January 1, 1900 only · Owner review · v0.10.89

The January 1 choices.

Explicit skips are recorded. The eight January 1 trotting races are now selected for preparation; the other research requests and prototype candidates retain their decisions.

Universal date stays January 10.

This review does not reset completed races or matches. Horse-racing weekend planning, AGC, soccer and other dates retain their existing decisions.

Sport	Decision	What this means
Football	Skip both games	Lawton Cadets–Savannah High School and Stanford–Multnomah: insufficient verified inputs for the intended replay.
Hockey	Skip January 1 hockey	East Meadowbrook No. 2–No. 1 is now skipped; Yale–Brooklyn Crescents remains skipped. This decision does not apply to XHL or other dates.
Shooting	Skip	Cape Adare rifle competition will not be replayed.
Trotting	Selected for preparation — 8 races	Add all eight Canterbury January 1 races to the replay preparation queue. Recommended approach: reuse the Horse Racing Game Desk setup, dice journal and reporting pattern, with a separate ASN trotting rules layer for gait, breaks, period starts and saddle/harness conditions. Fields, ratings and rules still need preparation; no trotting engine has been implemented.
Rugby / Rugby Union	Research requested	Two branches of rugby are listed: Northern Union (the ancestor of rugby league) and rugby union. Old Wesley at Cardiff is union; the eight other January 1 fixtures are Northern Union. They need separate period rules and engine assessments.
Swimming	Deeper dive	Lyttelton swimming in the Graving Dock is documented. The individual race programme, full entrants, distances and period start/stroke rules remain unverified.
Athletics	Explain; decision open	Track and field: the listed Masterton entries are sprints, middle-distance races, hurdles and a high jump; Nelson is still a programme block.
Cycling	Deeper dive	January 1 has six Masterton events, ten Petone events/attempts and one Nelson programme. Different formats need different treatment: yardage handicaps, heats/finals, obstacle race, timed attempt and the rerun championship.
Highland Games	Prototype candidate	Masterton caber toss, heavy hammer and 20-lb stone. Recover period scoring and entrants before creating a practice prototype.
Timbersports	Prototype candidate	Masterton hewing, tree-felling, one-man and two-man sawing. Verify whether each historical event used time, accuracy, judging or handicaps.
Tug of War	Prototype candidate	Masterton team contest is documented, but the opposing team and format remain unidentified. A game can be prototyped; a historical replay still needs those inputs.
Rowing	Existing game; check remaining preparation	Lyttelton and the three selected Picton races are complete. The Picton junior sculls was an unopposed row-over and remains skipped. Waiheke rowing/dinghy events still need a separate prepared set.
Roller Polo	Investigate	Racine Lakesides at Muncie Wachtell Royals is documented for January 1. Ball-and-stick sport on roller skates; recover period rosters and rules.
Cricket	Existing Minden game; prepare missing match	Victoria–South Australia and Wellington–Otago are complete. Tasmania–New South Wales is the newly recovered, unplayed January 1 continuation.

Trotting: added, with a dedicated rules proposal

Add all eight Canterbury January 1 races to the replay preparation queue. Recommended approach: reuse the Horse Racing Game Desk setup, dice journal and reporting pattern, with a separate ASN trotting rules layer for gait, breaks, period starts and saddle/harness conditions. Fields, ratings and rules still need preparation; no trotting engine has been implemented.

The captured published Game Desk 0.6.2 / Race Core 0.2.2 shows card-field entry, manual/random dice, a race journal and race-save downloads. Source-level reuse has not yet been verified.

Reuse the desk pattern	Add trotting rules
Race and field setup	Gait eligibility and stability, breaks and recovery
Manual or random dice with a visible journal	Period handicap starts as explicit start allowances, separate from ability ratings
Running order display	Race distance and stamina
Save/resume and result export workflow	Saddle versus harness setup with the appropriate rider or driver; Period penalties, interference and dead heats

Proposed ratings: Sustained pace, Stamina, Gait reliability, Finishing strength, Rider/driver handling. Proposed categories only. No flat-racing PLAAY card values have been converted and no historical horse ratings have been invented. Historical finishing position is not a substitute for a complete rated field.

Choose the first of these eight races with a fully recovered field and conditions. Test with labelled practice data, then prepare the historical field using documented evidence and explicit estimates.

Remaining research: Full starters and verified spellings; Individual start allowances and race distance; Saddle/harness conditions and eligible gaits; Applicable January 1900 rules for breaks and penalties; Pre-race form for ratings.

This is a development proposal. The eight calendar entries are planned and need preparation; an official trotting engine and historical race sets are not yet ready.

