HAGLEY CRICKET GROUNDS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24799, 13 February 1946, Page 9

HAGLEY CRICKET GROUNDS

PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE BUILDINGS

DEVELOPMENTS TRACED BY MR T. W. REESE

Support to raise funds for the improvement of pavilions and other buildings at the Hagley Park cricket grounds is being sought by the Hagley Park Ground Committee, in conjunction with the Canterbury Cricket Association. The estimated cost of all the work proposed is about £lOOO, and the Cricket Association has advanced £250 on loan to enable the most urgent work to be started at once.

* An all-day festival match has been arranged for March 2, when Hagley Park clubs will play a teart)'from other clubs on the No. 1 ground. All the Canterbury representatives who will play against the Australian team the following week will take part. This match will be part of the committee’s effort to raise the building funds.' A history of the development of Hagley Park has been compiled for the committee by Mr T. W. Reese, who points out that the first attempt to make a real cricket ground there was in the early sixties, when Mr Dilloway, of the Riccarton Hotel, laid down some turf 60 by 40 yards facing the hotel. For two or three years the Canterbury Club played on this ground. When the Englishmen arrived to play Canterbury in February, 1864, they were surprised to find a fenced-in cricket ground and pavilion there. This ground was abandoned a year or so later, however, and in readiness for the opening of the oval, the pavilion was shifted and turf lifted and removed to the new ground. Site For New Ground There was a difference of opinion between the Albion and Christchurch Clubs as to the actual site for the new ground. Christchurch favoured the present site, and after it was chosen Albion decided to remain on Latimer square. The turf of the Canterbury Club was put down in the centre of the area and English grasses were sown in the rest of the 13 acres. The club’s pavilion was then moved to its present site and an artesian well was to supply all the water necessary. After the ground had been fenced was ready for play in November. 1866. The Canterbury Club, having ceased operations at the hotel corner site, joined forces with the Christchurch Club to form the United Canterbury Cricket Club. The work of planting avenues of trees all round the two parks was now proceeding apace and a double row of trees around the oval itself soon gave the ground a more pleasing aspect. A quick fence was also planted so that the ground soon became a proper enclosure. Within a few years two more wells were sunk on the east and west sides, and much later additions to the pavilion were made. Pavilion Still In Use In 1870 the Midland Canterbury Club erected its own pavilion, which to-day is still in use after 75 years as the Riccarton pavilion. • On one occasion the centre of the ground was ploughed up so that better wickets for interprovincial matches could be obtained. Charles Bannerman, the famous Australian batsman, who was in Christchurch about 1900 as a cricket coach, once declared that there was no ground in England which equalled Hagley Park in the beauty of its surroundings. This beauty was greatly , enhanced when the quick fence was replanted a chain nearer Riccarton avenue. This allowed seating accommodation to be placed under the front line of entrances—a real boon to spectators From 1883 to 1895 the Addington Club occupied the south-east corner, leaving behind their hut which had been used principally for storing lx Cir * g , e o a . r „- • The . Boys ' Hi S h School about 1888 transferred to the southi° that part formerly used by Christ s College. The school had a Pavilion erected in 1898, and the site and pavilion are now in the occupation of the Old Boys’ Club. F ‘A tribute must be paid to the groundsmen who have maintained the ground so wonderfully well during the last 80 years, ’ says Mr Reese. “Napier, the original groundsman, was a pastmaster at -hia occupation. ah<f he brought the ovdl to a high pitch of eJ in e u nce ’ m French, his successor, i.- e rem ? m bered as a genial, hardworking and efficient groundsman over a long period. Since those days and under more modern conditions of cut.ng and r° llin S we have seen the SSh, e v e ?- nt n. wor l c done b y Miine . 5™ lth ’ Va g& Templeton, and others. As a ground supervisor, the name of c. K. Clark is pre-eminent. For 15 years he was practically the controller ? j e gr ? und . and in later years his fh.??i. W J ?rk „ was J carried oh hy an en- * ground committee - on «V emembers th at the main ESI 18 82 years old and the other £ LhL s ’®"!’ Jt 18 quite evident that ? be: tter and more up to date building is required,*’ Mr Reese concludes.