THEN AND NOW.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1972, 31 January 1914, Page 6

THEN AND NOW.

REMINISCENCES AT THE BASIN

[Bt Meed Mere.]

It was at tho Basin Rcsorvo this week, and tho Wednesday cricket cqmpotitions were in progress. Peering over tlio fence at the northern boundary stood an elderly gentleman who was taking an intense interest in tho play. Could I toll him the names of the teams and the players? This I did to tho beet of my ability, and then he unfolded to mo that he used to play cricket sonio in the early days. They must have been the early days, too, for ho was verily a Pioneer—ho had landed in the colony over seventy years agol ■■-~.

Cricket, he told me, with a sparklo in bis eye, had ever been his chief love in sport. Ho had dono some rifle shooting in his day—tho ranges then were 100, 200, and, at the very longest, 500 yards—and ho had dabbled in politics, but the best of games wa3 cricket. And as a thoughtful son, his revered mother of sports, cricket,' had done well by him, as, despite tho tally of his years, tho toll on him had been light—he was still youthful and sturdy. • In those early days there was no such thing as a cricket pitch"at the Basin Reserve—that now hallowed ground was but a swamp. The playing "fields were on Tβ Aro Flat and at Thorndon. The 65th Regiment was stationed here in those times, and included.in its numbers were several men who had been prominent in county cricket at Home, and many a. battle royal they'had with the colonists' elevens,/ in which' the latter on occasion more than held their own.'

Then the Ancient gazed at the niatch immediately in the- view. A few moments' silence, and— ..... *

"I don't think," he went on,' 'the bowling or the 'fielding is an improvement on when I played. Of course, thoro was no such thing as over-arm bowling in those days—it was all rbun3-arm or underhand—and Eomo very good underhand bowlers wo had,'too.,. The overarm was regarded as a throw, but it came into vogue afterwards—from Melbourne, I think. Now, look at that for fielding I" His tone was oho of dismay, as a square-cut flew to tho boundary., while point was apparently'nodding in' a 'day-dream. "In my timo every man in the field was on tho alert in anticipation that the ball would come his way, and so it should be."

I agreed with this truism., and said that oven in these degenerate days it was recognised. Perhaps, said I,' if ho pilt in an appeaarnee at the Basin on the following days ho would seo soniething more worthy of latter-day cricfeters—the Auckland-Welliniiton representative match was on. Was that eo? Indeed, he would try to bp-there, as he had represented Wellington in'the first match against Auckland played in the Northern City. It was a return game —ho had been unable to play in tho yery first match hero owing to an injury to his leg. The''Wollingtonians had travelled north in the Storinbird— the same little vessel that is still ' engaged in the coastal trade—and they were still very much at soa wlien tho match commoncfld, and so wore-beaten. So. far in tho distant past was it that he could not recall the year. '.

Jvoteworthy among the Wellington enthusiasts of those days were: Brower, the Bucks, Boltoii, Roots, Greenwood, Borlase, Copcstake, • Bromley, and their wickotkeeper, "Nat" Valentine.

"We didn't knock up the scores then that they do now,"' remarked the veteran. "The batting nowadays seerSs to have become a science, especially among the Australians. Wo- had about ■ six teams in Wellington then, : and"'among tho soldiers wore some keen lovers of the grand old game." .■ Another day-dreaming fieldsman caused my pioneer friend to ejaculate that ho wouldn't mind, oven now, taking his place in the field. I was being regaled with" much of the historic incidents of Wellington's early sporting world—when "Orierit.il" Bay was unknown, and "Duppa's" Bay was its name—of the horse races at what is now Miramar Flat; of the atern political struggles of Featherston, Stafford, Fitzgerald, and Fox—when two very bronzed upectatora came alongside us. I shook hands .with one.of them. They had just Teturnod that morning from a trip to Australia, where they had bron endeavouring to copo with the abilities of Trumper, Macartney,' Hill, and the many other giants of Australian CTidkot. The Ancient and the Moderns then stood in line, watching the Wednesday devotees.

Sharp shot a catch to fine slip, but tho fieldsman was once more napping. The New Zealand representatives groaned, more in sorrow than in anger; tho Ancient groaned—at tho thought tierliapsof what would have happened to thnt catch in the days of old.

Presently he turned to me. and said lie must bo Roing. He 'would trv and see tho AueWnnd-Wellinßton match, but in had a Minister to see about a backblocks road, and it took sonic.time,'bo had found, to run down a man.'of Stain —thero was such an outer guard of under-secretaries to' break through first. But I have no doubt that lio was there, as for three'hours that day'ho nnd stood in the 'hot.eun wntobinK Wednesday cricket. ■'. Such is tlie'undyuig lure, of The Gasib.