OUT DOOR SPORTS

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 2, 25 September 1880, Page 14

OUT DOOR SPORTS

The North Shore Cricket Club has fixed the annual subscription at half-a-guinea. The yacht Sabrina (Stodart's) has been taken up at Carr's yard for a month's drying. The Parnell Cricket Club has commenced operations this season under the captaincy of Alfred Brooks. The opening of the roAving season is expected to be celebrated about three weeks hence by a procession of boats in the harbour. The West End Cricket Club presented neAv caps to Messrs. Lynch and T. Macky for having obtained the highest bowling averages during the season. The West End Cricket Club has decided to open the season with a colt's match on the afternoon of the second Saturday in October. The tAventy-f our hours go-as-you-please Avalking match at Dunedin was won by Croft of Wellington, 124 miles ; Swarm, Christchurch, 109 miles ; and Hanson, Wellington, 100 miles were the only others who finished. The open sailing boat Hattie May, Avhich AA'as built to the order of ,Mr. T. Halstcad to compete at the last Ponsonby Regatta, has been purchased by Mr. F. Crainond. Logan, of the North Shore, has completed and forwarped to Levuka a. fine-looking yacht, slightly larger than the Inca. She is intended for a gentleman at Fiji. The West End Cricket Club is endeavouring to arrange for an omnibus to make a trip to the Domain Cricket Ground at 1.45 p.m. on every Saturday during the season, returning at 6.30 p.m. The one-mile Avalking match betAveen E. Mills and W. Saunders for £20 a-side took place in the Domain on Saturday last, and, as had been anticipated, the former proved the victor. ' The North Shore Cricket Club hat fixed upon Tuesdays and Thursdays as geueral practise days, and members not attending regularly will be debarred from playing in matches. The programme issued for the athletic sports at Ellerslie on Prince of Wales' Birthday includes a onemile handicap, a two-mile walking contest, a Birthday Handicap of 100, 200, and 300 yards, and a 100 yards boys' race. The crack open sailing boat Tom-Boy, AA'hich has been at Tauranga for some considerable time, has been purchased by Captain Farquhar and Mr. Commons, and brought up to Auckland. I am informed that the price paid was £48. The boat has been re-painted and overhauled, and is now open for sale. The open sailing boat Ponsonby, AA'hich Avas so successful at the recent regatta held by the residents of the western suburb, has become the property of Mr. T. Halstead. That gentleman purchased her from Mr. J. Ratcliile, the beilder, prior to his departure for Levuka. The Wanganui Athletic Club had a tolerably successful meeting last week, there being a fair attendance of the public, but the running was indifferent. Marshall, who did so well in the jumping matches at the Wellington meeting last year, was in grand form. He made the fine jump of 20 feet 6 inches, from toe to heel. The clipper yacht Thetis, Avinner of the firstcluss yacht race at the last Auckland Regatta, will leave for " fresh fields and pastures new" next week. She has been purchased from Mr. Bailey by a number of Wellington gentlemen, each of whom will own a share in her. The price is, I believe, £230, and this includes the conveyance of the vessel to Wellington. The arrangements of the sale have been conducted and brought to a close by Mr. Butler, a well-known yachtsman of Wellington, who had a small vessel built by Mr. Bailey last year. The Thetis will sail to Wellington, leaving here next week, under command of Captain Mincham. At last there is a probability of a pavilion being erected in the Domain Cricket ground, several gentlemen having taken up the matter after it has lain in abeyannce for several years. The West End Cricket Club, dog-in-the-manger-like, has agreed that there should be two pavilions instead of one, and that a committee composed of representatives of the various clubs, instead of a self-constituted one, should take the matter in hand. Now, if the West End and others clubs had done their duty long ago, the present step would not have been necessary, and if they feel sore at having been left out in the cold, they have still the opportunity of erecting the second pavilion which they think is so urgently required. Jamtartism, despised and abhorred as it has been in Waikato, had its good points. The members of the order were for the most part enthusiastic lovers of sport, and at football and cricket won basketsfull of laurels. Since the departure of some of the more distinguished among them, the manly games which we look upon as being essentially " British" have languished sadly. During the season just over, no efforts seemed powerjul enough to get a team of footballers together, and so far the outlook for cricket is not very brilliant. Cambridge and the Waipa have been more successful — both having football clubs— and they have enjoyed a fair modicum of play. The Cambridge Cricket Club are already going into practice, and have a first-class pitch in reserve. The football match betAveen the employees in the ironmongery warehouses of Messrs. T. and S. Morrin and E. Porter and Co, in the Metropolitan grouud this (Saturday) afternoon, is causing considerable interest amongst those interested. Ruinoiu' says that Mr. Hornsby has been seen busily engaged in his back-yard practising a new drop kick which he picked up during his recent trip in England. Mr. Cook, too, is mustering all the " points" which he was prevented from introducing at the interprovincial football match, and the Morrinites are consequently sanguine. The players in the rival establishment pin their hopes on Mr. Lees, who has been making grand preparatives for the event, and to one or two others of note. So absorbing is the interest, that it is said Mr. Hardy has been drawn within the vortex, and is qualifying himself to act as " pull-back !" However, we hardly believe that. Actaeon.