Anna and Nana
When my nana was a little girl, she played all sorts of games like hide 'n' seek, and hopscotch.
She skipped, and she played cricket with her brothers a lot. She had lots of fun, and I bet she played all day long!
My nana is sooooo cool, and I love her very much!
Ava and Grandad
I loved being with my Grandad when I was little. He was such good company.
We would go for walks to visit his friends. After looking at their gardens and often exchanging plants or produce, I would have to behave myself when we sat down to afternoon tea. One lovely old lady called Reidy would often say 'Joy, you must have ants in your pants, the way you wiggle around!' and then let me hop down from the table and go outside again.
When we went walking hand-in-hand, we often chatted. He had a lovely lilt to his voice and he would tell me about the gentle rain and the soft green hills of the old country, Ireland, where he came from.
Apart from our outings, I loved the pikelets that he made, topped with lemon and sugar! Just after I turned 10, he remarried and moved to Devonport. I really missed him.
Christian and Grandad Murray
Did you know that our relative Verdun is still the only person to represent New Zealand at Rugby League AND cricket?
But did you know that he may also be the only one to play both sports at Senior Club Level - on the same day?!!
Having played a full game at Carlaw Park for the North Shore League team, he jumped in a car and raced (not too fast though...) to Eden park, where he batted for the Suburbs New Lynn Senior cricket team.
Phew, busy day!
Clara and Grandad
Stinkwood.
Now that doesn't sound like a very interesing way to start a story, but it evolves and revolves- for the piece of stinkwood was in the form of a top, a spinning top. My top.
My mates at school, all aged about 10 or 11, no girls allowed, brought tops to school, once the marbles season had finished. At morning play time and lunch time, we would storm outside & produce a top from our pockets. A piece of string was wound around the top with infinite care and when all the contestants were ready, the tops were flung down on the concrete. The aim was to see if your top could keep spinning for longer than all the rest.
Now this is where the Stinkwood-bit comes in: My Stinkwood top came from South Africa and was about the same weight as a rock. Can you imagine the advantage this gave me? It was straight out of the dirty tricks department.
Was my conscience troubled? Not one bit!
Daniel and Grandad Chris
The Cambridge Bumps!
They are an annual rowing event where Cambridge University students row down the river.
But it is too thin for the boats to over-take! So the boats bump into the boats ahead of them. If your boat gets bumped, you are out of the race.
My Grandad competed in the race in around 1960 when he was studying to be an engineer.
Douglas and Nana
When I went to school it was a country school.
I lived on a farm, and our house was a long way from our nearest neighbour, so we made our own games with our siblings. There were 4 of us.
One game we loved was 'Nikau Tobogganing'. We would take one of the big leaves, clean it and make it smooth. We had to get them out of the bush and drag them up to the hill-paddock where we had a smooth area, then line up and...
Ready, Set, GO!
Somedtimes we would get to the bottom, but often we would fall off before. Another game the four of us played was in the bush and we would find supple Jack-vines and swing out as far as we could before dropping to the ground. The person who went the furthest won, of course. We also played marbles at school, which took a lot of skill and concentration, but it paid off when our marble bags were full and our mates' bags were empty!
Edward and Grandad
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Eli and Grandad Maurice
Watching the All Blacks from the discomfort of a barbed wire fence.
The British Lions were in Wellington for a test match against the All Blacks. Fans made their way by car, foot and tram to Athletes Park, the home of NZ rugby. A crowd of 40,000 was expected. My mate and I decided to try our luck, so we were up early to, clamber on a tram, crammed tight with rugby-goers. The noise was bedlam!
We made our way into the queue of thousands, but come noon we were told that the park was FULL! Disappointed, but not to be deterred, we set off on foot to the southern end, walked through a house property, climbed over their back fence, clambered up a hill to a large wooden fence. All we needed to do was climb up and sit on top.
Alas, all along the top were 3 strands of barbed- wire. But we had bought cushions with us! We draped them over, jumped on top and watched the match.
It was uncomfortable, but free!
Ella and Grandad Peter
Untill I was 13 years old, I grew up at Georgetown in the Waitaki Valley, about 30km inland from Oamaru. I attended Awamoko School which was about three km away.
There were about 25 pupils on the school roll- and believe it or not- I was in a a class by myself from Primer 4 untill standard 6. So, here are some memories…
We played cricket and rugby with boys and girls. We also played Bullrush, which was a bit rough and tumble!
My favourite memories are of playing rugby against some of the schools in the area and taking part in the annual 7-a-side tournament in Oamaru. One time we combined with Papakaio to get 15 a side. We went up the Waitaki Valley to take on Duntroon- a school with about 200 pupils- and we won 3-Nil! I was playing halfback and I ducked around the blindside and scored a try.
