Levin’s Donnelly Park gets a cash injection
Plans to turn Levin’s Donnelly Park into a regular stop on the New Zealand cricket circuit have received a substantial cash injection from ratepayer coffers.
The park has undergone a transformation over the past few years as the Horowhenua-ka¯ piti Cricket Association seeks to host Central Districts matches and even under-19 or women’s internationals.
The Horowhenua District Council has lent its backing to the project, giving the association $267,000 across four years to upgrade facilities at the park. It looked a picture when hosting Central Districts women’s and men’s A matches last summer, but the pitch wasn’t up to scratch, forcing a three-day men’s A match to be abandoned.
‘‘We were lucky enough to get some remedial work done on the block straight after the end of the season,’’ association chief executive Dave O’brien said.
‘‘We were able to make some progress with that over the last couple of months. We’ve had it relaid with some Patumahoe [clay].’’
New Zealand Cricket is yet to release its summer schedule for 2018-19.
O’brien said Donnelly Park would host Hawke Cup district matches, where the re-laid pitches would likely be ‘‘spicy’’ before they settled down. If all goes well, the park could then push for more matches.
The association was ‘‘rapt’’ with the council contribution and the immediate focus would be finishing the facilities for players and umpires at the ground, O’brien said.
He will soon meet with council officials to talk about the next moves, which could include upgrading irrigation and adding a couple of pitches to the main oval’s wicket block.
That would give it nine pitches and allow more days of cricket each summer.