N.Z. ATHLETICS BEGAN IN CANTERBURY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30396, 21 March 1964, Page 11

N.Z. ATHLETICS BEGAN IN CANTERBURY

/CRICKET and athletics have been the summer tenants of Lancaster Park for many years and it was the cricketers that indirectly led to the formation of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association. In those days athletes were mostly cricketers and several times a year laid

chard (Otago), L. A. Cuff and G. Anson (Canterbury) were the other delegates. A committee was set up to bring into being a body to control athletics on a national basis the N.Z.A.A.A. Mr L. A. Cuff, of Christchurch, a prominent cricketer, emerged as the driving force in the movement and it is safe to

aside their bats and donned running spikes. The New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association was formed at a meeting held at the Commercial Hotel (later named Warners) on August 7, 1887, in response to an invitation sent out by the South Canterbury AA.C. Mr A. E. G. Rhodes presided, representing South Canterbury, and with him Mr T. Teschemaker. E. P. Bunny (Hawke’s Bay), W. Blan-

say that few men have exerted such influence in the sport. Cuff rapidly made his presence felt and it was his energy and drive which persuaded the Dunedin and South Seas Exhibition authorities to sponsor the first national track and field meeting, held at Dunedin on December 14, 1889. The meeting was a great success, as a contemporary reference shows “The

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sports themselves, it is safe to say, were the very best ever witnessed in the Colony. At no previous meeting had so much talent been brought together and several of the contests will occupy prominent places in the history of Colonial pedestrianism.” A small team from Australia, managed by Rich-

ard Coombes, editor of the “Sydney Referee,” travelled to the meeting, but failed to strike form. The meeting saw some fine sprinting by a young Southland bank clerk. J. H. Hempton. He ran a heat of the hundred in 10 seconds and the final in 9.6 sec. Coombes was most impressed with the New Zealand athletic talent he saw in Dunedin in 1889 and pressed Cuff to organise a team to go to the New

South Wales championships in 1890. New Zealand won seven out of the 11 events, something which caused wild enthusiasm back home. At the Auckland Opera House, when the leading lady of a touring company came before the curtain to announce R. B. Lusk’s victory in the hurdles, there was great applause. At Wirth’s Circus the same evening one of the Wirth brothers made the announcement from the lion’s cage.

After New Zealand's success in Australia, Cuff was fired with enthusiasm and soon was busy planning a tour of the United Kingdom. Two first class runners in Derisley Wood and Peter Wood bad emerged and it was thought that they, with Hepton, would make a great impression in England. Derry Wood could run a half in two minutes and a mile in four-thirty, pretty good for those days. Peter Wood was a sound man over the quarter with a time of 52sec. The other star was H. W. Batger, a class hurdler. The team sailed for England in the Kaikoura towards the end of March, 1892, and made its much heralded debut at Tuffnell Park, early in June. There was a fine gathering of Colonial notabilities, including Lord Knutsford. Sir Saul Samuel, Sir Julius Vogel, and Mr W. B. Perceval. The visitors performed miserably and there was a criticism by. a New Zealand

journalist who said there had been too much “blow" before the meeting. I think that this was rather unkind. The fact was that rather too much was made of the team’s performances back home which they were unable to reproduce. They had sailed round the Cape in wintry weather, which whetted their appetites and no-one had warned them of the desirability of watching their intake. Hempton, writing to a friend, said that however much he tried he just could not take off his surplus fat. Then he and Derry Wood pulled muscles and were out. But in 1892 the failure of the New Zealanders was somewhat softened by a happy interlude in Paris. The team was invited to appear at a meeting of the Racing Club de France at the Bois de Boulonge. In the 110 metres hurdles H. W. Batger won from L. Cuff in 16.4 sec, a French record. Bredin, of the London Athletic Club, won 400 metres from Peter Wood in 49 Ssec. H. W. Batger returned 58.8 sec in the 400 metres hurdles, a French record.

One of Cuff’s last actions on returning to New Zealand was to draw up rules for the conduct of meetings under the aegis of the Amateur Athletic Union of Australia and New Zealand. In this work he had the collaboration of E. R. Webb, another who did yeoman service in the cause of amateur athletics.