PUKEKURA PARK - SPORTSGROUND

In June 1892 the committee met with local cricket and rugby club representatives, it was agreed to allow the New Plymouth Cricket Club to play all matches and practice on the ground; rugby was restricted to interprovincial, inter-club and cup matches, but no practices. New Plymouth Cricket Club had laid down a pitch by September of that year and the first match between teams from the East and West ends of New Plymouth was played on December 15.

At the end of its seven-year tenure in February 1897 the Sports Ground Committee was dissolved. It was decided any remaining funds would go towards making a drinking water fountain in the Recreation Grounds.  The money was used for the Queen Victoria Jubilee Fountain.

In 1900 there was a further desire to improve the Sports ground and T. K. Skinner was asked to produce a plan. He produced a very ambitious plan that would have removed what is presently the western terrace and also reclaim part of the lower lake at a cost £2000. This plan met with some resistance and never got off the ground.

Over the years there have been many interesting sporting events, one of the most memorable being a 1903 cricket game between a Taranaki team and a touring English eleven that was organised by Lord Hawke. The English team comprised mainly of county players and was touring New Zealand to promote the game. Knowing that the local team would be no match for the visitors the Taranaki side were allowed to play more than 11 players. They in fact fielded 18, all of whom batted and fielded. Lord Hawke’s team won by an innings and 103 runs.

1903 the Board asked Percy Smith and Lance Sladden to prepare a scheme to solve the problem of the ground’s poor drainage. The plan was completed but not acted upon. In 1904 more schemes were put forward including one from the photographer W. A. Collis.

In September 1904 the first provincial soccer game in Taranaki was played in the Recreation grounds. A combined team from New Plymouth and Omata took on a gun team from Auckland. The Auckland side came down to show the fledgling Taranaki side how to play the game scientifically. The Recreation Ground was described as wretched and unfit for play, this played into the hands of the locals who were victorious 3 to 1. The Auckland lads probably felt like the French at Agincourt. They agreed to a return match a few days later but not at the Recreation Grounds.

Following five years of procrastination the Board was approached by the United Sports Committee who proposed to take control of and develop the Sports Ground over a seven-year period estimating to spend up to £1,300 in the process. This was a similar arrangement to that of 1889. After some negotiating the committee was given the go-ahead. The new Sports Ground Committee had its first meeting in November 1905, headed by Arthur Larwill Humphries (Skinny Humphries) an accountant and ex New Zealand halfback who had represented his country on 15 occasions.

The plan was to make the playing area larger by moving the southern terraces back 16½ yards, moving the eastern terraces back 11 yards and cutting into the hill on the western side of the main gates 16½ yards, laying new drains and raising the playing surface 4ft. The scheme was basically the same as one proposed by Collis the previous year.  A lot of the fill to raise the pitch would come from cutting back the terraces. The ground was handed over to the Sports Ground Committee on, August 1, 1906.

One of the first actions of the new committee was to secure 1300 yards of fill from the railway deviation being worked on in Molesworth Street. Until then the railway had run parallel to Vivian Street, then across Devon Street on the west side of the Huatoki River. C. Kyngdon secured the contract to transport the material by horse and dray at 1s /yard. During the process he had several mishaps.

The work of reforming the terraces moved rapidly taking the number of terraces from six to twenty-two. The seating capacity was increased from five hundred to two thousand with an estimated overall capacity of up to ten thousand. Four thousand drainpipes were laid, fourteen tons of special soil for the cricket pitch was transported from Longburn, near Palmerston North and the grass seed was provided by Messrs. Tothill & Co., of Invercargill. The first cricket game on the new pitch was Taranaki v Wanganui on December 26, a few days before the Sports Ground’s grand opening on January 1, 1908.

During the period of construction, the Liardet Street entrance was closed for safety reasons, this led to the formation of the Gilbert Street entrance.

Further major upgrades of the terraces were made in the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s and are still going on today.