SOCCER

Those of our readers who have been in Europe in recent years and are interested in athletics may have wondered, as did your correspondent, why people over here are not as interested in soccer as they are abroad. Probably Coach Tommy Dent has wondered that too. Certainly among his band of booters every fall there is no lack of enthusiasm in the sport that packs 50,000 people every week into dozens of stadiums in Europe. His club this fall looks set for another good season.

Five of the first stringers from last year are back and five other reserve lettermen have returned, thereby giving Dartmouth a nucleus of ten trained operatives to begin with. Captain Norm Clark, Dave Saxton, Al Estrada, Bob Hopkins, and Tom Ringe are the first team members who are back on the firing line this fall. Wearers of the D also include Bob Dore, Fran Austin, Cesar Estrada, Bill Leshure, and Julie Olney. From the usual crop of eagerbeaver sophomores are three outstanding performers who started the first game. They are John Fancher (whose brother Lee captained last year's team); Jack Hart, who was the captain of last year's undefeated freshman team; and Hank Waters, one of the yearlings' star performers.

After an opening victory over Massachusetts by the score of 3-1, Coach Dent's eager operatives ran into last year's national intercollegiate champions from Connecticut University. With a big, fast, and aggressive team, the erstwhile champions polished off the Green by the decisive score of 5-1, thereby indicating that they (Connecticut) are well on the way to another national title. The only Dartmouth tally was made in the fourth period, when Bob Hopkins dented the twines to put the Green in the scoring column. Although the Green performed valiantly throughout the contest, the champions were just too much for them.