Charleston: Its Rise and Decline/Chapter 17
Chapter XVII.
CRICKET—FOOTBALL—SPORTS—HORSE-RACING—VOLUNTEERS.
HARDLY any sport but horse-racing flourished at Charleston. Bowling, tennis and golf were unknown.
Spasmodic efforts were made from time to time by a few enthusiasts to establish cricket, with only partial success. Two pitches were available; one near to St. Patrick’s Chapel, and another on Charleston Flat, the former being the more frequently used. Football fared somewhat better, but never appealed as did horse-racing. The cricket ground being of cement, did not appeal to footballers; they preferred a softer field, such as a beach or paddock. At the early-day schools neither cricket nor football was played, their most strenuous game being “rounders,” a soft-ball style of baseball. In 1877 an attempt was made by Mr. Chas. McCarthy, headmaster of St. Patrick’s, to introduce soccer, but the mild enthusiasm lasted only a few weeks.
CRICKET.
The first cricket match played at Charleston was a scratch match on 17th March, 1868, upon the pitch “200 yards to the rear of the Post Office dam” and near to St. Patrick’s Chapel, and was between 11 members of the Charleston Cricket Club and 11 miners. The miners won by 30 to 28. There was a booth on the ground, run by Cullen and Humby of the City Hotel. The Charleston Cricket Club was formed in February, 1868.
Another match on the same pitch was between “Jones’s and Simpson’s teams” on 11th November, 1868. Early the same year (1868) a Brighton team visited Charleston, but as the weather was too wet for play, they were, said a newspaper, “royally entertained” during the day, and tendered a banquet at night. The Charleston team travelled to Brighton on 6th May, 1868, for a return match. This was played “upon the hard sand of Woodpecker Bay” and Brighton won.
On Easter Monday, 1869, a match was played on Charleston Flat between teams captained by W. J. Moore and —. Simpson respectively, Moore’s team winning. The players were Moore, Simpson, McKenny, Profitt, Irwin, Spiers, Bennett, Salter, McIvor, Collings, Evans, Mussell, Dollman and Beveridge. Evidently a seven-a-side match.
During the latter portion of 1896 a Charleston team toured the district, playing matches at Waimangaroa, Birchfield, Granity, and Mokihinui, with what results is not recorded. Some of the team were: William Gardner (Capt.), Alf Hunt, C. T. Bruning, Jimmy Parsons, Frank Higgins, Arthur Norris, Dick Woodger, David Hartill, Pat Dwyer. These players also participated in a match at Charleston, upon “the ground near the Catholic Chapel, behind the Post Office,” on New Year’s Day, 1897. They were scratch teams, Married v. Single.
In 1897 a team from Birchfield visited Charleston, but no details are on record beyond the fact that “Jimmy Griffiths made 78 not out.”
FOOTBALL.
The first football match was between Charleston and Addison’s Flat, played upon the Nine-mile Beach on 9th March, 1869. Apparently it was more in the nature of “a day out” between scratch teams, than a serious competition. A challenge issued by Messrs. O’Callaghan and O’Rourke on behalf of Charleston, had been accepted by Messrs. Philip McEnroe and Thomas Howe on behalf of Addison’s. A band escorted the players and some hundreds of spectators to the beach, some of whom came from as far as Westport and Brighton. The result was indefinite, both sides claiming a win; and when the decision was given to Charleston there was heated discussion. A truce was called, everyone being allowed to retain his individual opinion, though various letters appeared in the Westport Times upholding opposing views. The actual winners were the several booths on the sandhills, one of which (Behan & Kelly’s) is credited with having taken more than two hundred pounds. In the evening a grand ball was held at Charleston, admittance one guinea, and was doubtless a gay gathering after the events of the day. It is believed that the Charleston team was: T. Dollman, W. H. Hillyar, B. Shepherd, P. Kilmartin, P. O’Callaghan, E. Drennan, J. O’Rourke, P. O’Conor, W. Hartill, R. Treadwell, T. Dwan, T. G. Macarthy, Thos. Lander, A. Condon, W. Mullins, with Jas Hatch, F. McParland, D. Collins, and W. Murphy as emergencies.
The first real Football Club was formed in 1888, a combination of town and beach players, who formed opposing sides for local matches or trial practices, usually in Parsons’ paddock at Little Beach, with the Welcome Inn close by. Having but one ball, each faction had the use of it on alternative week-ends. Records of outside matches are not available, but at least one match was played at Westport, when the portrait of the team, shown herein, was taken. In the late ’eighties or early ‘nineties, the boys of the State School maintained a Football Club known as “the Tittlebats and Grasshoppers,” and local matches were staged between teams therefrom, representing Town and Beach respectively. This team played at least one match at Westport.
ATHLETIC SPORTS.
There was not any Athletic Club at Charleston, and the so-called sports meetings were but combinations of sport and picnic, held in early days upon Charleston Flat, but in later times upon Parsons’ Paddock or on the Picnic Ground on the south side of the Nile; actually a part of the Nile Farm—a lovely spot, as previously stated.
The meetings were not annual fixtures, but arranged from time to time for the benefit of the hospital funds; nevertheless eagerly looked forward to by one and all. They were usually one-day meetings, but it is recorded that in 1868 one extended to two days, 26th and 28th December. Good stakes were provided for athletic events, and during the weeks prior to the meetings, competitors-to-be were to be seen practising on the cricket ground on Charleston Flat.
