Bases are loaded

Time's been called on boozed-up softball spectators and players at an Auckland domain. Hayley Hannan reports.
Nestled in the centre of the volcanic Mangere Domain is Onehunga Mangere United Sports Club. On the lower pitch, a small bank slopes down towards a softball and soccer field, cut off by a low-lying stony barrier.
During summer, softball supporters fill this prime viewing spot, many of them clutching a cold one. As the day goes on, the crates and boxes empty while bottle caps fly. On the pitch, players in social teams relax as they, too, enjoy a brew during the game.
But  Onehunga Mangere United has decided the alcohol-fuelled softball summer season is over. The club has successfully sought a full-time alcohol ban on its two  fields, saying the boisterous games are bad for the fields and for its image.
Club chair Brett Lindsay says that at the end of softball games each day, players and spectators are drunk and leave bottle caps littered across the fields.
The drinking is a bad look for the club, as it's trying to become more family-oriented. Soccer players also have to pick out individual bottle caps from their pitch before they can use the field.
Mr Lindsay says five years  of attempts to talk to softball players have been fruitless, and the existing liquor ban on the carpark has not been enough.
"It's a softball culture. It's a culture that has been inbred into them for years and years. It's not a problem that has just started, it's just something that we're addressing properly," says Mr Lindsay.
The problem facing the Onehunga Mangere  club occurs at a lower level in other Auckland clubs, says the Auckland Softball Association. The operations and development manager, Huni Yerkovich, is aware of high levels of drinking at social games. "It's definitely not something we endorse. We have allowed the clubs to self-monitor those things."
No other softball clubs have resorted to a full liquor ban on their fields, she says. "People of the clubs push the fact that their liquor licences are at risk, and that it also takes away revenue from the bar itself.
"At the end of the day, if [the alcohol ban] is the only thing that works, then so be it."
The 24-7 alcohol ban began yesterday. Anyone who wants to drink beer or wine at the Onehunga Mangere sports club must do so inside the clubhouse.
The Mangere domain sports fields are one of three new reserves recently added to Manukau's alcohol bylaw areas. Last month, Manukau City Council also added Blake Rd Reserve and Rose Garden Reserve to its existing alcohol-free areas.
The policy and activities committee chair, Colleen Brown, says the extended bans are responses to a community-driven request.
"Residents are sick and tired of getting up in the morning and not being able to use their reserves," she says.
"Children are getting up and navigating broken glass."
Put a cork in it
Manukau City Council says anyone may apply for a liquor ban in a council area. All council playgrounds, reserves, beaches and town centres are automatically alcohol-free, plus 31 specified areas. If you think alcohol needs to be banned from an area, talk to  your local community constable, drum up support from neighbours and take your case to your community board.