"hooked" in a "municipal face-off"

Solution 1:

The article describes a contest between two teams from the same city, Manchester—hence a “municipal” face-off.

To “get the hook” or “be hooked” is to be removed for inadequate performance. The phrase derives from a practice common in old-fashioned vaudeville, described here in an article from Milwaukee Free Press, March 25, 1906

Thursday night is “amateur” night at the Star, which means that after the close of the regular performance, the amateur aspirants for theater fame are allowed to do their turns, and take what’s coming to them, if they fall short. Most of them do, as a rule, and howls of derision from all over the theater but especially from the gallery, assail the awkward beginner.

“The hook, the hook! Get the hook! Get off!” shout the spectators.

These cries are the signal for the backdrop to be lifted, while a stage hand reaches forth a long pole, terminating in a sickle-like prehensile contrivance that grasps the performer and hustles him away back, while the drop descends and hides him from view.