TRIUMPHS OF YESTERDAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 465, 21 September 1928, Page 10

TRIUMPHS OF YESTERDAY

THERE was recently found in a Gisborne second-hand shop an 1 old pewter mug which started its career as a rowing trophy in the early ’eighties. ’ It is now baek again in its place at the Auckland Rowing Club, and is being raced for as a trial fours trophy by club members.

tVere it possible to trace all the trophies awarded in New Zealand sport, it would probably be found that many of them have found (|ueer resting-places. How many more besides this pewter mug may not repose on a dusty shelf in “Uncle’s” care? Second-hand dealers would be doing a service both to themselves and to sport by advising the club of origin when an engraved trophy comes into their hands. The intrinsic value of a pewter mug. for instance, is very much less than its historic and “sentimental” value.

Any sportsman who knows of a trophy at present reposing “in pawn” would undoubtedly gain the gratitude of all athletes who have competed for it if he made the fact known in the right direction. For a hard-won trophy to be anywhere but in an honoured position in club-room or home is a slight on the winner, the donor, and the sport for which it was given. Of course, “necessity knows no law,” and the realisation of a man’s assets is sometimes imperative, hut send or sell the trophy to its original owners.