Land ahoy: New fields for Napier Pirates of Park Island

Digging it at the Park Island Northern Sports Hub playing fields, from left Napier City Council executive director of community services Thunes Cloete, Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports Club double life member Rodney Green, Napier Mayor Richard McGrath, sports chairman Graham Atkins and city councillor Keith Price.

Three new rugby fields being laid in the relocation of one of Hawke’s Bay’s oldest rugby clubs are expected to be in use next winter.

The Napier Pirate and Rugby Sports Club’s move from wide-open, single-pitch ground Tamatea Park has started with the sale of its clubrooms off Durham Drive.

New clubrooms, the third in the 137 years of the club, are included in Napier City Council’s nearby $2.4 million Park Island Northern Sports Hub development.

With a large junior section, among more than 500 members, home games were spread across Tamatea Park and Park Island’s Tremain and Bond fields, and the sports hub development will enable all home games to be played at a single venue.

With new clubrooms all-but complete, the council and the club last week broke ground on the sports ground and 80-vehicle car park site.

Napier Pirate chairman Graham Atkins said the club had been making-do with fragmented facilities across multiple sites, and the 1970s volunteer-built clubrooms were never designed for a club of its current size.

“The new home base at Park Island means we can finally ease the pressure on Tamatea while creating something the whole community can use,” he said.

“Having everything in one purpose-built facility means we can expand, welcome new members and make this an asset everyone can enjoy – not just Napier Pirate.”

New Napier Mayor Richard McGrath said the project is about giving Napier Pirate a “proper home” and also “making Park Island work better for everyone”.

“We’re getting well-designed fields the community can use, and we’re building them in a way that helps manage flooding for nearby homes,” he said.

The Northern Sports Hub will be available for wider public use outside club use, and Tamatea Park will become more available for school and community use, without need for more council investment in those facilities.

The project delivers on council’s 2017 Park Island Masterplan commitment and has been eight years in the making.

Construction runs from November to March to minimise impact on winter sports and make the most of dry summer conditions, and the first games on the new park are expected to be played mid-winter.

Dust mitigation will be at play during the works, including a water cart using bore water rather than town supply, and work will shut down during the Christmas period.

The Pirates affiliated to the Hawke’s Bay union in 1886, when players gathered at the Terminus Hotel in Station St, with games played nearby in Clive Square.

In 1933 the club established a “gym” at McLean Park, also the home of Napier Marist and Napier High School Old Boys’.

As Colenso Pirate, a name assumed in 1960 with a closer relationship with the new Colenso High School, the club moved in 1975 to Tamatea Park.

Marist and Old Boys’ merged and moved to new clubrooms at Park Island as the council moved to preserve McLean Park for major events.

While retaining Tamatea Park, and still using the changing rooms, the Pirates leased its clubhouse to a church and based itself at the Tamatea Tavern for more than 15 years.

In 2013, the club moved back into its premises, recently renamed Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports to reflect the inclusion of other sports.

As well as rugby fields, Park Island, more than 60ha of development started in the 1980s, includes facilities for football, touch, cricket, archery and the two artificial turfs of a hockey stadium, as well as other recreational activities.