NOTES FROM LYTTELTON.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 846, 10 March 1877, Page 3

NOTES FROM LYTTELTON.

History states that Peter the Great when he first began his victorious career had great difficulty in making his troops stand the charge of the enemy. They had been accustomed to defeat, and took it quietly, and as a matter of The Lyttelton Cricket Club commenced its career by defeating “ Our Boys” with great slaughter, but since that period their laurels have faded. I hope they will not, like the troops I mention, take defeat as a matter of course, but that they will give the Head of the Bay team a real good thrashing.

Our trip to Sunnyside was a most delightful one, We ; assembled at the station at 9 a.3p„ on Thursday morning, and no one could say we were not a good looking lot of representatives. There was a great variety too some of our figures—notably that of the scorer, resembling a threadpaper or a yard of pumpwater, to which tire rotundity ox our late umpire offered n pleasing contrast. Through the tunnel, and then a scramble for cricketing materials, and a short glimpse of that beautiful plantation of thistles called by courtesy the Lyttelton Cricket Ground, on which we have as yet proved unconquerable. Happy thought! why not challenge a Christchurch club to play us on our own ground ; we are used to bumps, and jthistle hardened, whereas they are strangers to these delights, and we should probably lick them —even, if we did not they would go away wijtli, an intense respect for person's wnf. could play cricket at all under such,' difficult conditions. On again, pad; the Lyttelton waterworks, the station that proved too much for the inebriate, and that one situated on the beautiful river whose banks, according to home papers, are studded with the stately residences of directors of the New Zealand Shipping Co, and at last that queer looking collection of uupainted packing cases, which are the first part of Christchurch seen Ipy the traveller, bursts upon the viev/. ’ Oh alighting we find the trap, waiting for us at the station, arid hearty greetings wore interchanged with the gallant captain who occupies the box, and who has our hearty sympathy either as Jehu, Knight of the Willow, or “William.” How the tits do spank along, and we do blow about what we are going to do. Now Reeder is not in it, one of our men for the first time in Ips life gets a chance to sit on the Mayor, and seizes the opportunity. Cuff an,d Graham's representative wonderg whether he is on the spot. The Licensed Victualler is pondering as to where he shall place his team. Miles, Hassal and Co, in the absence of a brother, caresses his bat, the police as usga,! are turbulent, and your representative, beyond an occasional grave correction to those who appear tq be overstepping the bounds of propriety, says nothing but thinks a great deal. On we thunder past the Addington Gaol and the Black Horse, and thou with a sweep up the avenue to the Asylum, ducking our heads for fear the trees should catch hold of our caps. After a sharp sera tiny from some of the warders, who evidently think from our appearance that we arc a fresh lot of patients, we receive the usual hearty greeting and stroll through the grounds. The tent is being erectedj and the

wicket is all ready and in capital order, though rather near the fence. The Licensed Victualler is elected skipper, and we make all sorts of resolutions that we will either conquer or burst in the attempt. We win the toss and put them in, they make a score of 65, your representative being groaned at heartily because, pitying the youthful captain of the opposition, he allows a ball to pass him instead of catching it. Our innings would have been a profitable investment for Mr Pooley in the betting way; in fact, I began to calculate how much he would have made by the transaction, but it was too much for me. We produced six ducks eggs, one of which was credited to your repre s “ntative. He had been sent in last, with the Sergeant-Major, to make a stand, but the Major got bowled, much to his disgust, and so the Globe carried his bat out for 0. Need I say he was triumphantly carried to the tent by his admiring confreres ? The second innings of the Sunnyside team was a tolerable one, and Lyttelton had 125 runs to make to win, and made 67 of them, 34 being contributed in gallant style by the repre sentative of the butchering interest. We had luncheon in the big hall to an organ accompaniment, which was played in a style that elicited our heartiest applause. Both the captains made eloquent speeches, and your representative, insp red by the example, went in likewise, but I am sorry to say was sadly ridiculed by these thoughtless young men. We had tea in the big room near the billiard room, and then some of us strolled through the garden and had a splendid innings against the peaches and apples, our scorer particularly distinguishing himself on this occasion, though he did take quinces for pears. Meanwhile, another portion of the juytteltonians went in for athletic sports four of them tried to jump a ditch, and three fell in. At this stage of the proceedings your representative found it necessary to proceed to the Black Horse to prevent the Good Templars in the team taking more medicine than was absolutely needful. It was now past seven o’clock, aud as “Blackeyed Susan ” was to begin at 7.30 p.m, the theatre commenced to fill rapidly. Presently we were all seated, the patient part of the audience in front, and the im-patient part behind. The orchestra played the usual preliminary in grand style, and then the curtain rose. Shade of T. P. Cooke, you must have been hovering over the building to give the performers such a true idea of the nautical drama. Why, they shivered their timbers better there than they did ours at cricket. Talk about a Jacob Twig I Why, I don’t believe a truer representation of the character was ever given. Susan and Dolly looked so charming, that I envied William and Nat. The scenery and appointments were admirable, and I hear that Mr Rose is the gentleman who deserves the greatest praise for this. There is some diorama business in the third act that is really first-class. Take it altogeter, it was really first-rate, and we enjoyed it. The ride home was as musical and pleasant as before, and any man who says he did not enjoy the day ought to be locked up, at least for six months.

Talking of “ Black-eyed Susan" and nautical matters reminds me of a paragraph in the May Queen, Weekly News, which I recommend any student of the nautical drama to study closely ; it runs as follows : —" A. noise was heard on deck, the dogwatch sprang from his caboose, seized the gig whip, and, laying it over the dead-eyes of the buoy, made him shin up the how-sprit, catch hold of the sky-scraner, which he used so freely on the keelson that he rubbed off the shoe of the anohor, which was caught by the oat-harpings, who commenced to spanker with the boom till she burst through the stays, cutting the topsail ties, grappled the monkey’s tail, which knocked the Jew’s eyes out of the Turk’s head, caught the May Queen round the waist with one hand, boxed the compass with the other, till the cook cried out and the captain applied hashes of the foresail to the inflated £ye of the astonished needle." \Yhut do you think of that now ? Is that salt enough ? PORTONIAN.