Carlaw Park

[mightybears]

I'm not too familiar with the city of Auckland, but where are the following stadiums located, in relation to good public transport and distance from the CBD:

Mt Smart Stadium, Eden Park, Carlaw Park and North Harbour Stadium

Those are/were the 4 major football grounds in the Auckland metropolitan area

Parnell, minutes from the centre of town, great for transport and the main drag south.
A real shame- i was there at the start of the year [grandad worked to built one of the old stands in the 1930's?- my dad is parnell born and grew up supporting marist-who played there in his time-and the first league team in the southern hemisphere to wear green and gold-kirwan's granddad-also a parnell local played for them]-was being used for parking for the auckland atp tennis event next door-took a few snaps-crappy versions of those on page 1 when i filled up at the servo in the photo-wandered over to take the shots and security got all odd-as if i was casing the cars parked by the tennis set.

My dad knew it had been sold and was in poor nick, but hey the original ARL have been smart with money and the sale for housing will benefit league in the city with the greatest real football tradition in kiwiland. The greatest mud pit in a country of mud pits.

The site looks bigger in the flesh and could accomodate a boutique 30,000 stadium easy.

 

[mightybears]

More pics and newspaper reports here

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?t=161732

my dad was in the crowd that day-just rang him-he said it was a great match.

 

[mightybears]

http://www.aucklandleague.co.nz/display_page.asp?item=235

...............................................Carlaw Park is about to undergo a new phase in its history with a multi million dollar commercial redevelopment. Last used as a playing venue in 2002, the league closed the historic ground due to the financial drain of maintaining and the changing times of grassroots sport. While emotionally it was a hard decision due to the many memories the old lady held, commercial reality finally caught up with the league. In 2004 the administration of the league then moved to larger and modern headquarters opposite Ericsson Stadium. Since the parks closure it has been utilised as a fulltime carpark generating much needed revenue for the games operations in Auckland.

This exciting development after a very exhaustive and consultative process with many independant advisors is being undertaken by the league in partnership with highly respected and reputable developers Willis Bond & Co. The development has been on the planning board since 2003 after all avenues were exhausted to develop the park into a leading stadium in Auckland with multi functional facilities and amenitites. The project will see development of a precinct incorporating a business park, serviced and owner occupied apartments and other residential facilities. Under the development partnership, Auckland Rugby League will maintain freehold ownership of the No 1 ground site and have sold the site know as the No 2 ground. The project is scheduled to commence in late 2006. For further information log on to www.carlawpark.co.nz

 

[Dr Crane]

The site looks bigger in the flesh and could accomodate a boutique 30,000 stadium easy.

Yeah, no.

 

[Knight87]

I was there - Pacific Cup Final.It was one of the best games I have been to and the atmosphere was fantastic.

I used to go to Carlaw most weekends with my Dad. I have some great memories:

Kiwis 18 Aussie 0 in 1985
Auckland teams defeating major international sides
Great club sides - Otahuhu,Northcote, Mt Albert,Richmond - various eras
Frank Tinatela's try in the Tusk Cup final - better than Eric Grothe Snr's try vs. Bulldogs

It was also the 1st major stadium in NZ to get floodlights - way before any of the RU grounds. You were so close to the ground you could feel the tackles.

What year was that Pacific Cup Final in and who won the game?

 

[playdaball]

What year was that Pacific Cup Final in and who won the game?

I've got the tournament programme in my hand now.

Oct 17 - Oct 31 1992
10 Teams:
Maori
Aborigines
Western Samoa (now Samoa)
Tonga
Cook Islands
Nuie
Fiji
Tokelau
Norfolk Islands
American Samoa

Western Samoa beat Tonga in the final. I can't remember the score - it was high scoring and close.

 

[AuckMel]

I've got the tournament programme in my hand now.

Oct 17 - Oct 31 1992
10 Teams:
Maori
Aborigines
Western Samoa (now Samoa)
Tonga
Cook Islands
Nuie
Fiji
Tokelau
Norfolk Islands
American Samoa

Western Samoa beat Tonga in the final. I can't remember the score - it was high scoring and close.

http://www2.hunterlink.net.au/~maajjs/sum/int1992.htm#Pacific%20Cup

The data given below is unfortunately both inaccurate and incomplete. In particular, the tables do not balance. I will attempt to remedy this when I can lay my hands on better data.
Section 1:

Western Samoa beat Fiji.
Tonga beat Niue.

Cook Islands 23 beat Niue 22.
Western Samoa 20 beat Tonga 12.

Western Samoa 41 beat Niue 28.
Fiji 58 beat Cook Islands 6.

