About 90 people have registered for a series of events to mark the club’s sesquicentennial of cricket.
A round of golf day at St Clair today will be followed by some spectating tomorrow — the University-Grange premiers are playing Albion at Tonga Park — followed by dinner at the University Oval Longroom.
‘‘We’re looking forward to telling a few stories,’’ club treasurer Andrew Hore said.
‘‘We’re also going to give out a few more life memberships and some contribution awards.’’
Hore said committee members were doing a sterling job at a club that always faced the challenge of maintaining numbers with a transient student population.
‘‘Being a university club has been difficult with people coming and going, but we always want to help anyone who wants to make Dunedin or Otago their home, and have a crack at whatever they can in cricket.’’
The first mention of the Grange club in the Evening Star was in February 1876, and the club had its heyday with four consecutive titles in the early 1920s.
University won three straight championships in the late 1960s, and Grange and University won a combined 28 senior titles before the clubs merged in 1986-87 and immediately won the title as a combination.
University-Grange have not won the title since 2003-04, and recent times have been challenging.
The club dropped out of the premier ranks for four years.
After returning in 2018, consistent success has generally been hard to find, and the Spartans were dismissed for just 23 last weekend.
Hore, who made his debut for the club in 1987, is passionate about the club’s place in Dunedin cricket.
‘‘We’ve really focused on the grassroots this year, and while our premier side has struggled a bit, we’ve got heaps of players.
‘‘Our two second grade teams are doing well, and we’ve got four women’s teams, which is a bit of a new thing in the past couple of years.
‘‘It’s just a club with a really good spirit. We stick together.’’
Among the University-Grange alumni are White Ferns great Suzie Bates, who played for men’s teams, Black Caps all-rounder Michael Bracewell, former internationals Aaron Redmond and Will Somerville, and Volts brothers Jacob and Zac Cumming.
