COLLEGE SPORTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 283, 3 December 1869, Page 2

COLLEGE SPORTS.

! O We willingly place on one side our own account of the sports at the College in order to give the more graphic description of the day's amusement contained in the following letter from one of those who took part in them. The letter was not originally intended for publication but at our request the writer has given his permission to its appearing in print : — Nelson College. Dear Dick, — Tuesday was a beadtly sell. We were to have had our sports then, so you can fancy how savage we were to find it a pouring wet morning and instead of having our fun we had. to go in for lessons but I don't think we paid much attentiori l 'to them for I heard one of the fellows when -be was being examined in English history say that Julius Cassar came over to Britain with William tbe Conqueror and that the two together licked Boadicer. at the battle of Waterloo on Christmas Day, B.C. 105. The boyslaughed.and the. boss looked savage but I think he was sold too about the wet" day, so he didn't say much. Somehow or other we got through the wretched day and next morning I' was' woke by Alf .teariug the clothes off me and shouting 'out — . Oceanum interea surgens Aurora reliquit, which he* said meant that while I was sleeping the Sun had got out of his -morning bath lookiug quite bright. He ■ needn't have be^n so flash with his Virgil though, as he only happened to know it because he had had to learu 40 lines as an imposition for smoking on the sly. The morning passed away slowly because we were all thinking about the spree we were going to have,and the prizes we were goiug to win, because they were jolly good ones, as the people had given lots of money ; for us to buy them with. Such a heap of people came up to see what we could do that the place looked quite lively, aud the girls were regular bricks, for they cheered ■aud clapped when any _of the chaps did anything well, which made us feel quite . proud, ancl when a fellow jumps 4ft. : llin. high and?; 18 feet longjike Ted Cox did, _ it.'w something for the whole school to be proud of. We wWej, awfully sorry when lie hurt, his foot in thielast.jumpjTdphope he'll bS all right-on Saturday./ We. were all surprised inthe;long race'^of 875 -yards because we all thought' Wither wo it, but his bellows rwent-wrong'.^about'ylOO'' , yards; from home '-'i-.and'^ Pratt 'won easy; j Tw%)^^y^^Xiy ;as".'all ; ;;the';-; co, with their feet in bags and their faces

in pasteboard, they all looked so like one another that you couldn't tell t'other from which. The only thing, that went at all wrong all the day was that some of, the people would crowd in when we were jumping or anything, and one fellow got quite cheeky when he was asked to move back, I only wish the governor had tipped us half a wink we'd have slipped, into him quick and then perhaps he'd have known that when people go to this sort of thing they ought to keep order and behave themselves. After it. was all over we were precious hungry I can tell. you and we went in for. a jolly good feed and after that had such a stunning dance. There are some awfully pretty girls here, and I am getting quite sweet on one' of them,, but she danced such a lot of times with one of the other fellows : that I got quite cross and spoke to her about it and we had a little row, but Amantium irce est renovatio amoris, as tbe Latin Grammar says, which means that we kissed and made friends in the corridor and so everything went off quite jollily, and I am Your affectionate brother, Harry; P.S. — We are going to have more sports on Saturday and after that we shall have to mug like mad for the examinations. Here's the programme and the names of the fellows that won. 1. Throwing the Cricket Ball; open to all the school. — A. Morse, distance, 86yds., loin. 2. Hop, Step, and Jump ; open to all under sft. 3in. in school.— G.Nicholson; distance, 30ft. 6ih. 3. Plat Race, once round course; open to all under 12 years.— W. Scaife. 4. High Jump; open to all in school.— E. B. Cox; height, 4ft. llin. 5. Flat Kace, 100 j'ards; open to all under 15 years. — A. Hale. 6. Long Jump; op an to all comers. — E. B. Cox;" distance, 18ft'. 2in. 7. Long Race, three times round course; open to all the school. — C. Pratt. 8. Long Jump; open to all under sft. 3in.— C. Sharp; distance, 13ft. 7in. 9. Plat Race, 50 yards; open to all under 12 years. — W. Scaife. 10. Hurdle Race; open to all the school; once round the course, eight hurdles. — J. Warnock. 11. High Jump; open to old collegians.— E. Adams; 4ft. 7in. 12. High Jump; open to all comers. — E. Adams; 4ft. Ilia; 13. Plat Race, 100 yards; open to old collegians. — G. Butt. ' 14. Hurdle Race, half round course, five hurdles ; open to all under 15 years. — J. Burnett. 15. Sack Race; open to all.— First heat, C.Pratt; second, A. Morse; third, C. Pratt. Pauperism. — The total number of persons receiving relief in London in August was 125,412, or 4 per cent, of the people. Dr. Paterson ha's been convicted at Sydney of procuring abortion, and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment with hard..', labor.

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