Newspaper Supplement 1981 – Hastings 31st Easter Highland Games

The Daily Telegraph, April 14, 1981   23

HASTINGS 31st EASTER HIGHLAND GAMES

FRIDAY 17th SATURDAY   18th SUNDAY   19th MONDAY   20th APRIL 1981

Games kept alive by small band of enthusiasts

Billed as “The Braemar of Australasia” when they were first presented 31 years ago, the Hastings Highland Games have continued to hold their appeal to spectators and competitors despite changing conditions which have caused many such fixtures to fall by the wayside.

One of these, of course, was the spectacular and originally highly successful Hastings blossom festival which has come and gone, probably as a result of the apathy of Hastings people rather than lack of outside spectator interest.

However, many such fixtures held annually fail from annual repetition and it is always difficult for organisers to inject something new each year to sustain and stimulate public interest.

But with the Highland Games, the dwindling band of enthusiasts continues to keep the games alive as an Easter feature in New Zealand by an imaginative approach to the task and the realisation that familiarity breeds contempt.  So in no way can the games stagnate by tedious repetition.

And this policy has paid dividends… the games continue and are eagerly anticipated by competitors and spectators.

The Hastings Highland Games have continued to grow in scope and activity.  Greater Hastings has been crying out for more volunteers to assist with the increased volume of physical as well as administrative tasks… generally with a conspicuous lack of response.

But it wasn’t always like that.

It all started in early 1950 when a group of Hastings businessmen met informally several times a week to discuss making Hastings a better and brighter place to live.

They were Ed Culver (Daily Telegraph journalist), Guy Baillie, Jock Barlow, Jack Agnew, Jim Jones, Guy Hardenberg, Jack Jones, Max Pledger, Ken Sparks and the main driving force, Harry Poppelwell.

It was, eventually decided each would invite five others to a meeting in the council chambers.  At this meeting, Greater Hastings was born.  Peter Gifford, Hastings Solicitor and former city councillor moved the name “Greater Hastings” be adopted for the organisation and the late Guy Hardenberg, first Hastings public relations officer, came up with the slogan; “Hastings – Fruitbowl of New Zealand”.

There were no initial great ideas as to how Hastings was to be promoted or exactly how the new organisation would operate.

Former Hastings coroner, Bill Shepherd, who had been to Canada during the war and witnessed a blossom festival there, suggested nothing could be more

Turn to next page

Photo caption – GRASS-TRACK cycling – always a highlight of the games.

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24      The Daily Telegraph. Tuesday, April 14, 1981

CONTEST SHOULD BE A HEAP OF FUN

Something really new to the Hastings Highland Games is to be introduced at this year’s event – a New Zealand championship fixture, haggis hurling.

It is being presented as a new attraction by the New Zealand Haggis Hurling Association which, incidentally is the Heretaunga Round Table.

The New Zealand Haggis Hurling Association is recognised by the world association in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has elected two officers; President Keith Harris, of Havelock North (who holds a seat on the world governing body) and hagrarian John Cameron Pryce, known as hagrarian “Cameron”.

Formation of the association came when last year the Heretaunga table read of a haggis hurling event in Britain (organised by Round Table) and made inquiries.

New Zealand president, Keith Harris, says Heretaunga Round Table’s reason for setting up the NZ body was two-fold – to raise money for community services in a fun way and to offer something new to the Highland Games.

Haggis hurling, he says, is being actively promoted throughout Round Table in New Zealand and it is hoped ultimately a full set of area eliminations will be held in centres throughout the country culminating in New Zealand championships with the winners sent to the world finals in Scotland.

For the first NZ championships at the Highland Games, sporting bodies, business houses etc have been invited to sponsor entrants at $20 each with all funds received to go to the Hawke’s Bay Paraplegic Society.

“The Compleat Haggis Hurler” (Robin Dunseath) is the official handbook of the world haggis hurling championships and records that each year there are more than 400 heats in the event held in September.

The book also says the origins of haggis hurling were to be found, it is said, at a small village called Auchnaclory which is now derelict but which stood on the banks of the river Dromach on the Falls of Dromach in Sutherland, Scotland.

Each day, the women of the village would come from their homes to the river and would then hurl their haggis luncheons to their menfolk who had gathered on the other side.

Out of these humble beginnings came the Auchnaclory hurlings – a day when villagers from miles around would gather for a competition to see who could hurl a haggis accurately and for distance.

Gradually people drifted away from Auchnaclory and the area fell into disuse and haggis hurling died out until a group of enthusiasts, seeking something new for the gathering of the clans in Edinburgh in 1977, decided to mount a revival.

And now, only four years later, haggis hurling has hit New Zealand with the first national championships at the Highland Games.

The rules for haggis hurling, according to the book, are reasonably simple.  They are:

A hurling haggis must weigh at least one-and-a-half pounds.  (It took this much to provide a decent lunch for a highlander).

The hurler must peat his hands before hurling.  (This rule comes from the fact peating makes the haggis less slippery and is therefore easier to hurl accurately most important when hurling to a man across a river).

The haggis hooter must sound before hurling. (When ladies of the village arrived at the river they would yell to let the men know they had arrived).  So in modern hurling a hooter is sounded to reproduce the old yell.

