PARK DEVELOPED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4125, 20 April 1949, Page 8

PARK DEVELOPED

RUGBY GROUND AT BAY USED FOR FIRST MATCH Although the Mercury Bay Rugby Union (has had the free use of Mr H. T. Robinson’s field for football for well over 20 years, Whitianga residents have long realised the need for a public recreation ground. As early as 1939 a committee was set up to obtain a site as a Centennial Park, but was unsuccessful until the late Mr T. H. Lyon of Whitianga gave an area to he a memorial to his daughter, the late Miss Isobel Lyon. This was gratefully accepted and is now known as the Lyon Centennial Park.

Nothing was done during the war to prepare the park for use as a playing area until in 1017, Mr C. H. M. Simpson, a member of- the original committee, convened a meeting under the auspices of the Mercury Bay Chamber of Commerce, and a committee with representatives of the various sports bodies, and citizens representatives were elected to have the park developed. In 1943 the area was levelled and cleaned and grass sown. Over the last week-end the area was mown, raked and swept, and a working bee marked out the field and erected a dressing shed. The goal posts were erected during the weekend and the field was used for the first time last Saturday for the first Rugby game of the 1949 season.