Game of two halves

Football and cricket have formed an alliance to build magnificent new facilities in New Lynn. Joanna Davies runs in to check it out.
The new soccer field at Ken Maunder Park is fenced off as players wait for grass to grow through the freshly sanded ground.
With bad weather over the past few weeks, Lynn-Avon club teams have juggled arrangements so everyone can practise on the remaining field. But come September, an indoor training ground will be ready for them kick a ball around inside.
In one corner of the park, workers are building a $1.4 million sports centre with indoor turf for the soccer club and its partners, Suburbs-New Lynn Cricket Club.
"We will be able to keep training in wet weather now," says Lynn-Avon club member Bruce Yallop. "We use school gyms where we can to train but it will be good to keep the club together and have everyone training in the same place."
The new building will have a 20m by 40m indoor turf, changing rooms, toilets and a mezzanine floor to watch games from. The clubs share the park as a home ground.
Cricket club chairman Ross Hick says there are no indoor training centres in the New Lynn area that can cater for lots of different sports.
"We've had interest from hockey teams and rugby league squads who want to use it for training. You can't get indoor cricket nets in Auckland unless you book months in advance, so it's a win for us."
Mr Hick says the centre will be available for the community to use as well as the two clubs. "This will benefit thousands of people, not just us. When facilities like this are built they get used very quickly."
He says the project has the support of local schools that could also use the turf for training.
Once the building is opened, the old soccer clubhouse will be removed, along with an old public toilet block.
The clubs have worked together for eight years to build a new centre, receiving $250,000 from Waitakere City Council in 2006 towards the building, and further funds for public toilets and changing rooms.
"The Lotteries Commission and the Portage Licensing Trust have also been fantastic in supporting us," says Mr Hick.
Council spokeswoman Fiona Cunningham says the project will fill a big gap in the need for sports facilities in New Lynn.
"When assessing projects to receive support one of the key factors we look at is what the needs of the community are. This facility will be used by the two clubs based at the park but will also be available to the community at large.
"Facilities like this fit with the Active Waitakere action plan which aims to create more opportunities for residents to take part in sport and physical activity."
Work started in April and is scheduled to be completed in September, in time for the cricket season.
Bridge to the future
New Lynn Community Board has asked council officers to report on a possible name change for the Ken Maunder Bridge, which crosses from the park to Queen Mary Ave. The board wants to honour Doreen Kellett for her work as a tidy Kiwi in Waitakere City.
The bridge upgrade is  almost complete, with the work expected to be finished in July.  Park lighting from Queen Mary Ave through to Rata St will be in place by the end of the year.
Park past
The park area belonged to a prominent New Lynn family, the Binsteds. Originally Binsted Rd Reserve, it became Rewa Park in 1956 and Ken Maunder Park in 1970. However, it's had a chequered past. In 1927 the Binsted Estate trustees were complaining to the council about using the site as a night soil dump. From the 1940s it was a council rubbish tip. In October 1951 the estate sold land to the council to create a reserve.
In October 1956, for reasons unknown, the name changed to Rewa Park. By 1963 the bridge was built. In 1968 the New Lynn Borough Council planned alterations to the main playing area, extra soccer fields, roading and drainage. Two years later the name was changed to Ken Maunder Park, honouring the 1955-62 borough councillor and 1959-62 deputy mayor.