Pitch renovation put off for a year

Andrew Douglas.
Andrew Douglas.
The planned $20,000 renovation of the pitch block at Molyneux Park will have to wait until next spring.

The venue has been scheduled two Otago Volts games and three Otago Sparks games in December and those games were to be played on a newly renovated pitch.

The decision to relay the block was made at the end of last season when reports suggested the surface was in need of some maintenance, Central Otago District Council parks team leader Ian Mann said.

The work was to begin this month but will be put off for a year.

''It has not been done since the late '80s ... so you would have to say it was getting a bit tired,'' Mr Mann said.

''It was still playing well but we made the decision that this spring we would look to schedule in the rebuild of the No 1 wicket.''

The Otago Cricket Association and the Central Lakes Trust chipped in $5000 apiece with the council funding the balance.

The Kakanui clay required for the work had to be sourced from a new supplier and arrived at the venue earlier this week.

Unfortunately, it was too wet and ''there is no way with the time frame we've got that we can dry it out in time to do the renovations'', Mr Mann said.

''It is a bit of a blow for us all. It is not a major because Andrew [Douglas, the groundsman] will now do his usual pre-season work and the wicket was not that bad, so they will still have that wicket presented perfectly for the Volts' games and the season in general.

''It is good clay but ideally it would have been dried for a year ... but it has come wet and it is very clumpy and it would just be sticky. We wouldn't be able to roll it out or anything.''

Mr Douglas said cricket fans had no reason to be concerned as he was confident he would be able ''to get a good wicket up''.

Otago Cricket Association chief executive Mike Coggan said he had ''complete confidence'' the games would be played on the ''same quality pitches as we have always had''.

Otago hosts Canterbury in a twenty20 match at the venue on Boxing Day and then play
Wellington on December 28.

The Otago Sparks play a twenty20 game against Canterbury on December 2 followed by back-to-back one-dayers against the same opponent.

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