My, I was proud and our team was delighted!
Emily and Grandad Niel
Living rurally in remote West Auckland in the mid 1950s, we had to find ways to keep fit over the stormy winter months. Rugby was our way of keeping together.
With no formal playing fields, we had to be resourceful by using Hortons sheep farm. With only the decent flat paddock to play social rugby on. We built goalposts out of tall saplings and didn’t bother marking the field, giving the ref a tough job.
We had to hope the sheep hadn’t been on that paddock in the last few days - otherwise we didn’t smell very good at the end of the game. If the sheep were in the paddock it was up to the spectators to shoot them off the pitch. The only clubhouse was our cars and there was no after match functions as I had to go home to milk our cows.
I had a lot of fun and it involved all our families, either playing or supporting us
Geri and Grandad John
1935, the great depression. Everyone was losing their jobs.
My dad put my brothers and I to work, building a tennis court, along with the men from our soft drink factory. This proved to be a huge task.
The family played every Sunday together and we would invite neighbours and friends and all have tea. It was a memorable time, and it was here that I learnt to play tennis.
Rackets were made of wood and regularly broke. They were very bulky and came with a wooden cover with screws.
Harrison and Grandad Charlie
My grandad Charlie played rugby with Murray Helberg. He also scored a century in cricket on the same day as his engagement to granny.
Instead of congratulating him and granny on their engagement, everyone was congratulating him on his century!
Grandad loves sport and was mates with Murray Helberg through school.
Jackson and Grandad-'n'-Granny
My grandfather was a very good cricketer.
He played for Auckland for several years. He was often in the newspaper on Monday mornings for getting a century, or stumping people out as a wicket-keeper.
My granny was a nurse.
One day she was nursing the patients at Greenlane hospital. The men were all out of bed watching a cricket match in Cornwall Park. 'Look nurse!' they said, 'that bloke batting is on 96 -will he get 100?' She looked out and said, 'That’s my fiancé batting.' They did not believe her.
Then he hit a four!
A big cheer went around the ward. She pulled her engagement ring out of her pocket, where it was safely pinned, and so they gave her another cheer!
Jeromiah and Grandma Ann
My dad's mum Ann, was very athlete when she was young.
When she was 15, she made it into the West England Championships for long jump. She came second, and the person who came first got the gold medal at the Olympics six years later.
Jessie and Grandad
My grandad did lots of cycle racing when he was a late teenager, and in his 20s, so that would’ve been from the 1940s to 1950s.
One race he really remembers was when he was riding in a group of cyclists called the Peloton.
He was fit and fast, and had trained to race hard to the finish. The end was in sight, he just had to push through, cycle harder and race to the finish. He was in line to get in the first three and a podium place.
He did it! And won a chance to wear the blue and red jersey to represent England as a cyclist!
Go grandad!
Liam and Gran Jac
When we were old enough to have bicycles, my sister Jill and our friends Ngaire, Wendy, Tony and John, would ride from our home to the ocean.
At Point Howard there was an exciting wharf where the large ships came in. They were attached to huge pipe lines, where the fuels they carried could be pumped into waiting trucks for delivery. Our favourite ࢢpasme was to climb around the wire fence (which was probably put there to stop such a thing) and balance along the huge pipes till we got to the end of the wharf.
There was a platform that we could lie down on and watch the kingfish swimming beneath us. We even took some hand made string lines to try and catch one. I remember one being hooked, only to get away. Looking back, that was probably best!
We could spend hours there, although we always got home before our parents started to worry. It wasn’t until I was an adult and my mother was in her 80s that she learned exactly what it was that we were doing on our glorious sunny Sunday afternoons.
Lila and Grandpa
I used to play cricket in the front field in the summer, most often when the sheep and cows weren’t in the field. However the grass grew long and we had a blunt mower, so to cut the grass for the pitch we would use shears or a scythe. We had to clear the cowpats or the sheep poo from the pitch, as the ball would get rather dirty and smelly and was a bit slippery when you bowled.
We used bats given to us and when somedtimes the bats broke, we would try and find a block of wood with a triangular bottom which could substitute for the bat.
We played all day and into the night but it was difficult to see the ball in the dark. The wicket was an old oil drum which made a hollow 'booing' noise when the ball hit the can. This didn’t often happen, as lumps on the pitch would misdirect the ball, often well away from the batsmen. Usually there were only two or three of us playing, so fielding was very tiring too. We had no cricket pads or other protection, so we suffered many bruises when struck by a ball.
