MISSING MASCOT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21879, 15 August 1934, Page 18

MISSING MASCOT

HAWKE'S BAY RUGBY TEAM Hawke's Bay Rugby followers are now making a search of the province for the black-and-white coat which., from 1925 to 1931. was the lucky mascot of the representative team, says a Southern writer.-It is a'tradition in Hawke's Bay that the representative team was never beaten when it had the goat on the field, and so gr<?at was the faith of the superstitious in its powers as a eood omen that extraordinary pains were taken to see that the goat was always on the spot for an important fixture. On two occasions the animal travelled by train with Hawke's Bay teams to Wellington, and it was taken to Masterton for the famous match against Wairarapa. Since ,1931, when it was used on the occasion of the visit of the Hawke's Bay team to Wellington to make a street collection for the Wairoa Hospital, damaged by the earthquake, the goat has "gone missing." The attempt to recover it, or at any rate to find another with black-and-white markincs, arises through the imminence of fixtures for the Ranfurly Shield.