New Building Planned For Crichton Cobbers’ Club

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 13

New Building Planned For Crichton Cobbers’ Club

Using the bequest made under the will of Sir John McKenzie with a grant from the Internal Affairs Department and help from citizens and organisations. the Crichton Cobbers’ Club will replace its building in Peterborough street with a bigger and more modern one on the same site.

The club, which has done a grand job over many years in providing opportunities for various activities by youth in Christchurch, now needs a bigger building urgently to accommodate those who wish to join. At present the club has 130 junior members 'and 180 senior members, but it also has a waiting list of 30 seniors and 30 juniors. With the new building this waiting list will be absorbed. Tenders for the building in concrete block and timber of about 13,458 square feet have been called by the club, to close on January 17. Two-storeyed at the front and singlestoreyed at the back the new building will replace the present one except for a small portion at the back. Its main room will be a gymnasium, 100 ft by 65ft, which will give much more space for the activities of the various sections of the club. A higher ceiling than that in the present gymnasium will give better provision for basketball.

The double-storeyed front of the building will be used for offices of the club and a kitchen on the ground floor and a board room and a small ilat for a caretaker on the first floor.

Altogether the building will have, apart from the gymnasium, about 10 main rooms which will rater for such sections of the club as wrestling, boxing, weightlifting, and judo. There will also be a separate room for equipment.

Among the equipment that the club has aquired recently and which will be housed in the new building are two special cycling machines for the use of blind persons and victims of poliomyelitis. Two persons can compete against one another with the attached meters.

Of concrete block construction, with concrete columns, the building will have a tinted finish inside. The floor of the gymnasium will be of jarrah timber. , Sections of the Crichton Cobbers Club, of which Mr H. B. Kay is chairman of the board of management, meet almost every evening of the week from March till October. The club also does service for other sports organisations in Christchurch by making available the use of its rooms. When its new building is finished its main need will be for more voluntary instructors. There are eight at present, but the club could well do with 12.