PLAY AT THE FRONT

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9174, 14 October 1915, Page 6

PLAY AT THE FRONT

CRICKET NEAR THE FIRING . ' LINE. '

From Our Special Correspondent. LONDON, August 27. A sapper in the Royal Engineers, who, before the war, was a telephone operator, employed in an office in; the Strand, tolls in a; letter home (quoted by the “Morning Post”) how he and his comrades ~ work and play. “Wo stopped,” he says, “for a night and t\yj,days in a school, and on the third day moved off soon after dinner for our advanced billets. . After leaving the village we marched'in single file (one file each side of the road) under the trees, as the road is under, observation from the German lines. .After marching a few miles, we halted in a ruined village, and were told to raovo off in' batches of three men, a hundred yards between each batch, as wo had to pass through open country and over a hill, and if wo marched in. large bodies no doubt wo should have been shelled. Passing over the hill we" could see our destination down in a small valley. And what a sight it was. Every building in the place was in ruins. There were two largo chateaux smashed to bits. A brewery had been, mined in the centre, and ons of machinery had crashed down through tho vaults below. In our billet we had sand-bags full of straw and several chairs and tables, and wo slept and lived like lords, for there were lots of orchards around us. Wo had to put up barbed* wire entanglements in front of trenches, and for three nights we never had a shot fired at us,, but we walked about as if we were at home. But on the fourth night we had a machine-gun trained on us five times. The first time it was directed to the left of us, and so wc had a chance to get down before the fire swejit across where we were lying. “The bullets were whizzing over out heads in dozens, atid hitting the wire and stakes we had driven in. tho ground. To get back to the trench we had to crawl through another lot of our wire, and also through some French wire, ■ which’ is awful stuffy to get through. We managed it all right, and . not one of our chaps was hit. Wo had to leave our billets at 7.30 p.m., and would arrive back about 3 a.m., when we were free till the next evening.. In the day we play ‘Pontoon,’ and very often a game of cricket-—with a rag ball, two biscuit tins for the _ wicket, and a bat shaped out of a-piece of wood. Our officer used also to get ua to play hockey with a tin-can'and a stake each. To see the boys .playing you would have thought we were at home instead qf 500 yards behind the trenches, and I can assure you the. games were very keenly contested. At other times' we would go sight-seeing, and what sights there were to bo seen! Near us was a church with the roof and steeple smashed in. Inside it was in « terrible state, the only thing in good condition being a statue of the Virgin, Mary. Further on is a largo cemetery that has been knocked to blazes. All round the cemetery wall there are shell holes, while inside the vaults are smashed in, so that you can see the coffins below. Not far away there are two unexploded shells sticking in the walls of a chateau. 1 found out from troops here that there had been terrible hand-to-hand fighting. To look at the place you would think they had ‘ an earthquake here once a day. should be very glad if you could se T ' me a football, if you will bo so kii J as when wo leave the trenches a gs ■ of football does us more good tha bully beef dinner. To see the 1 playing you would not think there a war on.” ”■■■■-