Both feet must be on the barrel at the moment of the hurl.  (The ladies used to stand on rocks to get a good height when they hurled.  This is now repeated by making competitors stand on a half barrel).

A word of advice is given by The Compleat Haggis Hurler to organisers.  “You must deep freeze your hurling haggis otherwise it will burst.  Also have some polythene bags and sticky tape handy in case they burst as you than have to scoop one and a half pounds of the material into the bags and hurl them.”

Sounds like a heap of fun!  And certainly well worth watching.

Games still hold appeal

From previous page

appropriate for the “Fruitbowl of New Zealand” than an annual blossom festival.

The first blossom festival was held in September, 1950, with Guy Hardenberg as the organisation’s first secretary-organiser.  The procession was held on a Friday afternoon and evening and was an instant success.  The next year it was staged on a Saturday morning and ended at Nelson Park.  Hastings had established the first of what was to be twin annual spectaculars.

It was just before Christmas, 1950, Mrs. Fred McKenzie of Havelock called on Harry Poppelwell to suggest a gathering of the clans in Hastings because of the large number of Hawke’s Bay people of Scottish descent.

Napier had its shopping week during the August holidays and the mardi gras over the Christmas/New Year period and there was nothing like this in Hastings.  Furthermore, the town was especially quiet at Easter.  So Easter was set for the Highland Games.

Strongly supported by the Scottish community, Greater Hastings organised and presented the first Hastings Highland Games at Nelson Park on Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 1951.  Big crowds braved the wet weather and Greater Hastings quickly recognised the second of the big annual attractions had been established and was a winner.

Photo caption – AT A PRACTISE at Windsor Park recently, a kilted Mr John Pryce is pictured ceremoniously placing the haggis on a half-barrel with the inevitable piper, Allison Ludlow, 15, of Karamu High School, in attendance.  Hurlers of the deep frozen haggis must stand on the barrel with both feet firmly planted at the moment of the hurl.

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The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday April 14, 1981   25

HASTINGS 31st EASTER HIGHLAND GAMES

FRIDAY 17th SATURDAY   18th SUNDAY   19th MONDAY   20th APRIL 1981

Seeking solitude

A LONE PIPER finds peace alongside the river at Windsor Park to practice before having to line up with his competitors before the judges.

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26   The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, April 14, 1981

HASTINGS 31st EASTER HIGHLAND GAMES

FRIDAY 17th SATURDAY   18th SUNDAY   19th MONDAY   20th APRIL 1981

Bigger and better each year

The Easter Hastings Highland Games have continued to grow each year yet the ingredients which gave the games that special Scottish flavour when they were first held in March, 1951, remain – Highland dancing, piping and a drum major’s display.

Certainly, at those first games there was an athletics programme for children – the forerunner of today’s star-studded athletics series – a trolley derby and a grand ribbon parade by the Hawke’s Bay Kennel Association.

The souvenir programmes, which cost a shilling, make interesting reading.  Those were the days when the Rio Grand Restaurant in Heretaunga Street advertised in the programme “delicious dishes delightfully dispensed by dainty damsels” and 12-year old David Chote (who still competes in wheel events at the games) was listed as a competitor in the trolley derby run in conjunction with the games.

In the first year the games officials listed were: – Patron, the Mayor, Mr R. D. Brown; president, Mr. H. B. Poppelwell; committee, Messrs C. E. H. Pledger, J. K. Agnew, H. C. Barlow, J. K. Sparks, J. W. Jones, G. R. Baillie, J. J. Morgan, J. Whiting (Greater Hastings), R. K. Campbell, H. Brown, Angus Wattie (Piping and Dancing Association): R. M. Fleming, M. McMillan (Hastings District Scots Society); J. Seton, D. Campbell, J. Colbourne (Hastings Scots Pipe Band); J. Drummond (Hawke’s Bay Kennel Club), G. Hardenberg (organising secretary), Ed. Culver (publicity officer).

Chance to have a go

Like to have a go at tossing the sheaf or tossing the caber?

Well, it’s over to you.  Because at the Hastings Highland Games on Saturday and Monday, spectators will be invited to have a go at these two events with no formal entry and no entry fee.

But they won’t let you have a go at throwing the hammer.  They did at the first games 31 years ago and it was a miracle somebody wasn’t killed as the completely inexperienced spectator throwers let the heavy iron ball and chain go in any direction, spectators in the way or not.

So now the inexperienced have to stick to the sheaf or the caber.

But if you prefer to watch something a little more basic, there will be powerlifting competitions organised by Gary Marshall from the Wellington Weightlifting Association, assisted by the Levin Weightlifting Club.  And weightlifters will be coming to the games from Nelson.

World champion powerlifter Precious McKenzie – a great favourite with the crowd – will give a demonstration at 2.30pm on Saturday and again in the centre arena on Sunday afternoon.

Photo caption – Champion weightlifter Precious McKenzie signs autographs at last year’s Highland Games.  McKenzie will be back this year and will give demonstrations at 2.30pm on Saturday and again in the centre area on Sunday afternoon.

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