Historical race report · Modern gait-break terminology

Swimming: what the deeper dive found

The January 2 newspaper accounts establish swimming at Lyttelton’s Graving Dock alongside the January 1 regatta. A graving dock is a ship-repair dock; a modern lane pool and modern race programme must not be assumed.

The retained evidence does not yet identify every swimming event, its distance, full field, heats or handicap starts. The article pages currently expose no readable body text and the attempted official PDF routes failed, so those details remain unverified.

Preparation path: recover the actual programme and names; establish stroke and starting rules, course length and any handicaps; then look for an engine or design a small race simulator. A prospective model could separate sustained speed, stamina and start/finish variation, but that is a design proposal—not recovered historical rules.

No swimmers, distances, race times or extra events have been invented. The next concrete deliverable is a sourced event-and-entrant sheet before a canonical race can be prepared.

Cycling: a more promising first race model

January 1 contains six Masterton cycling entries, ten Petone race/attempt entries and a Nelson programme block. These are local track/ground races and special contests, rather than a stage-race tour.

The Petone two-mile Wheel Race final identifies Burton with an 80-yard start, Boyd with 180 yards and Rowe with 150 yards. Those are handicap starting positions. They must be modelled as an initial distance advantage, not disguised as ability ratings. Complete heat/final fields are still needed; the three reported placings are not the whole field.

Keep formats separate: ordinary track handicaps; heats and their final; an obstacle event; a paced, quarter-mile flying-start record attempt; and the club championship. The championship’s first run failed the qualifying time and was rerun. That is one championship with two attempts, not two independent titles.

A prototype can separate baseline pace, stamina, sprint finish, positioning and incident risk, while recording exact dice and handicaps. Period drafting/pacing rules and start procedures need verification before choosing which mechanics apply.

Pilot selection should follow the first fully recovered field and rules, rather than simply replaying a top-three finish. Names already reported are retained; missing riders remain missing.

Rugby: one family, two branches

Rugby union and Northern Union are related codes. The Northern Union broke away in 1895 and developed into rugby league. For this January 1900 work, modern thirteen-player league rules are not an automatic substitute.

Old Wesley at Cardiff is the January 1 union fixture. The official Cardiff season history verifies the visit. The eight January 1 Northern Union offerings are different fixtures in the Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions.

Prepare separate rule checks and engine assessments for union and Northern Union. First recover the match-day teams, period scoring, match length and usable evidence for team/player strengths. A defensible team-level model may be possible even if detailed player statistics are sparse, but its estimates must be explicit.

Scott’s interest is recorded for both branches. It has not silently selected all nine fixtures for canonical play.

Roller polo: what is documented

The Delaware County Historical Society identifies Muncie Wachtell Royals versus Racine Lakesides at Westside Park’s skating rink on January 1, 1900, with an attendance reported around 800. This establishes a specific historical fixture.

Roller polo used roller skates, sticks, a ball and goals. Period accounts and the Spalding roller-polo guide are the relevant rules trail. It is separate from horse polo, ice hockey and roller derby; ownership of Roller Rumble does not establish engine coverage.

Remaining work: obtain the Muncie Morning Star report and the two rosters; verify the applicable rink, lineup and period scoring/time rules; then assess a dedicated or adapted engine. The historical result is evidence, not an ASN replay result.

Custom-game candidates: three different scoring problems

Highland Games: Masterton’s caber, heavy hammer and 20-lb stone need event-specific scoring. Recover the period judging, attempts, weights and fields before adapting modern conventions.

Timbersports: the hewing, tree-felling and sawing contests need their actual judging/time/accuracy conditions. Do not impose one generic fastest-time result across all five events.

Tug-of-war: a strength/technique/endurance practice engine could be explored, but the January 1 record does not yet identify the opposing team or full format. A completed historical replay cannot be claimed without an opponent.

Use a common desk for entering or rolling dice and showing results, while keeping the three sports’ rules separate. These remain prototype candidates; no new game or invented historical field has been published.

Existing games: what is already finished and what needs a set

Rowing uses Swing Swing Together. Lyttelton’s twelve races and all three selected Picton fours races are complete in the retained portal. Picton’s junior sculls was an unopposed row-over and remains skipped. Waiheke’s rowing/dinghy programme still needs its own fields, boat classes, distances and small-field preparation.

Cricket uses Minden Basic. Victoria–South Australia and Wellington–Otago are complete. The newly found Tasmania–New South Wales match needs the actual XIs checked against the owned cards and a documented carry-in/full-match setup. It began December 30, 1899; January 1 and 2 are parts of one match.

An owned engine removes the need to invent an entirely new sport game. It does not automatically supply the historical event’s competitors or prepared settings.

Sources

Counts, selections and completed-result status above come from the retained v0.10.87 portal records. The source register separates historical occurrence from preparation still required.