Napier Tech claims the crucial wicket of Havelock North batsman Will Clark on the way to winning last weekend's Hawke's Bay Twenty20 final at Napier's Nelson Park, which was transferred from McLean Park. Photo / Ian Cooper
Napier Tech claims the crucial wicket of Havelock North batsman Will Clark on the way to winning last weekend's Hawke's Bay Twenty20 final at Napier's Nelson Park, which was transferred from McLean Park. Photo / Ian Cooper
Hawke’s Bay Cricket is hoping their club players will eventually get their day in the sun at internationals venue McLean Park after the Napier venue became unavailable for a final which was to have been played on its hallowed pitches last weekend.
There has been no club cricket at McLeanPark in at least 35 years, but, taking a lead from the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union’s agreement with the Napier City Council to stage its annual finals at the park, cricket got the thumbs-up to play its Twenty20 finals on the ground.
The plans were aborted because of continued use of the park and its other facilities for evacuation and relief in the Cyclone Gabrielle emergency, in particular the Rodney Green Centennial Event Centre and the stadium’s carparks.
Cricket CEO Craig Findlay said in more than 30 years of senior cricket he’d never had the chance to play club cricket on McLean Park, although there had been internationals, New Zealand inter-district first-class, and a small number of Hawke’s Bay representative matches, mainly Hawke Cup defences some years ago.
Most club players have never played on McLean Park, and the chances for players at the higher levels have also minimised, with most Central Districts and Hawke’s Bay matches in Napier now played “across the road” at Nelson Park.
“I think in any sport the chance for players at club level to get their feet on to the ground at a major stadium such as McLean Park is a dream, and as a cricket association we feel it is a need for us to be able to arrange the use of the facilities and all opportunities for players, especially those who are the backbone of the game in the region.”
In the matches transferred to Nelson Park, Napier Tech beat Napier Old Boys Marist in a playoff for the right to play for the top honours, which Tech then claimed with 143-5 in response to Havelock North’s 142-7, decided with just three balls to spare.
The Napier Tech team after winning Hawke's Bay Premier cricket's Twenty20 final. Photo / Ian Cooper
Findlay now hopes some club matches will be able to be played at McLean Park next summer.
The association was told that no events were being held at the park during the crisis, which also caused the cancellation of a one-day Ford Trophy match that was to have been played at McLean Park on February 14 and the postponement of a first-class Plunket Shield match which was to have been played between Central Stags and Auckland Aces at McLean Park on February 25-28 and which is likely to now be played at another venue.
As a result the Stags went close to four weeks without a match until a game this week at Mount Maunganui near-rivalling the drama of the Black Caps’ one-run win over England at the Basin Reserve in Wellington a few days earlier.
In a match with six centuries, including the fifth career tonne for Hawke’s Bay player Brad Schmullian, the Stags were 268 behind Northern Districts on the first innings, and were beaten by just 25 runs when all-out for 427 in a last-day chase which ended just before stumps would have otherwise been pulled for a draw.
Meanwhile, Hawke’s Bay’s new challenge for the Hawke Cup, which it lost to Canterbury Country in Napier in November, is being postponed until early next summer.
The match was to have been played in Rangiora two weeks ago, and Canterbury Country is defending the trophy against Waikato Valley this weekend, also in Rangiora.
