FROM RAUPO SWAMP TO WORLD’S FASTEST GRASS TRACK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 689, 14 June 1929, Page 6

FROM RAUPO SWAMP TO WORLD’S FASTEST GRASS TRACK

THE DAY OF RECKONING

There seems to be a desire on the part of prominent Rugby players in Hawke’s Bay to depart for fresh fields and pastures new.

Apart from heavy losses in the past year or two, quite recently three players moved further south and are now taking part in the game in other centres. The most notable defection is

that of Jimmy Mill, half-back with the New Zealand combination which toured England in 1924. Mill has taken up his residence in the Wairarapa district. It is expected that he will be playing in Shield matches for that union during the present season. Huxtable and J. Chetwin, who played on opposite wings for Athletic in Welington last Saturday, are also both from Hawke’s Bay, and it is understood that they intend to remain in the capital city permanently. Hawke's Bay, however, is not the only province that is suffering in this respect, as Wellington has also lost a couple of capable players recently in Pickering and Love, both of whom previously played for Berhampore, but who are now stationed at Rangitikei and are reported to be showing up prominently there. Kilby, of course;, went to Wanganui earlier in the year.

| a raupo swamp, fringed with clumps of flax, to what many competent judges regarded as the finest grass sprinting track in the world —that, in brief, is the story of the Auckland Domain sports ground. j ORICKET was played at the Domain as early as the fifties, but up till I the middle seventies, most of the cricket in Auckland was played at tlic Albert Barracks, where the military had their own grounds, and at Ellersli«*. where the Auckland Cricket Club played its matches. In 1874, six acres were set aside as a cricket ground, and vested in a board of trustees consisting of Messrs. W. E. Buckland, G. W. Johnstone and R. J. Xates. A curious proviso in the act of dedication was that ‘‘players and public were not to pass through Mr. Brighton’s Gardens” (nearby (where the ponds now are). Associated with the history of the Domain for all time is the name of Mr. R. J. (“Bob”) Yates, who for 40 years was connected with the development of the ground as trustee, and latterly as caretaker. Mr. Yates, who was originally a grocer in Parnell, was a wonderful enthusiast for cricket, and under his unremitting care and attention, the Domain became world-famous as a cricket ground. “Bob” Yates knew the ground from its earliest —he once caught a pheasant in the raupo swamp, as, the present-day ground then was! Although the Domain was constituted as a cricket ground in 1874, it was a few years before it was used for big matches. The match against Lilywhite’s All England XI. in 1877 was played at Ellerslie, but in the following year, the first Australian XI. played XXII. of Auckland at the Domain—and beat them by an innings. Dacre, Russell, Mumford, Russell and Wood were the only ones to make a stand against

and New Zealand, and the Domain had it on them all 30 years ago. That’s not just my opinion. I met some of the world’s best in my time, and they all said the same, even the Americans.” In late years, the Domain has lost j some of its mana as a sports ground. , Times have changed in sport. Much of its old-time glory has passed, but even as late us two years ago, four j New Zealand records were broken and j four equalled in a perfect welter of re-cord-smashing performances at the A.A.A. championships of 1927. A year before that, Jackson Scholz established j an Australasian record of 21 2-ssee for the 220yds, albeit he was a hit ! lucky to get it, considering the slight diagonal breeze which helped him. Cricket and amateur athletics — j these have been the two big sports that j owed so much for their development in j Auckland to the Domain. Even the old- j time “penny farthing” bicycles were J raced on its billiard-table-like surface j in the eighties, till Auster came on ; the scene with his little modern bike, i to be followed later by Teddy Reynolds*, who was Auckland’s champion j for years. Fuzzy-haired Fijians played an Auckland team at cricket on the Domain years agone, and even away back in the eighties, Auckland’s crack footballers in their long breeches and tam-o’-shanter caps went under to Wellington, thanks to a field goal by the inimitable Joe Warbrick. That was before the days of Dilwor til’s, and latterly Better’s Paddocks, but not much football was played at tho Domain in the old days. It was essentially a summer sports ground. In the off seasons, it was extensively top-dressed at various times. There are all sorts of soils at the Domain—apart from its volcanic base, soil from Mahurangi, Port Arthur, and the famous Bulli earth have been worked into its surface. The first year Bulli | soil was used was a fatal one for bats- j men—the bowling kept low, and “shooters” were common. But it was soon back to normal. One of the biggest crowds that ever attended a sports gathering in New Zealand was the huge concourse of people which flocked to see the English League team in action at the Domain in 1924. Some estimates go as high as 40,000, but it is safe to say that 30,000 would be nearer the mark. And thus closes a rough outline of the history of a ground, in which is enshrined for all time much of the early history of Auckland sport. To j the old-timers, who recall the Domain in its halcyon days of the nineties, there is something a little saddening in its passing from Auckland’s premier sports ground to a jack-of-all trades area, with scarcely any notable sports gatherings from one year's end to another to recall its former glories. Times have changed in sport, but they cannot blot out memories of the great days of the Auckland Domain.

the deadly bowling of Spofforth and Garrett.

