TAUHERENIKAU SPORTS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume II, Issue 56, 25 January 1868, Page 3

TAUHERENIKAU SPORTS.

The anniversary day of the arrival of the first settlers at Port Nicholson and the formation of an English Colony there was celebrated at the Tauherenikau on Wednesday last, and an attractive programme was prepared for visitors. Although the day was as fine as could be wished with a gentle and cooling breeze blowing, there but a poor attendance/ The cause of this is most probably that people are surfeited with the number of rural sports and the monotonous dulness whh which they pass off to all but the competitors and their immediate friends. We would advocate also as an improvement on the present way of arranging them, that these rural sports should take place only twice a year, that subscriptions should be raised through the valley to support them and that on certain days to be agreed upon they should be held at the upper or lower end of the valley or in a central place; the sports be held in a different part of the valley each year. The advantages of this would be obvious and would do away with “ opposition sports,” the inconvenience of which was much felt in the Masterton versus Featherston sports when a band which had been advertised for the former place went to the latter so that the terpsicorean art was represented at Masterton by a solitary concertina. But we are rambling from the matter in hand and must proceed to speak of the Tauherenikau sports without further digression. Let us begin by rendering honor to whom honor is due and stating that throughout the day the Judge Mi W. Williams and the various members of the committee among whom wo would particularly notice Messrs. Keys and Gundy were indefatigable in the discharge of their duties. shearing match. The first event on the programme was the shearing match, which we were lather disappointed to find did not attract that amount of interest which we had believed would have been shown in the most important competition which has taken place at any of the rural sports. The prizes were to be £2 155.; £1 10 Four entered namely Mcßane, E. Vennell, T. Udy and T. Marshall. The two first began for he had sheared his three sheep in 32 minutes while his opponent who was more careful and did not cut his sheep so much took 41 minutes Mcßane time for his sheep were taken as follows first 10 minutes, second 11, third 10, E. Vermeil occupied 15,12 and 13 minutes for each sheep respectively. The next who came on to the shearing boards were T. Udy, and T. Marshall the latter being evidently a favorite. He had however two very bad sheep to shear and did not therefore meet with such success as his backers had anticipated,. T. Udy’s time for his sheep were 11,13, 13 total 37 minutes, T. Marshalls time was 10, 10 and 12, total 32, thus tying Mcßane for time. The fleeces and sheep were then submitted to the consideration of Messrs H. Bunny; J. Tucker and G. Hollard who were appointed Judges. After the necessary amount of deliberation the prizes were awarded in the following order Vennell Ist, Mcßean 2nd., Udy 3rd. Marshall, whose fleeces were beautiftilly cut off, was awarded no prize on account of the carelessness with which he turned one of his sheep off having left several “ pottles” (we believe that is the name for bits of wool) hanging to the sheep. As it was now getting towards two o'clock we adjourned to Mr Rowe’s Tauherenikau Hotel where we regaled ourselves with ale and sandwiches and on returning to the field found that two events had taken place in our absence. They were:— 200 YARD FOOT RACE. Prize £l. Entries: Iggledon, Gooding, Laverty and Nicholl, Gooding came in first, J. Nicholl second.

throwing Heavy hammer. Prizes los and ss. The first prize was won by G. Hollard, Laverty being second. The ethers who entered were Houghton, Gats, and Vennell. THROWING THE LIGHT HAMMER. Only three entered for this but as the two champion throwers namely Hollard and Laverty were competing, very great interes was excited as the hammer fell inch by incht further, as it was hurled by the athletes in turn Hollard eventually won at 85ft 2in with Laverty close up to his throw. The reason why the throwing seems inferior (being shorter thnn throwing elsewhere) is that the hammer was much heavier than usual. TILTING. And now came' the tilting for which ten entered; the prizes were £l 10s and 10s the second. The rings taken from their pendents during the three turns of each rider were as under:—

It will be seen from the above that J. Gundy and Laverty’s tied each other but a protest was entered against Laverty, riding in the last round as it was stated that he had not galloped at some of the rings. The protest was admitted by the Judge and the first prize was awarded to Gundy, Laverty taking the second, RUNNING HIGH LEA? For this five entered and the prize was won by McEane at 4ft 7in Laverty took the second prize at 4ft 6in at which height Iggledon fell. The other two were distanced thus:—T. Udy at4ft2inand J. Gundy at 4ft 4in. RACE FOR ROTS. UNDER 14. First Prize 10s second 4s; four started, Cox 1, Read 2, Tucker 3. VAULTING WITH THE POLE. Prizes' £l; second 10s, Four entered Ctody won at Bft., Mcßaue being Second at 7ft lOin. It was at first thought that Mcßaue would have won but in jumping the leap just recorded he fell heavily on his back and stunned himself. WRESTLING. Laverty and Udy entered the ring for the prize and after some good wrestling Laverty who was new to the exercise retired from the ring after acquitting himself Very creditably leaving Udy in the ring and master of the prize. Udy then threw down the gauntlets to all comers, Nicholas took up the challenge. After shaking hands an excellent match took place but as no special “ grip ” was decided on ‘ the most distressingest kind’ (as the Yankees say,) of tearing of shirts took place ; these having been , removed “ proh pudor ” the attack was recommenced but after several felse throws it was declared a drawnbattle. TOUTHS RACE. This was a race for youth’s between the ages of 14 and 18. There were four entries

'namely W. Tocker, A. Lucas and J. Bunny. The competitors were well matched, and after an excellent Pace the first prize was awarded to W. Burt, J. Tocker taking the second prize of ss. s . STANDING LONG LEAF, Mcßane, John Tocker, E. Vennell, J. Laverty and Crocker entered for the prizes for standing long leap and the contest was well kept up, but all were compelled to yield to the superior powers of Mcßane who jumped 9ft 9iu. The boy Tocker shows well for next year as he took the second prize at 9ft 7£iu. JINGLING MATCH The Jingling match for which several entered and which after many efforts was won by Nichol brought an excellent days amusement to a close.

Iggledon 2 2 1 Keys ... ,.. 0 0 3 Roe Junr. 2 0 3 Abbott 1 4 1 J. Gundy 2 3 % H.Uunny 0 1 3 G-, Wakelin 2 1 2 J. Laverty 2 2 3 J. Vennell 1 1 1 Burt 0 0 0 W. Wakelin 1 0 0 Nicholl 1 0 1