KIWIS AT SPORT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 125, 27 May 1944, Page 5

KIWIS AT SPORT

ACTIVITY IN ITALY SHELLS STOPPED PLAY LN CRICKET MATCH (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) Recd. 11 p.m. Bari, May 25. The value of sports as an aid to physical fitness is fully appreciated by the New Zealanders and at a New Zealand convalescent depot in South Italy every facility is provided for playing popular sports. The depot is conducted on similar lines to an Bth Army rest camp nearby, and, oespite warm weather, hockey and football are still popular. Cricket, boxing, tennis and athletics provide daily outdoor enjoyment lor convalescents, while there is the usual variety of indoor pastimes as well in comfortable recreation centres. Members of the New Zealand Division enjoy sport under varying conditions, but a section of signals lays claim to having played cricket under shell-fire which became so intense that the game was abanacued and tile enemy declared tne winner. “It just wasn’t cricket, 1 ’ said one signalman, referring to the enemy’s interference with the match. Play had been in progress an hour wnen air bursts attracted attention, but were not sufficient to dampen the enthusiasm of the players. But. when hign explosives commenced to land in the vicinity of the cricket area 22 men had but a single thought—this was no time for play. No casualties occurred, and when the shelling ceased the players and spectators were more interested in adding extra inches to slit trendies than with recommencing the game.