Lancaster Park’s First Rugby Gate Only I1s 3d

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27796, 22 October 1955, Page 3

Lancaster Park’s First Rugby Gate Only I1s 3d

to announce its ° le anterbul V Rugby Union is expected made this year fmm n V V lture of the hu 8 e Profits This sum con c R fUr !?> Shl ? ld matches—about £13,000. money for the lls 3,1 P aid in B ate 25, 1882 and i,;„, St mat< r h played at the park, on May ball in the “t the increasing importance of Rugby footfacilities. P eser ' atlon an(l extension of the ground and its

mJnv Was “‘ended for summer sports, and through financial . crlck . et bore tlle brunt of a considerable Rugby fomhaH l™ V S ° D y < ? n c °*nparatively recent years that with y thc brought m revenue on a scale comparable witn the last few seasons. But if Rugby and cricket were B om P °f n m 1C I f r. keep J ng the Southland’s leXg shorts veavJ *, he c, n tc hes of the liquidators during its precarious bmi^ht redlt a • belo “g s to the many other activities which ballcSn them, cycling, tennis, swimming, °u ascents, athletics, trotting, and the growing of potatoes.

The idcx o f a new ground in Christ- ( cnurch to *ater for cricket and other summer sports came from Mr A. M. OUivier, an outstanding cricketer, and when a suitable area of land be?n^™ Vai J a i ble \ earI y in 1880 « he was X organisin g a meeting enthusiasts from which the CrlrkJt ner A Of A t J^' >ark ’ the Canterbury Cficket aiKi Athletic Sports Company, lAa., was born. The company puri? a S d «So land— nearly 11 acres of T a ? ® cre fcom Mr Benjamin “•^ P i o k u “’ Engiand04T™LC°n?Pn<,c0nJ.r01'Pd the park for 24 years, then the Canterbury Cricket R?nS? ia iQ?? + fjf\seven years. From 1911 to 1919, the ground was Ru gby football and cricket organisations, until the passing of the Victory Park Act in 191!X Through all thete years theie was an unceasing struggle to keep the park open, and a list of the entertainments offered there is almost a glossary of sport. * It was intended to open the ground on October 8, 1881, and the Lancaster p ®rk Club was given the distinction of playing its first cricket match on opening day. It rained. A week later, the Canterbury Amateut Athletic Club then in its very infancy held a meeting, the first event in the long history of the ground, and there was an attendance of about 1100. Athletics continued to play, in various forms, a prominent part. Early in 1882 Christchurch Scots were hurling their cabers about the a-ound at the Caledonian sports. They also threw their hammers, put theit stones and engaged in wrestling matches in the Border style. Scores entered the

more Englishmen, Fenlon and Mayes, raced before 8000 people, a record attendance. These were the days when tne high machines were on the way out. But cycling went on, through the minor storms of bookmaking and the team riding the public did not appreciate.

In an effort to bring in more money, the park company formed a trotting club m 1886. At the first meeting in May, 1886, some 1100 people paid £3B at the gates—but invested £l5OO on the Hobbs and Goodwin totalisator. The track was on the oval inside the cinder track, the weighing room was m the present members’ pavilion, arid the lawn east of this pavilion was the stabling paddock. Trotting continued, with about four meetings a year, until 1889, when the club was instructed to amalgamate with the Canterbury Trotting Club, which it would not do. Maori Carnival Among the more spectacular and less successful Lancaster Park ventures as .. to® fireworks display organised by the company and held in 1888. The net profit was £7 0s 7d. There was a week-long Maori carnival at the park in 1900, day after day of high wind and heavy rain. A second such carnival triree years later was more successful, although one item in the programme was never staged. Ten men spectators were to pit themselves in a tug-of-war with 10 Maori women. The tact that the Maori team averaged more than 18 stone each probably had some bearing on the situation. In the very first days of the park, lawn tennis was played there—by women, in the north-east corner of the ground. But in 1901 the New Zealand championships were played in front of the east stand, and m 1912 there was the Davis Cup match between America and Australia. Not many of those who, at the end of a match, leave the ground behind tne members’ pavilion are aware that they are walking by the site of the summing bath built at Lancaster Park in 1894. The swimming club was \never a success, however, although the championships of Australia and New Zealand were held there in 1907. goon after this meeting the bath was J*"® d Wl th soil and today there is no ev gence it ever existed. t ’ war years have added to me list of entertainments at the park them marching teams—and f°X the S r °und could ignore Pl® cojrtributions these minor activities Kufl? a S. e \ M A ny of them lasted ° nl y “ ? A ut the y have grven their , of colour to a broad and f attractive sporting canvas.