In 1886, the cricketers, unwisely from their point of view, had the ground vested in the City Council. From then on, cricket no longer held solo sway. The council had power to charge for admission on any ten days (later increased to 20) of the year. For many years there was no difficulty as regards cricket, but in later years, applications from other bodies came in, and club cricket was seriously interfered with. Just before the war the Domain was taken for the whole season for the Exhibition, and this, no doubt, hastened the cricketers in deciding to remove to their present headquarters at Eden Park. Down through the years the Domain has seen some of the world’s greatest cricketers in action. Spofforth, North Auckland born, who once smashed a stump in a match on the Domain’s smooth sward; Ernie Jones, faster still,

who broke Judge Holland's finger with a lightning delivery; Trumper, with the flashing magic of his incomparable bat; and many another, whose name is written on the scroll of cricket history for all time. The late eighties and nineties were the heyday of amateur athletics in Auckland. The March and November carnivals of the A.A.A. and C.C. were the great fashionable event of Auckland. As many as 10,000 people attended these carnivals, and it is on record that the Auckland Racing Club once changed its day rather than clash with an A A.A. meeting. Bookmaking was rampant, and it was no uncommon thing for athletes to win several hundred pounds by winning the double. The Australasian championships used to draw a big cVovvd to the Domain. When Stanley

Rowley and other Australian champions competed at Auckland, the gate was sold for £2BO to the late C. F. Marks (Auckland Trotting Club secretary). In 1891, W. T. Macpherson thundered over the lawn-like surface of the Domain in 9 4-ssec for the 100yds and 24 3-ssec for the 250yds—then both world’s records. In the nineties - , too. Holder, Roberts and Martin had their famous hurdle race over 440yds, Roberts breaking down and Holder winning in what was then world’s record time. Later, came George Smith and Matt Roseingrave in their memorable match over 120yds hurdles, the former winning after Roseingrave had fallen at tho ninth hurdle. Arthur Postles established a world’s record for 200yds in 19sec in his celebrated three-event contest against Jack Donaldson at the St. Patrick’s

Carnival in 1912; and it was a dead, heavy track. Mr. J. Mulvihill remembers that the seagulls had to be scattered off the gfyund before the meeting started. Another famous athletic event was the three-cornered mile contest in 1913 between J. A. Power (U.S. A.), G. N. Hill (Australasian champion), and A. W. Dormer (half-mile record holder). Dormer, coached by Lachie McLachlan, beat Power and Hill after a wonderful race, although in fairness to Hill, it should be mentioned that he only came out half trained in deference to public opinion. Dormer’s victory over Power, however, was cleancut and decisive, and occasioned tremendous enthusiasm at the time. “In my time, the Domain was probably the fastest track in the world,” Matt Roseingrave observed to the writer the other day. “I have competed in Ireland, Australia

Historic Domain Was Foundation of Early Auckland Sport—Cricket Started There In the Fifties —How Ground Developed Into Athlete’s Paradise Forty Years Work By Bob Yates as Trustee and Caretaker —World’s Records Established in the Nineties —When Ladies Stepped From Their Carriages for the Annual Spring Fashion Parade at Amateur Athletic Carnivals

3ARE LEGS ON TENNIS COURTS JT. VO I.ISM minis been thrown into a. mild flutter over the question of bare j letts on the courts. So much controversy vas occasioned by it j that the joint committee of the i 1..T.A. anti tho All-England Club I felt called upon to deliver the

lentous statement: j' "It has been sug- j gested that the I championship com- |! mittoe should ex- j press an opinion I upon the nature ! . extent of clothing suitable lor competitors at ”V\ imbledon as the circumstances at-

ton da nt upon the championship meeting have a quality of their own. Tho committee, therefore prefers to rely as heretofore on the good sense and good taste of players, whom the committee wish to regard as far as possible as their •invited guests.” Miss Helen Wills says that she will wear stockings, and. doubtless, most of the other players will do the same, but Mrs. Mai lory lias declared that she intends to play without stockings