Sideline Sid - Sports blogger Sideline Sid is a local sport fanatic. Not only is he a classic rugby bloke but he has views, opinions and knowledge on all sports played in the Bay of Plenty.

A morning spin in the car last Saturday had Sideline Sid diving for his sports bible when he got home.
Scanning the Weekend Sun the previous day I noticed that the national radio controlled (miniature) yachting championships were part of the family day at The Lakes housing estate.

Being a curious sort, we decided to go and have a look at the action on the lake. What a fantastic day it was for the hundreds of families that took part in the festivities of the family day.
Bouncy castles, the biggest waterslide in the country, along with pony rides and other activities had the youngsters in raptures and the best part was that all the rides and slides were free.
While the kids moved past the yachting relatively quickly in search of the fun over the bridge, many of the older adults stopped to view the action on the lake.
The participants of the metre long yachts certainly took the racing very seriously. It was like watching the Americas Cup in miniature, with plenty of flat out racing downwind and tacking into a fierce breeze.
While the participants were enthusiastic to an extreme, the reality is, that form of yachting is a little known activity. Is it a sport or a recreation? My pocket dictionary defines sport as athletic activity, while recreation is described as a pastime or relaxation.
On the way home my thoughts turned to other sports (or recreations) that are little heard of in today's world. At home I quickly reached for my sporting bible – The Sporting Records of New Zealand by Sydney Todd produced in 1976 after the author's lifetime of research.
A sport that was big in New Zealand many decades ago was cash cycling, which in today's environment would be called professional cycling. Cash cycling, which had its heyday in the 1930s and ‘40s was controlled by the New Zealand Athletic, Cycling and Axemens Union.
I have a mate in his 80s, who is extremely proud of his certificate of amateur status that allowed him to return to amateur boxing, after competing in the cash cycling ranks.
Another little known sport today is coursing. The Waterloo Cup, which is still one of the major prizes in greyhound racing, dates back to 1878 when contested at a coursing meeting. Coursing was greyhound racing using live hares, which was finally banned by Parliament in 1948.
Allied with coursing was whippet racing. Whippets, which are really miniature greyhounds, were bred in England as coursing dogs, suitable for hunting in areas too confined for greyhounds. Whippets were introduced to New Zealand in 1924, but over the years the sport died out.
Other sports in the 1976 record book, that have failed the test of time, or are little heard of today, include ballooning, bow hunting, billiards, caving, polo crosse, wrist wrestling and pigeon racing.

Seeya at the Game.