$10,000 grant will see field get floodlights

Training floodlights will be installed on the second field at Lindvart Park thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board.

Rugby and league teams at a Kaikohe park will no longer have to share a field or use car headlights to train.

Kaikohe Rugby and Sports Club has received a $10,000 grant from the Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board to install training floodlights on the second field at Lindvart Park.

The growing club has over 200 people who train each week at the park, which also now hosts rugby league.

Club president Cheryl Smith said the lights will be a huge relief for the club.

Currently the one field with lights has to be shared by two teams at a time and is used every night of the week. Mrs Smith said the second field is sometimes lit by car lights in order to accommodate the number of teams that need to practise at the club.

"We have had to turn a lot of teams away."

The lights will be installed in about seven weeks according to Mrs Smith who admits the wait is a bit long when the season is already under way.

"If we had known it would take so long we would have applied earlier."

A number of improvements have been made to the park over recent years, including the fixing of the grandstand ready for this rugby season.

"The grandstand is ready to go which is really good. As a sports club we are getting there slowly."

Mrs Smith hopes in the future the club will be able to upgrade the lights at the park to playing quality so they can start hosting games.