"NOTICE TO QUIT"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 12, 16 January 1933, Page 8

"NOTICE TO QUIT"

A CRICKET BOMBSHELL

KILBIRNIE CLUB'S DILEMMA

PRACTICES STOPPED

The extreme step of forbidding one of the leading cricket clubs in Wellington the use of its practice wickets is reported to have been taken by the Director of Parks and Reserves. This drastic action, according to information supplied by officials of the club, has come aa something in the nature of a bombshell, although it was- not unex- . pected that this season's new order regarding the cricket practices should giva rise to some trouble. The position was felt keenly at. Kilbirnie, and it is against the Kilbirnie Cricket Club that the Director of Parks and Reserves has taken action. According to club officials, last week he gave what ' was in effect "a notice to the club to yjuit the Kilbirnie Reserve." The Kilbirnie Cricket Club, like other clnbs who practice away from the Basin Reserve, has been working under difficulties since the beginning of the season. In past year the City Council has erected' the practice nets, but this year the clubs referred to were advised that they would have to erect their own nets, this course being adopted in preference to increasing the charges. The ineonvenieneo inflicted upon the clnbs by this decision was pointed out, it is stated, to the chairman of the Parks and Beserves Committee by representatives of the Wellington Cricket Association, who were informed that the charge was due to the reduction in staff which made it impossible to givo the same service as previously. The Director of Parks and Reserves, however, indicated that, as the erection, of the nets by the.players would reduce their timo for practice, an extension of the,closing time for practice from 7 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. might be arranged. Despite this extension, it was found by the Kilbirnie Club that the new system was still causing inconvenience, and early in December a deputation, from the club waited upon the Mayor and pointed out that conditions at Kilbirnie differed in some respects from those on other grounds, in that there,had been no- reduction in the staff and that the members of the club with their own labour and money had some two years ago erected on the ground a valuable pavilion." It was felt that these factors justified the club in asking for the same service as had been given in the past. The deputation was sympathetically received, but so far a reply has not been given to its request. "OVER THE FENCE." Just about this time, during the progress of the match against Hawkes Bay at the Basin Reserve, there was a small attendance, consisting_ of junior players, at Kilbirniej and these players practised without nets. Some "balls went into an adjoining garden, and, as the result of a complaint from the owner, the groundsman, it is stated, was instructed not to allow the club's nets out on the following evening. The position having been explained to the director and an assurance given that there would be no more practice without' nets, the nets were released the following week. Since then practice has been carried out with nets, but, owing to the time involved, top nets have not been put on, either by the Kilbirnie Club or by the two other clubs which practice on the reserve. It is doubted also whether top nets have been used on other grounds. ' DIRECTOR'S ORDER. On Friday the club'received'a letter from the Director of Parks and Eeserves intimating that as the council's requirements 'with regard to nets were not being complied with/"and as practice had been going on at 7.45 on.the previous evening the groundsmen had been instructed not to prepare practice wickets for the'Kilbirnie Club, and requesting the club to remove its nets for the season. The letter also stated that an adjustment would be made with regard to the fees paid. Unless this decision is reversed, the feeling of some of the club's officials is that there is a possibility that this club, one of the largest in Wellington, deprived of facilities for practice which are so largely availed of "by its members, will go out of existence.