CROSS-COUNTRY WORK

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 300, 10 March 1928, Page 7

CROSS-COUNTRY WORK

INVERCARGILL TROTS HARES AND HOUNDS "Wild and exciting cross-country work was witnessed on the northern boundary of the Southland Racing Club’s property last Saturday afternoon, during the progress of the Invercargill Trotting Club’s meeting, which would have “brought down the house” had the publie been privileged to enjoy the stampede (says an exchange). It appears that a number of alleged pencillers and their adherents, who generally take up points of vantage on a roadway adjoining the racecourse and the one mile and a-half trotting starting post, invaded the track by means of a single plank thrown across a deep ditch, and by way of a narrow gap in a thick gorse hedge. The intruders proceeded to criticise, harry and generally annoy the drivers assembled for a start, and appeared to derive great pleasure from the process, with the result that a complaint was made in official quarters. Detectives on the Scent Presently two racecourse detectives essayed to take a hand in the game, fortified by a recent Northern court decision regarding “loitering for the purpose of betting,” a finding only too well understood in bookmaking circles. The sleuths got within a few yards of their objective, when their presence was noted, and a scene of frantic endeavour and wild disorder ensued. A block at the gap and plank caused added consternation, and in attempting to negotiate a live and prickly fence, several fear-stricken persons found the bottom of the muddy ditch, and others stuck in the hedge, while the narrow gangway added its quota to the drainage channel. When the guardians of the law arrived at the spot, however, the alleged trespassers had found cover, and from the shelter of tall waving tussocks. ditches of varying depths, and friendly hedges, the “hares” in sanctuary peeped out, and derived small comfort from the fact that their natural enemies had met with a welcome check.