THE TUC-O'-WAR.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 1345, 17 November 1931, Page 3

THE TUC-O'-WAR.

Bill and me sat upon the bank an did the whole tug-o'-war on our owr Jio You see, the chap who sits on th ly fence can always manage the busines n- -better than the proprietor. Loca ig shopkeepers, manufacturers and Ban] :h Managers know this, they alway ie an ake a mess of running their owi l- affairs m the light of the gentlemai ie of leisure, who, with a free and easi d grace adorns the pavement or th< r- doorstep with 'ten for sixpence n cigarette tucked m the door of his c house of wisdom. Well, as I said be c foi-e, Bill and me ran the tug-o'-wai r from the grandstand. You see, we ■, sat down comfortably, instead ol r working and straining ourselves. It c was noticeable after a few herculean j. pulls every man m the teams did the g same ; shows our judgment was right. s How easy it seemed, hardly a man ,- moved, just hung on, yet Bill and me . knew it was harder to hang to that f rope than it is to hang on to a pound i note m the present slump, and everyi body knows that's nearly impossible. . There was Tom Norman decided ; he'd improve matters by taking his i boots off and when the strain came on he thought his sox were filled with a quart of his high pedigree Jersey / butterfat. Bill Moore "wasn't long m making up his mind the job wa* harder than canvassing, for overdue A. and P. subs, m a slump year. John Lindsay made a mental note: "Strathmore for ever, if only I manage to hang on to this rope." Bob. Baird "felt himself moving like the banks of the Aparima during a 'fresh,' while Stan Clouston braced himself like an, Orkney rock withstanding the onslaught bf the Arctic Ocean. Glower iug at them from the other end of the rope were the five stalwarts from Scotts Gap and this is where Bill and me fell iv; we both wanted to put a "little bit on," but, as we both picked Scotts Gap as the finalists, there was no sense m changing money. Just shows how the best judges .make mistakes, even Bill and me. Now, while both teams were right sitting down, to it and' wondering how long they were going to save their arms getting pulled out of their sockets,- there was Allan Lindsay acting with more energy than a coloured conductor of a ?Jazz band orchestra, flailing his arms worse- than George Williams, when signalling the tape holders for the finish of the ladies' race* to rnovt* on and make the course longer. From the- hill Bill and nic got a great view of AHan; he sure did work some;, you'd 'a' thought he was doing the whole? pulling himself and that his team was simply sitting down doing nothing; Bill ahd me felt real sorry for him when, after all his work, the* judge said his men had lost' the match. After lighting., up our pipes, ana deciding that after all the judge was right we waited the second pull. When Tom Muir ' and -Bill Fraser got on to the separate ends of tin. rope, Bill and me just sat hack, as we knew these two featherweights would do exactly the same, arid they did. ' It's ; strange how two chaps who are great pals will do their best to "bust" each other when they get on to the end of a, rope. Tom and Bill, however, were not the only babies m . the picture, Davie Clark got down to it till Ewan Matheson concluded Davie had . planted himself into a five to one concrete mixture at the foot of a circular sheep dip and, notwithstanding his superhuman efforts .to pull m the slack, till he had got- Joe Dickson, Hughie ' Connell and. Harry Atkinson and him- ' self tied up m a short length with Bill. Fraser 15 feet m the rear, one Qt his habitual sighs undid the whole effort and allowed the professional Glithroe Street rabbit exterminator, the radio, six-cylinder motor expert and/Ray Chilton to give the extra weight to Davie and Tom at the business end to bring the verdict to the South. In approaching the finaj> Bill and me could see determination- sticking out of every man's face. . You see, the nature of the prize had leaked put and every man was looking forward, to .slacking his thirst with nectar from the Fount of Bacchus, and, inspired by the thought, that ' if the worst came to the worst, and any. physical damage befel a gladiator^ he could come back on his patron and selector for free medical attention. When the final decision was given and the local medico's team was regaining iwinr-y the centre of the picture was the popular M.D. himself, who knocked the antics of* Messrs Lindsay, Joe Miller and .Dick Hassed, the champions of the other three teams, all to leg. It was an heroic struggle, Scotts Gap extended every effort* every man wanted a drink and was. determined to have it, but weight and experience tipped the scales against them an* 1 the veterans retained the Championship for the Township. It was reported, that no prize ever won on the Recreation Ground, was more eagerly, grasped and more . quickly put into circulation than the torpedo-shaped trophy of .the , Evening Sports Tug-o'-War.