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Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z.

District's Oldest Pastime

District's Oldest Pastime

The “Father of Cricket” in Poverty Bay was Mr. (later the Hon.) G. R. Johnson, who had led the Cambridge XI and had played for Gentlemen of England. He and his brother laid down a pitch at “Wharekaia” in 1869. A Settlers' XI easily defeated a team from H.M.S. Basilisk on S. Parsons's pitch at Matawhero on 31 October, 1873. The Matawhero Cricket Club was formed by the Rev. W. H. Root in November, 1873, and the Poverty Bay Cricket Club at Gisborne in July, 1875. At Matawhero, on 1 January, 1877, Hawke's Bay met a Poverty Bay XI comprising: G. J. Winter (captain), Smith, J. White, Nash, J. W. Johnson, G. R. Johnson, C. W. Ferris, J. Braithwaite, H. Johnstone, S. Parsons and R. Thelwall. Hawke's Bay made 107 and 65 and Poverty Bay 70 and 5 for 36, when rain brought play to a close. Johnson, Williams, Ferris and Winter played for Hawke's Bay against Gregory's Australian XI at Napier in 1878.

Nobody did more to promote interest in cricket in Poverty Bay than W. L. Rees. Soon after his arrival in 1879 he laid down a pitch at his home at Te Hapara. “W.L.”—as he was known to his friends—was a cousin of “W.G.,” “G.F.” and “E.M.” Grace, the famous “Three Graces” of the cricket world. He played for Victoria in its first contest against New South Wales. Among the New South Wales players were two of his cousins—W. G. Rees (later to give his name to a river and to a valley in Central Otago) and G. Gilbert. “W.L.” was a member of the Auckland XXII which met Lillywhite's All England XI in 1877.

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The Poverty Bay Cricket Association was formed on 7 October, 1901, with J. W. Nolan as president and teams as under: Gisborne (Town and West End), United (Kaiti and Whataupoko) and County (Te Arai and Ormond). A good pitch was laid down on Victoria Domain. Previously, the best town pitch had been on the Recreation Ground (now the site of the Botanical Gardens). Taruheru, Wanderers, Waingake and Te Rau also entered the competitions in 1907.

Up to and including 1948, Poverty Bay and Hawke's Bay had met on 32 occasions under the auspices of the N.Z.C.A. Poverty Bay won 11 of the matches, lost 14 and 7 were drawn. Highest scorers for Poverty Bay:

1900: E. R. Ludbrook, 94. 1901: Ludbrook, 73 and 67. 1912: L. McMahon, 122 n.o. 1914: McMahon, 82 n.o. 1928: J. Jennings, 78 n.o.; L. Thomson, 73. 1930: C. R. Fraser, 112 n.o. 1936: Fraser, 73. 1940: M. A. O'Brien, 75 and 60. 1941: O'Brien, 172; Fraser, 78.

Bowling—1901: Hussey, 4 for 13. 1902: A. M. Beale, 3 for 34 and 6 for 11; Crawford, 7 for 43 and 4 for 29. 1912: McMahon, 4 for 20. 1913: McMahon, 5 for 53. 1914: F. Kahlenberg, 5 for 29 and 6 for 33. 1928: J. Schollum, 6 for 25. 1936: G. J. Robertson, 6 for 18 and 4 for 32. 1940: L. Thomson, 3 for 9. 1941: P. Stewart, 4 for 20. 1944: D. Jones, 3 for 14 and 3 for 24.

Matches in which Poverty Bay has competed for the Hawke Cup have resulted as under:

1914: v. Wanganui, lost by 201 runs. 1915: v. Wanganui, lost by 6 wickets. 1919: v. Wanganui, won by 3 wickets. 1920: v. Wanganui, won by 7 wickets; v. Wairarapa, won by an innings and 38 runs; v. Manawatu, won by 8 wickets. 1921: v. Wanganui, won by 2 wickets; v. Wairarapa, lost by 2 wickets. 1923: v. Wanganui, lost by 9 wickets. 1926: v. Wanganui, lost by 3 wickets. 1927: v. Taianaki, lost by 7 wickets. 1928: v. Wanganui, lost by 89 runs. 1930: v. Manawatu, lost by 156 runs. 1933: v. South Auckland, lost by 127 runs. 1934: v. Taranaki, lost on first innings. 1935: v. Manawatu, abandoned. 1936: v. Manawatu, lost by 7 wickets. 1948: v. Waikato (elimination round), lost by 4 wickets. 1949: v. Hutt Valley, lost by 93 runs.

Highest Poverty Bay scorers:

1915: A. C. Cooke, 79; M. Guthrie, 72; L. McMahon, 63; J. Moore, 52. 1919: D. Miller, 76 n.o. 1920: D. Miller, 62. 1921: W. T. Drake, 63; W. A. Blair, 60 n.o. 1926; J. Schollum, 55. 1028: G. J. Robertson, 68; J. Schollum, 62 and 54; H. F. Forster, 56. 1932: S. Ward, 74. 1934: W. N. Carson, 119; S. Reeves, 71. 1935: C. R. Fraser, 61. 1948: G. Rabone, 104 and 52.

Noteworthy Bowling Performances—1914: McMahon, 8 for 79; Cattanach, 5 for 20. 1920: W. J. Schollum, 5 for 32 and 6 for 23, and 5 for 41 and 3 for 37; D. McLachlan, 5 for 31 and 6 for 61. 1921: W. J. Schollum, 8 for 39; McMahon, 6 for 61. 1923: F. Kahlenberg, 6 for 69. 1926: H. Ellis, 6 for 57. 1927: F. Bennett, 6 for 50. 1928: Bennett, 6 for 37.

Visits to Gisborne by overseas teams:

1914: Sims's Australian XI, 461; Poverty Bay, 155 (McMahon 87 n.o.) and 43 for 5 wickets. McMahon was selected for New Zealand for the second test match.

1925: Mayne's Victorian XI, 505 for 6 wickets; Poverty Bay-Waiapu, 187 (A. C. Cooke 56 and H. F. Forster 30).

1928: Richardson's Australian XI, 120 for 1 wicket; Poverty Bay, 91.

1936: Holmes's M.C.C. XI, 206 for 5 (declared) and 158 for 9 (declared); Poverty Bay, 105 and 67.

1948: Fiji, 271 for 8 (declared) and 70 for 4 wickets; Poverty Bay, 259 (G. O. Rabone, who went to England with the New Zealand team in 1949, 107) and 74 for 4 (declared). In the last 18 minutes the visitors made 49 runs, but had required to make 52 to win.

In 1921, W. T. Drake, W. Blair and W. J. Schollum played for Minor Associations against Ransford's Australian XI; in 1923, W. Blair, L. McMahon, H. F. Forster and H. Ellis (the only Australian “rep.” player to take part in match play in Poverty Bay) were members of the East Coast side which met M.C.C., led by A. C. MacLaren, at Napier; and, in 1924, S. Reeves and W. Oates were in the East Coast team which played against New South Wales (Macartney, captain) at Napier.