Games off, for safety's sake

HOPEFUL: The New Zealand Croatian match against the Cobham Club scheduled for tomorrow is unlikely to take place, although organisers hope to get some form of game in at the Cobham Oval.PHOTO/MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM

Northland Cricket has put public safety first with bad weather due, making the call to cancel all cricket north of Kaipara.

Competitions manager Neal Parlane said with covers needing to be put on pitches, and gale-force wind expected, there was a real risk of covers flying off and hitting someone.

"We can't cover all the pitches [which need to covered with heavy rain expected]. It's either cover the pitches and risk people getting hit by them or not cover them," Parlane said yesterday.

He added he was unsure what Kaipara were doing, but said he expected they would also cancel their matches.

Next week Parlane expected cricket to be back to normal - weather permitting - adding that the reserve grade final would be shifted to next weekend.

Parlane said a location on the reserve grade final had yet to be decided as hosting it at Cobham Oval would clash with a Lion Red Cup match between City and Zest Insurance Whangarei Boys' High School.

The New Zealand Croatian match against the Cobham Club tomorrow is unlikely to take place, although organisers remained hopeful of getting some form of game in.

In bowls cancellations, the Northern Region 1-5 Year Inter Centre bowls tournament scheduled for Mangawhai greens tomorrow has been postponed.

Gwen Lawson from the Bowls Northland operations committee said: "This is due to the fact that we believe some of the centres involved will not be able to travel to the venue because of the weather conditions in the Northland area this weekend.

"A decision on the rescheduling of the event will be made at the regional meeting to be held in Auckland next Wednesday."

Meanwhile, the Whangarei Netball Centre has made the decision to postpone the Year 9, Under-15 and Under-17 trials, which were to be held tomorrow also.

Due to the severe weather warning, the netball centre decided to postpone the trials for the Year 9s until March 23, and under-15s and 17s to March 30. All players must trial in their respective age group on that day.

Also postponed due to the weather warning is the junior netball course for Years 1 and 2 scheduled at the Whangarei Netball Centre last night and today.

It has been postponed by Netball Northern Zone facilitator Anne Nicholson who said that she considered it too dangerous for her to travel to Whangarei and then on to Kaitaia tomorrow afternoon.

The Whangarei Speedway also cancelled its raceday scheduled for today, which had a rain day of tomorrow.

The club's next race day is scheduled for March 29 for the Club Championships and demolition derby.

For updated rugby game information, go to the Taniwha Facebook page. For weather updates, go to www.northernadvocate.co.nz