For its part in helping to preserve the general sanity and youth-fulness of mind of a large body of men placed in an unpleasant climate far from civilisation, and with practically no other method of breaking away even for a few hours from the Army, sport must rank high in any account of the doings of the 29th Battalion. Those in command were quick to realise the necessity for recreation and the unit lost no time in Fiji in laying the foundations of its outstanding sporting record.

The only two requirements for games of any sort were a ground, no matter how rough, and a willing opponent. Weather, expressed in terms of wet or heat, meant little. Rugby, for instance, was played when even the native population preferred to lie in the deepest shade. As a result the sporting seasons got well mixed up, but it was a rare enough day when the battalion had to call upon the weather as an excuse for a defeat.

At the very beginning practically the only opponents—the 30th Battalion—were on the other side of Fiji and sport was largely confined to boxing and swimming, with cricket, rugby, hockey and soccer only slowly coming into their own. The expansion of the force in Fiji after Pearl Harbour gave these activities a new impetus, delayed to some extent, of course, until the immediate threat of Japanese attack had passed. In the flood of sporting fixtures that was then borne in the 29th effectively rode the crest of the wave.

There was not the same need for sport when the unit returned to New Zealand in 1942, but New Caledonia proved even more barren than Fiji in ways of spending the idle hour. Sport had a boom in spite of the lack of suitable fields, and rugby went through a seven page 77months season of almost unbroken success. Soccer and hockey fared the same way, and baseball, swimming, boxing and the odd game of tenniquoits filled in any more time the army was disposed to spare.

As might be expected, the sporting scene was very quiet in the Solomons, being confined almost entirely to swimming carnivals. On the land there was room for nothing bigger than a volleyball court, and the fact that a few games of rugby were played on bare, stony ground was more a sample of foolhardiness than real keenness.

Only when the unit returned to New Caledonia did sport reach saturation point. The grounds at base training depot at Bourail were ideal and the powers-that-be decided that the men should be allowed to have a good time while awaiting leave in New Zealand. Although stripped by manpower boards of some of its best players, the battalion still stood at the top of every sport that was played. Even the officers at hockey did not let the unit down. At the end there were a couple of losses, as there must be when teams get broken up, but the 29th held its head high even at the last.