Niue 14 beat Fiji 0.
Tonga 26 beat Cook Islands 6.

Western Samoa 66 beat Cook Islands 12.
Tonga 23 beat Fiji 20.

Western Samoa 4 4 0 0 159 70 89 8
Tonga 4 3 0 1 85 57 28 6
Fiji 4 1 0 3 106 75 31 2
Niue 4 1 0 3 72 98 -26 2
Cook Islands 4 1 0 3 47 172 -125 2

Section 2:

New Zealand Maoris beat Norfolk Island.
Australian Aborigines beat Tokelau.

Australian Aborigines 74 beat Norfolk Island 2.
New Zealand Maoris beat American Samoa.

Australian Aborigines 32 beat American Samoa 14.
Tokelau 44 beat Norfolk Island 8.

New Zealand Maoris beat Australian Aborigines.
American Samoa beat Tokelau.

American Samoa 94 beat Norfolk Island 2.
New Zealand Maoris 38 beat Tokelau 14.

New Zealand Maoris 4 4 0 0 184 58 126 8
Australian Aborigines 4 3 0 1 176 70 106 6
American Samoa 4 2 0 2 164 78 86 4
Tokelau 4 1 0 3 94 118 -24 2
Norfolk Island 4 0 0 4 20 296 -276 0

Semifinals:

Western Samoa 44 beat Australian Aborigies 26
on 28th October at Carlaw Park Auckland.

Tonga 18 beat New Zealand Maoris 6.
on 28th October at Carlaw Park Auckland.

Third Place Playoff:

New Zealand Maoris 44 beat Australian Aborigines 12
on 30th October at Auckland.

Final:

Western Samoa 18 beat Tonga 14 after extra time
on 31st October. Full time: 12-12.

IIRC, I reffed Norfolk Islands games against the Maori and the Aborigines.

 

[Knight87]

I don't know what the capacity of Carlaw Park was, but that clip I posted with that Pacific Cup final, the ground looked pretty full to me.

Was this tournament ever televised in Australia, or was it only shown in New Zealand (one of the commentators sounds like Greg Clark, if I'm not mistaken (former league, now union caller))?

 

[playdaball]

It was a hot day and the stands were fairly full - maybe 10k?


Greg Clark came to NZ from QLD and worked on 89FM with the Top Marks (DJs). He the ended up on TV as the RL commentator. I enjoyed his calls. He returned to Aust. around SL time and called RL before going onto RU. He is a Broncos fan.

 

[Knight87]

Yeah, I know he now calls the union, but is it because he's a union man (or more of a union than league fan)? Because, I know he was the main caller on Fox here from 1997 to 2000, and then he left (and Warren Smith took over in 2001 as the main caller). So, I found it a bit unusual that he went to union. Yes, he was a good caller. Never forget the call he made when Andrew Johns scored a try against the Bulldogs in 2000:

"Andrew Johns is over! Andrew Johns is smmmmmmmmmmmmokinnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!" (after Joey imitated someone lighting a cigarette, with the ball acting as a cigarette)

 

[Southernsaint]

I remember being in Auckland and trying to find the ground. It was still marked in the LP book but all I saw was a car-park, little realising I was at Carlaw Park...

But still, the ground I still most associate Kiwi RL with is Mt Smart, where King Wally cut the Brendan Tuuta imposter in half...

 

[mightybears]

I remember being in Auckland and trying to find the ground. It was still marked in the LP book but all I saw was a car-park, little realising I was at Carlaw Park...

But still, the ground I still most associate Kiwi RL with is Mt Smart, where King Wally cut the Brendan Tuuta imposter in half...

yeah but loonie tuuta certainly whacked the hell of a paul vautin, so all hail brendan!

 

[Southernsaint]

Wasn't the Lewis hit payback for that??

 

[mikeob]

The REAL reason that Carlaw Park wasn't used much in recent years is that the NSWRL would not have the Warriors playing there because all NSWRL grounds had to run north and south and Carlaw runs east and west. Plus the facilities were not up to NSWRL standards, in fact they were disgraceful. For it to be continued to be used they needed the Warriors as tenants. I returned to NZ in 1990 from Brisbane and to go from Lang Park to Carlaw Park was a bit of a culture shock. But it was a great place to watch a game because you were so close to the action. You could clearly hear the players boots squelching through the mud.

In 1975 the Auckland rugby league bought the gound off the Auckland city council for $250000 which was a huge price to pay for it then, but it was a good decision because I read about five years ago that it was worth about 13 million. Does anyone know what the Auckland rugby league sold it for?