ENORMOUS CROWD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 140, 15 June 1932, Page 10

ENORMOUS CROWD.

SYDNEY CRICKET GROUND.

INCIDENTS OF THE TEST.

THOUSANDS CROWDED OUT,

(From Our Own Correspondent.) • SYDNEY, June 10.

The first Test match between the Ingush League team and Australia

sight that will not soon be forgotten by those fortunate enough to r.-itpess it. The match was well fought, jut-the tackting was too good on both sides to allow the play to become really spectacular, and the English team •lesejved to win. But it was not the :>lay> but the crowd that made the occasion memorable.

The match was timed to start at 3 One small boy arrived at 7.30 a.m. andiithere was a crowd at the gates by ) o*clock. Long queues speedily formed, ;he;: ! great stands were full before 12 o'clock, and at 1.30 the police closed :he main gates for the very good reason thafcijthere was no room even to walk j bout inside. But there were great rhrongs—estimated at' from 10,000 to 20,000—denied admission. Large numhers/of these succeeded in breaking into the Agricultural showgrounds, mounting the stand',-which backs on to the Cricket Ground, and from this elevated position getting a good view of the match. J ■■'■. "Sheer Cheek." This rather dramatic raid was led by a young man who, having broken down some palings to admit the' crowd, struck an Official attitude, stood in the gap, and sixpence a head from those whog followed. "For sheer cheek, you deserve a fiver/' said the custodian who caught him, and. the young man went sorrowfully away. Bift thousands were turned back lamenting* and there still were over 70,000 inside. The records of the takings show that 70,204 people paid for admission and that the receipts totalled ovep.£6soo. " This is easily a record, for a Sydney football crowd, though at the great match against Wagstaff's team in 192Qjj 65,000 people paid £5740 to look on. ; -i.

Ofr course; not everybody' who was fortunate'enough' to ;get inside or even into*/ the grandstand enclosures saw much of the play. Long before 3 p.m. fruiji; cases and biscuit boxes were selling a high premium, and many people, having paid 4/ for a ticket "admitting, to ground, and stand," paid an tjxtra 2/6 or even 4/ to secure even thisjifprecarioiis point of vantage. "Dip'the Lid." • Ingsome favoured spots it seemed that all tjie "cornstalks" in- New South Wales hadjinassed together, and any one of thesft-whb refused to remove his hat at the of the throng behind became hjghjy unpopular, and was told so in unmistakable terms, ."Dip the lid!" was;*the order —perhaps .significant of the L advent of "The Sentimental Bloke" :it the nVpvies this week—and if .it did not;-meet with a- ready response it was driven home with a rapid fusillade of miss|les.' As one of the papers put it:. "ThoSe who have not been on the ' Hill' during a'big match have missed a real phase of Australian life. For the sum of 2/ one can become a target for the whole range 'of Australian fruits, not to mention turf, crusts, and luncheon remnants;" : . •';■

But this vast throng of onlookers was almost-uniformly good-humoured. There were,;, occasional fights, but mostly of the ,burlesque type, and the police were ihiefly occupied in assisting the ambulance., men to give first aid to the numerous minor "cases" that inevitably ("Jinand it in, such a surging multitude. Altogether it was an amazing spectacle, and;J«hile the money taken at the wates proves that Sydney is not absolutely poverty stricken, the appearance and demeanour of these 70,000 people certainly did not suggest that this country is suffering from " depression."