A Happy Crowd

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 206, 16 September 1937, Page 6

A Happy Crowd

INCIDENTS AT PARK Enthusiastic Barracking for, Both Sides RECORD ATTENDANCE Despite the fact that their team had been defeated, it was a happy crowd that thronged out of McLean Park, Napier# yesterday afternoon at the con« clusion* of the representative fixtur®' with South Africa. The general feeling • was that the home side had shown up very well against a strong international tside, and it was with smiling faces that the spectators, many of whonj had been at the grounds for six hours, eet out fof their homes. ' Football crowds at> a big game arai usually happy and ■ interesting, and yesterday 's attendance was no exception to this rule. The rush commeneed before nine o'clock in the morning, and although it had been arranged that th©. gates would not be opened until 10.30, ihe queues at the gate were so great by; 10 o'clock that they were then openedj and the drift into the park commeneed, growing in volume until after two o 'clock. First came the happy-go-lucky peopl© met at most big football matchee— • those who had not bothered to reserv© their seats and were confident that they. would see the game as well as any, They were not disappointed, for aln though the attendance exceeded any. ever before seen at McLean Park, th© foresight of the Rugby Union offieials in providing plenty of additional accomi modation on temporary stands stood them in good stead. Soon there commeneed to arrive' th© holders of tickets in the three tempo* rary stands. These stands, seating morai than 3,000 people, were reserved spaees, but it depended entirely upon th©' efforts of the individual ticket-holder© whether they were near the ground or. far away. The wise ones came early and secured the best seats. Shortly after 11 o 'clock, some thousands ot school children filed in under t^ie charge of their masters, hailing from Hastings, Napier, and Dannevirke, and took ug eeats at- the" end of the ground. Opt posite were the two small banks, whichj were . Tapidly filled, and behind th© usual resourceful people with ladder© and benzine-box stands. The "Happy" Crowd. Some of the spectators had obviously celebrated a Hawke 's Bay win or "drowned their sorrow" at defeat long before the match commeneed, and ther© ' were numerous "happy'7 persons on th©* fltands. They amused themselves and[ the crowd by their comments on th© crowd, the play, and the weather, it being noticeable that a majority of th© eelebrants were firmly convinced of © Springbok victory. One of them, liow-t ever, was apparently of the other mind, for when Bastard scored less than 20 yards from where he was sitting, h® shuddered violently and had recours® to tho solace of the beverage in a "square-rigger" taken from his pocket, It was too much for this individual when the scores mounted in the second spell, and ' after vainly exhorting Hawke's Bay to "give it to 'em'7 h© left the ground. Not since the days when Hawke '» Bay's Ranfurly Shield games drew supporters from all over the provinco t® every match has the barracking been so. enthusiastic and loud as it was yester-. day. The call of "Come on tho Bayl'* reverberated across the ground without cessation for the wholo 80 minutes of play, and rose to a crescendo on the four oecasions when the province's total was added to and on others when it appeared that they must score again. While strongly partisan, the crowd was for the iiiost part fair. On on© occasion, however, Lawton incurred th© displeasure of a section of the spectator© as he scored his try, and some of them -liooted. The cry was unfortunately mimicked by the school children nearby, making the objection to the ineident sound worse than, actually was the case. Both on the arrival and departure of the teams from the field they were accorded an enthusiastic ovation, and as the players returned to the dreesing sheds, the congratulations of those nearby were impartially given to every player. At the conclusion of the niateh, th© thought expressed by everyone was that Hawke's Bay had done remarkably well in holding the visitors to a nine-point margin'on a dry ground. Slightly disappointed at the defeat, the spectators 'were full of praise for the magniiicent play of the team, and let't the park with the feeling that they had witnessed one of the best games ever t'o ba staged there.