Ponsonby Rugby Club remains damaged after the Auckland floods. Photo / Photosport
Ponsonby Rugby Club remains damaged after the Auckland floods. Photo / Photosport
Sports clubs and facilities remain severely affected weeks after Auckland’s weather events smashed through the city.
Ponsonby Rugby Club - which has produced more All Blacks and Black Ferns than any other club in New Zealand - has had its 2023 season interrupted before it even started. The club hasbeen left without clubrooms, offices, changing rooms and a No 1 field.
Valuable memorabilia was also damaged in the February flooding caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Based at Western Springs Stadium, the club sent out an update to their community outlining the “heavily flooded and contaminated facilities” after the January floods - prior to Cyclone Gabrielle - forcing them to disperse all winter matches, training and hosting activities across the city.
Life member and All Blacks legend Sir Bryan Williams said he was “devastated” by the damage to the club’s facilities.
“Caps, some jerseys, photos - you know, sort of historical photos,” said Williams. “A number of precious items, really.
“Some of it is in with restorers and repairers at the moment, which is not a cheap exercise.
“There’s one there of Dave Gallaher, who was a Ponsonby man. He was the captain of the 1905 All Blacks - that photo’s been damaged. There was an oil painting of Bob Scott who was one of the famous All Blacks of the 1940s - that’s been damaged also.”
Ponsonby Rugby Club life member and All Blacks legend Sir Bryan Williams. Photo / Paul Estcourt
‘A logistical nightmare’
Williams said a lot of administrative work had gone into helping the more than 1000 club members: “It’s just the absolute challenge of it.
“We’re a big club. We’ve got about 50 teams - including about 40 junior teams - so just the logistics of trying to run a rugby club without your clubrooms, it’s a logistical nightmare, shall we say.”
The home game venue for their Premier Ponies (men) and Fillies (women) has been moved from the Western Springs No 1 to up the road to Cox’s Bay, while junior and senior grassroots level matches will be spread between Western Springs Outer Fields, Cox’s Bay and Shore Road Reserve in Remuera.
“But it’s not the same,” said Williams. “Our clubrooms were down there [at Western Springs], kitchen, and bar facilities - you know, everything that makes a club tick.”
Ponsonby will rely on other local sports clubs, like the West End Tennis Club, the Point Chevalier Bowling Club and the Grey Lynn RSA, for after-match functions.
The floods also left the club facing power issues at their venues, with power supply still yet to be restored at Western Springs. At Cox’s Bay they have lights on only one field so they’re looking to install temporary flood lighting for the training pitches during the winter.
Play only in ‘limited hours’
Browns Bay Racquets Club still has unplayable courts, eight weeks after the Auckland floods - losing all eight of their outdoor tennis courts and four indoor squash courts.
“We had about 400mm of water right throughout the clubhouse and all the tennis courts were also underwater,” said club manager Phil Briars.
Briars said the AstroTurf on the tennis courts floated to the surface as water flooded through and deposited “shit underneath”.
Browns Bay Racquets Club tennis courts, ripped up in the Auckland floods.
With its summer inter-club season interrupted, matches were moved to other venues.
“Fortunately, Tennis Northern jumped in and worked pretty hard to reschedule our home games,” said Briars.
For the members’ casual hits and lessons, Albany Tennis gave them six courts in “limited hours”.
“We couldn’t play after six o’clock at night which is quite a big thing for us here - evening play: casual and games.”
Silverdale Squash Club, Shepherds Park and North Shore all came to the rescue, offering Browns Bay squash members free play.
“But that’s all coming to an end at the end of April,” Briars said, and members will have to start playing elsewhere.
Inter-club matches had to be rescheduled and the pro shop had to write off about 150 pairs of new shoes, Briars said.
He said staff were there the day the flooding picked up: “They were in the pro shop trying to get stuff off the ground when the water started coming through - so they vacated the building pretty fast.”
The club is sourcing new court surfaces from Australia but is unsure when play at home will commence.
‘We are able to operate’
Muriwai Golf Club has been dealing with a road closure on the only road that leads to the course since Cyclone Gabrielle hit the coastal community in early February.
Andrew Jackson, the club’s general manager, said some Auckland golfers were not aware they could now get to the course.
“There’s a cordon there to stop the non-residents coming through the village. We are able to operate because we’ve got a start sheet [of golfers] we give to the cordon the day before.”
Jackson said the drop in visitor numbers meant “we’re expecting a loss of revenue”.
He also added this isn’t the first blow to their club: “In the last six years, we’ve had three cyclones, a category two storm and two lockdowns.”
Jackson said they hosted people for two weeks in their clubrooms after the cyclone ripped through their community - particularly while two local firefighters, Craig Stevens and Dave Van Zwanenberg, were missing.
“Everyone was fearing for the worst,” said Jackson. “We had fire service personnel here who knew the two firemen and knew it was pretty serious but obviously couldn’t lead anything on. It was very sad.”
