Rugby club all steamed up over theft

L-R: Walter beckett, custodian, Daphne Boden, committee member, Clive Rugby Club, Clive, showing the side of the building where thieves stole part of their water-heating system, meaning cold showers f

The Clive Rugby and Sports Club has had to look at transferring two games because the theft of the gas heating system's califonts, which could mean there will be no hot water for the showers after the Saturday afternoon football.

The three boxes, apparently a regular target for thieves looking for copper piping to sell to scrap merchants, were missing when volunteer club maintenance man Walter Beckett arrived to spend a day around the club's Farndon Park headquarters yesterday.

At least one other similar theft has taken place in the Napier-Hastings area in recent weeks, but this has thrown some focus on to calls for Clive to get-back its sole-charge policeman.

Resident, club supporter and plumber and gasfitter Jim Stevenson, who arranged the new system, and says it could cost about $7000 to replace the stolen fittings and get the hot water going again, believes that if former long-term officer Alan Daly was still on the scene the theft either would not have happened, or it would have been quickly resolved.

"He was on to everything," Mr Stevenson said of Mr Daly, who retired from the police earlier this year without being replaced.

The califonts were high-up on the exterior of the clubroom wall but thieves appeared to have moved a frame into place to reach them.

Club secretary Myles Girvan confirmed the showers will be without hot water until the system is repaired.

That has to take place almost regardless of the cost, which depends on insurance.

"But how do you keep it secure?" he said. "That's something we've got to look at."

While there are options of using a showers at other facilities near the park, they are not particularly suitable.

Yesterday, Mr Girvan advised the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union of the possibility that it may want to transfer the two games on Saturday afternoon - a women's Marsh Cup fixture between Clive and Waipukurau club Central, and a Nash Cup premier men's match between Clive and Napier Pirate.

Mr Stevenson was left shaking his head in astonishment, saying: "The people who do these things ... ? That's the worst part of it all, stealing from sports clubs, youth clubs and schools. The sports clubs are under terrific strain, trying to provide opportunities for our young people."