Nicholas and Grandma Gayleen
One of my favourite games was pegboard - same rules as softball, only it is played using a cricket wicket with a piece of rubber tube over the end. A tennis ball was balanced on the top, so you didn’t have a pitcher.
One of the other games I played was outdoor basketball, before netball was played. We had nine in a team and the court was divided into three equal sections. The rules were much the same as they are today.
We also played knuckle bones. Originally the knuckle bones came from sheep, but we had metal ones. There was a huge craze when we first started and lots of competitions were held.
Much the same as the hulahoop craze!
Oliver and Grandma Treas
My name is Treas and I come from Ireland. When I was a little girl we used to play hopscotch all the time.
We used to love playing it because you could play it in the street, and better still it could be played on your own or with your friends. All you need to play is a piece of chalk and a stone.
You mark out a matrix numbered 1 to 10, and then try and throw a stone into each number. You then have to hop on one spot to collect your stone, but moving only by hopping on one foot.
It required great throwing skills and balancing skills on one leg to make sure that you won!
Ollie and Grandma Yvonne
There was no TV back in our days so we had to get a bit creative to have fun. We spent a lot of time outdoors playing games with our neighbours, games that we made up.
We had a steep hill at the back of the house, so everyone loved coming over. Sugar used to come in these big, burlap bags, so we would take some old sugar bags and jump inside them and have races down the hill.
It snowed a lot in Dunedin too, so in the winter we would use the tin trays that my mother did the dishes on.
It was so much fun!!!!!
Scotty and Grandad
Grandad played with his father, grandfather and uncle a game called cribbage or 'crib'.
There’s a wooden board and it’s a two player game. You put little pegs in the holes and the aim of the game is to be the first person to get all around the board.
It was a good game for thinking!
Sophia and Grandad Bruce
It was a dusty morning as my Pop and his team headed off for Auckland for the under 12 soccer tournament from Taranaki.
By train they travelled all the way up here to Auckland. That night there was a huge storm which made the grounds by the museum, sodden. This meant they had to head for the Rosebank Road fields all the way from where they were staying in East Auckland, to Avondale, by tram. They had two games per day which meant that they had to get up early for five days to get there in time for the first match.
On the third day, Taranaki versed Auckland. Taranaki got smashed and unfortunately did not win the tournament. Pop wore a bumblebee costume. Well, not really they just had yellow and black stripes on their shirts.
He really enjoyed it, even though he did not win.
Sophie and Nana
I stood on the homebase and eyed the pitch.
The pitcher prepared to throw.
The ball came hurling towards me and I swung the bat. They connected with such force that there was a loud CRACK!
The ball sailed away and I couldn’t believe how far it went. I was able to run around all of the bases really easily.
My team cheered and I was grinning from ear to ear!
Stan and Grandad
When I was in my late 30s and early 40s I played table tennis for my work in the Thames Valley (London) League.
We worked our way up to the top leagues and when I retired I still played table tennis for a local team in Hastings. I won a few cups and a trophy for 'Player of the Year'.
I made many friends and had lots of fun.
I hear that you are an excellent footballer, Stan, and although I would have liked to have stayed in my school football team, I just wasn’t good enough!
I hope you make friends and have lots of fun like I did with table tennis
Tara and Grandad Harold
When I was a boy at school I played cricket and we had running races around the school grounds.
Our weekly session had a run aroun the school. As we ran past the classrooms, we used to stop and look through the windows at the other children. This meant that they were not paying attention and the teacher used to knock the window and tell us to run on.
I played cricket every Wednesday in the summer. Wednesdays were Sports Day and we had a match playing against another class. When I bowled, I used my left hand and when I was batting, I used my right hand. We also played rugby but I was never very good at it, as a lot of the boys were much bigger than me and I used to get pushed around.
I used to ride every day to school, my favourite. Sometimes I attached a piece of cardboard to my bike so that it rattled on the spokes like a motorbike while I rode. I thought that this was great fun as I wanted to be a racing driver, but all I had was my bike.
Vincent and Grandma Helen
My grandma Helen went to school in China.
Both boys and girls played basketball and table tennis. She also did athletics; running and jumping but not throwing.
My grandma lived in a big city of 1.5 million people called Taisun which she says was where volleyball was invented. It was a very popular sport, of course, and my grandma played it with all her friends.
But her favourite sport was still basketball!
Will and Grandma Lynn
Most of the other children liked to play games - like rounders, baseball. go-home-stay-home, hopscotch, hide-n-seek and marbles, but my friends and I used to build huts.
Around the borders of the school were large pine trees and we used to gather pine needles and weave them through fallen branches to make the huts.
I spent most of my time making these huts and only allowing the boys entry if they did certain things for us - like bringing us fruit or sweets!
Devonport Primary School
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