Waitahora Valley cricket club looking for opinions on new grounds

Waitahora Cricket stalwarts at their former pavilion. (From left): Eion Poole, Stuart Brown, Quentin Hooper-Smith, Kevin White, and Bryce and Darcy Hooper-Smith. Photo / Dave Murdoch

Would Waitahora Valley residents want a new cricket ground?

Members of the current Waitahora Cricket Club are surveying locals to gauge interest in a new cricket ground in the valley.

The cricketers are keen to resurrect the club post-Covid, but the problem is the old venue and its pavilion are no longer available, with the landowner wanting to farm the land.

So now, club members are trying to establish whether the community is interested in creating a new field.

Two sites have been earmarked - one near the golf club and one near the old school. Both would require some work and costs, so the club is holding a barbecue at the old ground pavilion on November 18 from 2pm onwards to find out if there is enough interest to progress.

The club is keen to have the potential ground used by any group from the valley, and even outer areas like Weber, Te Uri, Motea, Makuri and Dannevirke.

Waitahora Cricket Club has had its ups and downs ever since it began back in the 1950s, starting with regular Sunday matches against invitation teams and entering the Dannevirke competition in the 1961/62 season, gaining success in the 1960s and alternately being the runner-up and winner through to the 1970s.

Numbers waned, but the club still had a win in the 1986/87 season, and the club was donated a pavilion by the Hooper-Smiths in 1989. By then, the field, dubbed Holyoake Park, had an all-weather pitch and even a scoreboard.

The last competition Waitahora Cricket team, from the 1995/96 period.

But numbers continued to fall and the club played its last season in the Dannevirke competition in the 1995/96 season.

Waitahora Cricket regenerated in the 2018/19 season when a new team, complete with new uniforms, played friendly games against similar sides scattered as far as Waipukurau. Covid put an end to it once again in 2020.

Club members are keen to judge support, and would love to see anyone interested in using a new facility or wanting to just say farewell to the old ground and share some memories contact them or come along to the barbeque on November 18. Families welcome.

Contact Eion Poole on 06 374 2819, or e-mail him at eionpoole@in2net.co.nz.