The various Societies and Lodges gathered in front of The Camp, formed into procession and, gay with regalia, with banners flying, marched to the ground, preceded by the town band and followed by hundreds of holiday-makers. A feature of the gatherings was the side-show at each, conducted by the honorary showman, Robert Shepherd, a man with an infinite supply of showmanship and natural humour; he seldom netted less than thirty or forty pounds for hospital purposes. Though the duped ones were not strangers, he “took them in”; they on their part enjoyed the trickery knowing that the proceeds were for a charitable object. One of his shows was “a horse with his tail where his head ought to be”; a nag with his tail in a manger; another was a “live moa,” which he announced “took twenty men twenty days to catch.” The tent was surmounted by an enormous, whitewashed, wooden egg, stated to be a facsimile of the one to be seen inside the tent, with the bird. If a patron failed to recognise a moa in what he saw, Shepherd explained that the bird, when caught, had become violent, and had spitefully “turned herself inside out and so spoilt her appearance.”
Another popular fixture was, in later years, the annual children’s picnic, arranged each Christmas time by Mr. James Jenkins, a church worker. It was, however, non-sectarian, and looked forward to by youngsters of all creeds, as care was taken to see that each got a share of the toys and refreshments freely provided.
RACE-MEETINGS.
On 3rd September, 1868, a meeting was held in Rooney’s Hotel (the Belle de Union), Charleston, to arrange for a race-meeting, and a Committee appointed consisting of Messrs. Strike (Chairman), Dwan, Rooney, Neale, Brownlie, Twohill, Lichenstein, Kennedy, Fenton, Shepherd, Sturt, Behan, Cutten and Mirfin (Secretary). This Committee arranged the first race-meeting held at Charleston, the “Charleston Midsummer Races,” a two-day meeting on Hall’s Beach, as the Nine-mile was sometimes termed, on 13th and 14th January, 1869. The principal event on the first day was a challenge race, for £15 aside, between a horse named Sulky, owned by C. Lyons, and a horse Charos, owned by S. J. Loring, of Tauranga Bay and Totara; otherwise the stakes for the meeting were obtained by subscription, a canvass of the town resulting in the collection of £39/18/-. The Westport Times records a large attendance from Westport and Charleston, that Hall’s Garden was extensively decorated, providing a pleasant, shady retreat between races, the day being extremely hot, and that the Casino band provided pleasing music.
Another race-meeting, or rather a combined race-and-sports meeting, was held in April of the same year to celebrate the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to the Coast. The Duke, in H.M.S. Galatea, arrived at Nelson on 19th April, and left on 21st April, 1869. In Charleston a public holiday was declared, and the race-meeting was held upon the School Reserve in Darkie’s Terrace Road, the necessary nearby hotel (probably the Junction Hotel kept by Margaret Hannah and John McEwen) being the house later acquired by Isaac Hardley and converted by him into a workshop and residence. A procession of over 800 persons marched from Constant Bay to the flat, preceded by marshals on horseback, viz., Messrs. Thos. Kelly, Thos. Dwan, J. Hennelly, and Captain Beveridge. In the evening a barbecue was staged in the Camp grounds; a bullock “of over 700 pounds in weight” being roasted above a huge fire, slices therefrom handed around with bread and flagons of beer, and the remainder sold as joints.
A comparatively important meeting was held on the Nine-mile Beach during the Christmas period of 1871. The stakes being high for those days, horses came from many parts, including two from Redwood’s stable at Nelson, and one from Auckland, while visitors attended from all portions of the Coast. To the delight of Charlestonians, a local horse owned by Messrs. Maloney and McKittrick won the principal event. The officials were: Judge, Charles Broad; Secretary, H. Jones; Starter, J. Fenton; Clerk of Course, P. Scanlon; Stewards, H. 
(illegible text); seventh in back row, H. Ferguson; both of Charleston.
At centre–first Bank of New South Wales.
Hillyar, J. Behan.
In later years meetings were held on John Warne’s farm at the back of St. Patrick’s School, and in a paddock behind the Welcome Inn at Little Beach. A feature of horse-racing on the Coast was the number of private challenges by owners of promising horses. For these the services of Harry Patten, of Candlelight, as a rider, were much in demand, he having been attached to Redwood’s stables at Nelson. It is told that upon one occasion he was engaged for a fee of £50 to ride a heavily-backed horse at Reefton, and walked the entire distance, 68 miles, won the race, and walked home. Jimmy Parsons, of Charleston, was another popular rider.
Although race-meetings were not annual fixtures, many were arranged during the early days, generally in proximity to a hotel, the owner of which contributed generously to the stakes—a sprat to catch a mackerel. They were the events of the year, which all felt bound to attend; everybody met everybody, and the few existing social distinctions were dropped, for “on the turf, and under it, all men are equal.”
VOLUNTEERS.
A volunteer corps, the Charleston Rifle Volunteers, was formed in 1868. At a meeting held on 8th April of that year, and convened by Captain Alexander Beveridge, a Committee was appointed to arrange details necessary to the formation of a corps. At a later meeting Mr. G. C. Bowman was elected Captain; Mr. Furness, Lieutenant; Mr. Price, Ensign; and Mr. H. Vorley, Secretary. The drill-ground and rifle-range was on country Section No. 50 of about 21 acres, near to John Warne’s farm, behind St. Patrick’s School. Each member of the corps paid 2/6 entrance fee, and a monthly subscription of 2/6. The first drill was on 15th April, 1868, Thomas Kelly being the instructor. The corps was disbanded on 10th October of the same year, by Gazette notice.