Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/207

 PRACTICE WORK

1. Criticize the following football story and rewrite it:

Mid the strains of "O You Beautiful Doll" with variations of "We Won't Get Home Until Morning" played in the gloaming, wherever that is, of a windy autumn eve, Referee Williams judiciously called a halt on the annual St. Clair-Winton battle at the Baseball park last night, just when the top edge of the moon peeped over Lake Erie and the cardinal cohorts were leading in the battle by a score of 25 to 7.

That's the official count, three touchdowns, one goal from touchdown and two drop kicks against the green and white's one lone touchdown, scored in the final quarter of a hectic struggle featured by good open play on the part of both elevens, Harry Hurson's great kicking and marred by the poor tackling of both elevens.

It was just another St. Clair victory and thus it will go down in history. The old hoodoo still abides with the St. Clair boys south of the river, and Winton was not so much outplayed as outlucked. The cardinals keyed to the minute for the struggle were on their toes from the opening whistle. They played football at all times, took advantage of every weakness and never lagged no matter how great the advantage and as a result they copped the city laurels which are theirs by virtue of the victory, in a decidedly easy manner.

Winton on the other hand, outside of one or two individuals on the whole were content to take matters as they came and appeared averse to any exceptional effort, combined or otherwise. There was not that scrap and pep, that characterizes the annual fight between the two teams, and this more than any superior ability on the part of Schmidt's champions, militated against anything like a victory for the Wintoners.

The first quarter was a feeler for both elevens. In an offensive way, the green and white did little, playing purely on the defensive, being content to punt on every first or second down, keeping the ball in cardinal territory. This worked well in the first quarter and the Winton men were never in danger of being counted on. The same holds true of St. Clair.

The second period brought a change of goals and although at the very start the ball was in St. Clair territory, the advantage of the wind now lay with the cardinals and Hurson's sturdy boot soon made that fact known to the defenders of the east goal.

While Johnson in a measure held his own at this period with the St. Clair oval mixer, he was decidedly slow in getting off his spirals. A few minutes after the start of the quarter, St. Clair, with the advantage of the wind, worked well into their rival's preserves and by sturdy plunges carried the pigskin to the thirty yard line. Winton held finally and after three futile flings at the