“THE HUNT CLUB BALL”

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1929, Page 5

“THE HUNT CLUB BALL”

CIVILISATION HAS NOW COME, It was at a Hunt Point-to-Point not a hundred miles from Marton, and the Hunt Club ball had been held the previous evening. The writer, in search of a bit of “local colour,” approached one of the old identities ‘and, among other things, found that things were regarded as very dull, and altogether lacking in the spirit which was a main feature of “the good old days.” “Just look at me,” the old chap said. “Here am I,- the morning after the ball and I haven’t even got a headache! Why, forty years ago the whole bang lot of us would be going round with vinegar rags on our heads, and half the riders would take the wrong course in every race.”

“Things must have been pretty lively,” I ventured. “Too right, they were,” he chattered on. “None of your stylish walk-around dances. In those times they had nothing but gallops, and lancers,'with plenty of tally-ho’s chucked in. Everything went with a swing, and there was plenty of whisky to give the ball a ‘kick.’ But times have changed,” he sighed,” and a few years ago the ‘toffs’ got in and tried to make it a ‘haw-haw’ and ‘toney’ ■ affair. They even had the cheek to stretch a rope across the hall to separate- the swells from the blokes who keep the sport going. Of course, when the rag-tag spotted the rope there was trouble right away. One bunch, durincr the • opening -gallop, unfastened one end of the rope and sailed round the hall with it. Laugh! it was great to see-’ all those toffs swept off their feet and sent sprawling into a corner!” He was goina to tell me another, but they were saddling up for the first event so I hurried away to get a list of the starters and their riders.