THE “CALE” RECREATED

Evening Star, Issue 19712, 12 November 1927, Page 5

THE “CALE” RECREATED

“SIDEY TIME" MADE USE OF EVERY INCH FOR SPORTS PURPOSES . At the annual meeting, of the Caledonian Society of Otago, held this week, special reference was made to the recent improvements at the Kensington Grounds, and to the further facilities for sports there that are intended to be made in the near future. This matter is of importance to the public generally, for “ the Gale ” is a favorite rendezvous for athletic sports, known as such throughout, the dominion. In the curly sixties Caledonian sports were held at Jones’s Bazaar. That was the place ol the New Y 7 car’s Day gathering in the year in which the society was formed, 1862, The following year the annual fixture was on the Grange Estate. The North End ground then came into popularity, and it served its purpose. But the society did not really command its rank in the athletic world until it shifted to Kensington, the present site. Here it became possessed of a very fine property, and its yearly fixture at the New Year was the meeting ground for New Zealand’s best wrestlers, runners, and jumpers, adepts at Highland sports and Scottish dancing, axemen, and so forth. To win at the “ Calo ” was to gain the hall-mark of merit. ' Australians came occasionally to compete, and athletes from the Old Country have also taken part. Immense crowds attended. Every true Scot in the community went thither as a national duty. Great football battles have also been fought there. Of late years some of the old games havo to a certain extent gone out of fashion, others replacing them, and present indications are for a distinct revival in cycle racing, an encouraging feature of which is that fields in those events are now so strong as to make necessary three heats and a final. Whippet racing lias also made an immediate hit with the crowd.

The Caledonian Society is taking note of these changes, and making a spirited endeavor to cater for all legitimate sport according to its desserts. With the advantage of the Summer Time Act provisions evening sports meetings are sure to become very popular, and, seeing this, the society is expediting its grounds improvement scheme. In addition to the improvements previously effected, the directors havo recognised' the demand for perfect conditions for cycle racing, and have Lad the big track re-asphalted and properly banked, levelled, and smoothed. Although this work is as yet unfinished, the benefits of’tho reconstruction were apparent to the spectators at the first of the evening meetings this week, and drew much praise from the riders, avlio find the track now much faster and safer than it used to he.

Other improvements made lately are the building of a new entrance, extending and steepening the ramp in front, of the grand stand, enlarging the shed accommodation, and providing more and better room for the competitors underneath the grand stand. Already 10,000 loads of spoil have been carted in to raise tho otherwise useless ground between the railway line and tho track. _ When this work is completed the railway embankment will bo a splendid place from which patrons can command a view of the whole ground. The excellent attendance of the public at the first of the evening gatherings encourages the society to push on with other improvements as fast as possible. The repairing and smartening of the grand stand, and possibly extending it, is a work now under consideration, and there is to bo more planting of shrubs and inner hedges when the filling in is finished. The Works Committee inspects tho grounds regularly once a week, and is taking expert advice upon every proposition for making this tho great cycle track of Otago and the home of athletic sports generally. Already several applications have been made by sports bodies for the use of the grounds for evening competitions.