Cricket Belt Buckle, c.1860s (?)
Cricket, the 'gentleman's game,' was all the rage in 19th century England, and colonial settlers brought it to New Zealand where it became the first organized sport played regularly in Aotearoa. The earliest recorded game was organised by Anglican missionary Henry Williams in 1832. Due to being introduced to colonies by British settlers, cricket, like rugby, is a game unique to the British Commonwealth. From the 1830s, English colonists in New Zealand were placing orders for cricket equipment to be sent from England, showing that it was already a popular sport. An influx of troops in the 1860s due to the Taranaki and Waikato wars gave cricket further momentum. A 19th century Wellington match can be seen below. Christchurch's first match was held on its first anniversary as a province
at Hagley Park on 16 December 1851. The first interprovincial match in the South Island was in 1864, played by Otago, Southland, Canterbury, and George Parr's All-England Eleven, the first team from overseas to visit New Zealand (Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966). Canterbury was also one of the original provinces to compete for the Plunket Shield, established in 1906 by New Zealand's governor, Lord Plunket. Women's cricket was also introduced in the 19th century, with the first recorded match in Nelson in 1886, though it was not fully established until the 1920s.
Cricket belts were fashionable in the 1850s and 1860s (Meilak 2018). In the nineteenth century belts were necessary as self supporting trousers that could stay up on their own were not invented yet. See below image of the Wellington College Cricket Team for examples of cricket belts, According to the National Museum of Australia “belt buckle designs usually reflected the player’s personal taste”. Often their designs were cricket related, like the one on this particular buckle. This cricket belt buckle was unearthed at a dig at an Akaroa site, where Henry Green Watkins (b. 1829), second mayor of Akaroa, and his wife Elizabeth Maria Watkins (b. 1837) lived from 1871. It is made of brass with a gold leaf coating and was moulded to show a
lion next to a woman wearing a tunic and holding a cricket bat. A buckle frame (above) that was likely part of the belt was also present.
This belt buckle gives an insight into the recreational activities of New Zealanders before the advent of television and other modern entertainment. Henry and Elizabeth had at least 11 children —10 who survived them according to Elizabeth's obituary — so perhaps backyard cricket was a game suited to entertaining their many children. Cricket remains one of New Zealand's most popular sports, and this buckle attests to its long history in our country.
Sources:
Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LI, Issue 5218, 21 September 1926, Page 6 (Supplement).
Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume XXIII, Issue 1865, 20 July 1894, Page 2.
'Beginnings.' From An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/cricket-mens.
Meilak, B. The Australian Detectorist Recovered Cricket Buckles Book. Published online, 2018. Available at : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwENP4lMSuvCM2tFQ0RHVWJ1N1U/view.
Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 'Why cricket?' Last modified 24 November 2016. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/cricket-in-nz/why-cricket.
National Museum of Australia. "Monty Faithfuls' cricket belt." Accessed 24 September, 2021. https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/features/springfield-faithfull/highlights/cricket-belt
Image credits:
Cricket match, at unknown location, said to be Wellington College. Harding, William James, 1826-1899: Negatives of Wanganui district. Ref: 1/4-017250-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22753174
J P Firth and the Wellington College cricket team. Original photographic prints and postcards from file print collection, Box 6. Ref: PAColl-5932-32. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22654171