Page:Charleston • Irwin Faris • (1941).pdf/167



ARDLY 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.

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