Goodbye, ugly duckling, you were a good mate

I drive past the new stadium every day and there's no doubt it is a spectacular edifice by Otago and possibly even international standards.

It's everything Carisbrook is not - high-tech, innovative, a tribute to modern architecture and technology. And yet there is something that, for a long, long time, Carisbrook has that the stadium will never have - tradition and memories.

For the 30-odd years in which I was sports editor of this newspaper, I spent more time at Carisbrook than at any other place except my own home and the Otago Daily Times office.

In winter and summer I was privileged to watch, record and analyse the best of New Zealand and world rugby and cricket from the old press box at the back of the main stand.

Iain Gallaway, the doyen of commentators, described the western and eastern ends of the ground as the Railway end and the Hillside Workshops end.

That, to me, summed up Carisbrook and its industrial, working-class environment. The trains were made at one end of the ground and they ran at the other, often pausing to give passengers a free view from the Scotsman's grandstand.

The new stadium is white-collar; Carisbrook was unashamedly blue-collar, even if many of those who have trod its green sward have been distinguished academics.

It's where, as a 9-year-old in 1959, I sat on the grass in front of the terrace and watched and listened as the soft thud of Don Clarke's boot consigned the Lions to one of the most controversial of all test losses.

It's where, as a rookie reporter eight years later, my nervous fingers struggled to keep up with a late flurry of scoring in the Cavanagh Memorial - the big game of the season - and only the kindly intervention of Gallaway from the broadcasting box near door prevented me from missing the front page deadline for the Star Sports.

It's where, in 1971, it became panic stations when Otago played the Lions and the telephone for me to dictate my copy was installed in the wrong place. It's where, at the final whistle, I rushed through the players' tunnel, across the road to a house in Burns St, thrust $10 into the hand of a surprised pensioner and asked to use her phone.

Deadline was 4.30pm, and I made it. Just. As I drove up the hill to Mornington afterwards, I stopped the car, got out and vomited violently - a mixture of tension and sheer relief.

Carisbrook became part of me, part of my life, part of the lives of thousands. There are memories in almost every nook and cranny.

The doors and walls of the old dressing rooms bore the scars of bats flung in high dudgeon by batsmen who were adamant their innings had been prematurely terminated by deaf and blind umpires. The floors were pock-marked with the sprigs of thousands of players, from great All Blacks to the most humble club players.

In summer the lunches consisted of a slice or two of ham and some salad. The staple fare for the after-match rugby function under the Rose Stand included pies cut in half, sausage rolls, saveloys, buttered bread, beer (plenty of beer) and gin and whisky for the alickadoos. Occasionally, in season, there were Bluff oysters, which vanished in the blink of an eye.

In the past decade or so, it has become fashionable for the media and fans to berate Carisbrook for its lack of creature comforts and modern facilities. Maybe they're right, maybe it has had its day and maybe, in time, I'll grow to love the new stadium as well as appreciate the new facilities.

But, when the final hooter blows tomorrow, I know I and thousands of others will have a lump in our throats as we farewell our most famous sporting venue. It seems so final, like a death in the family.

Just give us time to reflect, to remember and, yes, to mourn passing of the unpretentious ugly duckling that became so much a part of us.

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Carisbrook's last day
The itinerary
10am: Gates open
10.30am: Under-13 final, Taieri v Eastern
Noon: Dunedin premier club final, Taieri v Harbour
1.30pm: Otago legends XV v Southland legends XV
2pm: Junior march past
2.35pm: ITM Cup, Otago v Southland
4.35pm: Special occasion to mark the closing of the ground

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• Brent Edwards is an Otago Daily Times columnist and former long-serving sports editor.