CRICKET AND FOOTBALL
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
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