Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Cricket: Bumpy fields delay start to season

By Cameron Leslie
Northern Advocate·
5 Oct, 2014 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Kensington Park was pretty quiet on Saturday after the first weekend of cricket was cancelled for player safety. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Kensington Park was pretty quiet on Saturday after the first weekend of cricket was cancelled for player safety. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Cricket in Northland got off to a false start as player safety took priority with all games cancelled before they got kitted up.

This weekend was supposed to signal the early start of the cricket season, kicking off with the Dargaville Shield and the Greg Guy Shield, as the Northland Cricket Association looked to prepare their flagship team ahead of their opening match on November 1.

Northland Cricket competitions manager Neal Parlane said the decision, made late on Friday afternoon, was a common sense one.

"With rugby and soccer and the other winter codes rolling on a bit longer this year, Kensington Park and others haven't been renovated as good as they should," he told the Advocate, adding that Maungakaramea's ground was soft underfoot as well.

"We had a look on Friday afternoon and the ground was a bit bumpy, we didn't want anyone getting injured - especially any Northland players.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We decided to use a bit of common sense and said 'let's just can it and ease into it next week'."

While disappointed to not get the season under way as planned, Parlane felt it was not worth pushing on just for the sake of it.

"It's just not worth it [forcing the games to go ahead]. It turned out the day [on Saturday] wasn't a flash one for playing cricket anyway. We've got another 25 weeks of cricket so let's not play because we have to. We'll just ease into it next week."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The much anticipated return of the Dargaville and Greg Guy Shields to the cricketing calendar for the first time in many yearsmeant the first weekend of the season was met with some excitement.

Northland Cricket Association general manager Warren Marr was glad to see the return of the sub-union competitions, saying it should build a more competitive start to the year and in turn help preparations for the Northland men's team.

"The start of last season was pretty uninspiring, to be fair, in terms of the level of cricket on display, with university students away it makes it tough.

"Our Northland men have a huge season with trying to win the Hawke Cup, which is our main focus, and on November 1 and 2 they have a hard game against Bay of Plenty down there and they need some good cricket before then."

Discover more

Game on at Oval in shield opener

22 Oct 04:00 PM

Cricket: Shield games resuming

23 Oct 04:35 PM

Marr added that while preparing the flagship team - the Northland men - was a contributing reason for the sub-union competition, the main goal was to have a default free competition.

This year's Dargaville Shield will be a 50-over competition and would be played for by four teams.

Facing off in the competition would be Mid Western, Rodney, Whangarei North and Whangarei South.

Parlane remembers playing for the Dargaville Shield years ago, saying it was the premier competition in Northland cricket - a tag he wants to see return.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Sport

Māori All Blacks beaten by Scotland

05 Jul 05:39 AM
Northern Advocate

'Incredible': Northland retirees become world champs in new sport

27 Jun 07:00 PM
Sport

NZ shearers prepare for Scotland's toughest sheep

25 Jun 10:36 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Māori All Blacks beaten by Scotland

Māori All Blacks beaten by Scotland

05 Jul 05:39 AM

Visitors bounce back after a flying start from the hosts in Whangārei.

'Incredible': Northland retirees become world champs in new sport

'Incredible': Northland retirees become world champs in new sport

27 Jun 07:00 PM
NZ shearers prepare for Scotland's toughest sheep

NZ shearers prepare for Scotland's toughest sheep

25 Jun 10:36 PM
How Paralympic aspirations helped Eligh Fountain overcome mental battles - On The Up

How Paralympic aspirations helped Eligh Fountain overcome mental battles - On The Up

25 Jun 06:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP