and the way in which the little black devils worked against the weight opposed to them was something marvellous; they well deserved their victory, and we heartily congratulate them. Bramwell played well for the model 'ouse,' and Brice was energetic, but was generally collared by countless small fry. The match was well contested throughout, and though Boyne House was defeated, we do not think it was disgraced. The result of the match of course excited intense interest, and indeed it was a much more exciting affair than its greater brother of the previous Wednesday. We are sure we need not express our sorrow for Filgate's accident, as the glory of such a victory ought to be, and probably is, full compensation.

CLASSICAL v. MODERN.

Notwithstanding the determined opposition of the weather, this match was at last played on Wednesday, December 11th, a day tolerably well calculated to test the staying powers of any Twenty, for the thaw and rain of the previous day had made the ground extremely heavy. To say the very least, the Classical looked on paper decidedly the better side, and in spite of the four successive defeats they had sustained since 1863, the odds were decidedly in their favour. The Classical having won the toss obtained a slight advantage from the wind, while the Modern had 'kick off'—a ceremony performed by Cuppage at 2.15. The superiority of the Classical was soon visible, for aster thirty-three minutes' play, during which they had kept the ball almost perpetually in their opponents' goal, they had scored four rouges to nothing, in spite of the most deafening exhortations to the Modern to play up. And now came the grand feature of the match; Steuart, who was playing halfback on the lower side for the Classical, ran the gauntlet for the Modern nearly from goal to goal, and finished by landing the ball safely over the bar, amid tremendous applause; such a run was worthy of the best Classical and Modern yet known, and words fail when we think of the goal. After changing goals, the Classical still maintained their advantage; Cameron, indeed, touched one down in the Classical goal, but the kick was not equally successful. Soon after this Chandler obtained a kick at goal for the Classical, and a

very fine goal was kicked by Filgate. From this point the chance of the Modern disappeared rapidly, and the game which for the previous half-hour had been well contested now became utterly onesided, and the shouting for obvious reasons greatly diminished. The Modern obtained one more kick at goal and a rouge before Bramwell, whose dribbling throughout the match was really superb, popped one over for the Classical. Thirteen minutes now remained for play, and during that time the Classical scored one rouge more, thus winning by three goals and five rouges. On behalf of the victors, beside those already mentioned, the most conspicuous were Smith, E. A. Young, Arundel, Ommaney, and A. P. Young, who was pretty well irresistible, but all the forward play was of the first order. Among the half-backs, Filgate, the Captain of the Classical, contributed greatly to the success of his side, both by his excellent play and the able management of his Twenty. For the Modern we noticed Bernard as about the most prominent of the forward players; Collier, too, was uniformly well up; Brice (half-back) worked wonders in vain efforts to retrieve the fortunes of his side, and Cuppage's long kicks were most useful.

The Twenties were as follows:

Accident prevented W. Laurence and G. Strachan from play

ing for the Modern, and H. D. Fox for the Classical.

Gymnasium.

Saturday, the 14th of December, was the day fixed for the Gymnasium competition. Accordingly at two o'clock, the Gymnasium having been heightened by the always acceptable presence of the ladies, the performance was commenced by the final trials for the Single-stick and Fencing Prizes, in which Tulloch and Hopkinson respectively came off the winners, Hopkinson worsting Tulloch in the fencing, and Tulloch as a reward for his perseverance proving himself superior in single-stick to Hodges, who has had the ill-luck to miss this prize by only one place for the last two years. When this was over the Gymnasts set themselves to the task of amusing the fair spectators by taking a 'preliminary canter' over the big horse. Then indeed the struggle commenced in earnest. In all the exercises Warren excelled, but especially we must commend his agility and the perfect form in which, despising the springboard, he went through the exercises on the horse.

Guthrie, as will be seen from the marks, was a very good second, and well deserved his place, performing in his usual style.

Fulton too we must praise for his neatness in all the exercises, and we are sure that his hard luck lost him more marks than his previous form might have argued. With regard to Tickell we cannot sufficiently praise his superior performance and we are sure that his height alone prevented him from affording a great deal of trouble to the three successful competitors. Before concluding, we feel bound to thank Dr. Barry for the trouble he took in obtaining a judge, in the person of Mr. Elliott, with whose decision no one could find the least fault. We append the names of the first four competitors, with the marks gained by each.

The other competitors were Lloyd, Dobson, Browne, in the order named.

The performance being over, Dr. Barry, after making a fitting speech, performed the pleasant duty of distributing the prizes to the Gymnasts and to the Rifle Corps.