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http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4502161a21536.html
Watching history go up in smoke
By Tony Smith - The Press | Wednesday, 30 April 2008
I knew the Hagley Park cricket clubrooms fires were serious by the tone of Malcolm Ellis's voice on his Saturday Scoreboard radio show.
Mild-mannered Malcolm is no ranting radio redneck. Yet his face was as scarlet as his beloved Arsenal's shirt as he fired a verbal salvo at the "mindless morons" who tried to torch the St Albans and High School Old Boys-Collegians clubrooms last weekend.
In decrying such wanton vandalism he was speaking for the entire Christchurch sporting community.
The little devil of a firelighter who set those buildings ablaze did more than cause $200,000 of damage. He (arsonists are invariably male) inflicted a mortal blow to the hearts and souls of everyone associated with the afflicted clubs.
The only consolation is the firebug spared the historic umpires pavilion at Hagley Park which would have been irreplaceable.
Arson is a dreadful defiling deed. It's bad enough when a family's home is razed to a smouldering ruin. But it somehow seems much worse when a school, marae or clubrooms is the victim of such a cruel conflagration.
These are our taonga; public places where many of us muster to celebrate shared endeavours and ideals in an increasingly individualistic world. They are, if you like, secular cathedrals, our homes away from home.
What pleasure these places have given down the years.
Just as it tears at the heartstrings to see kids' toys and school books littering charred classrooms, it pains many of us to think of cricketing scorebooks and honours boards bedecked with famous names disappearing in a thick pall of smoke.
The whole shebang could have gone up had it not been for someone out on an early-morning walk with their dog.
The St Albans Cricket Club has been around since 1905. Generations of players, fans and families have gathered in those clubrooms to watch and reminisce over the feats of stars such as Zin and Chris Harris, Sam Guillen and the ebbs and flows of social cricketers' careers.
The Hadlee clan, with Sir Richard as its shining knight, went to "worship" and be worshipped at the Old Boys-Collegians "church", which has escaped serious damage.
These clubrooms may be restored beyond their former glory but they will never be the same.
I'm a big fan of restorative justice so perhaps the arsonist could be made to stand up before the entire St Albans club and confess to his actions.
And rather than bang him away in a prison cell, we could volunteer him for a more creative form of punishment -- six overs against Old Boys-Collegian player Shane Bond with a tooth pick for a bat and without pads or a box for personal protection.
IT'S not in the same league as arson, of course, but the city council's proposal to tear down Rugby League Park (RLP) and sell the Addington site for housing smacks, to me, of another form of public vandalism.
When I visit RLP I try to look beyond the rickety stands and the peeling paint of the perimeter fences. I prefer to remember its halcyon days. I delve back to the late 60s to the twilight years of my uncle's premiership career which featured Kiwi caps and almost inevitable broken noses. I can almost picture the park packed with thousands of fans for club grand finals, especially those involving arch rivals like Hornby and Halswell.
And I remember, most vividly, Logan Edwards carving up the Auckland defence as Frank Endacott's Canterbury team won the Rugby League Cup final 15 years ago.
Many other people have more momentous memories of classic matches there since rugby league first graced the ground in 1912. They don't want to see it become RIP for RLP.
But their rugby league reveries are at risk of being reduced to sepia tones if the park is carved up into townhouse lots.
I'd like to believe league hasn't been singled out because it is a blue-collar sport. But I'd also like to think our city councillors would have reversed the cold-hearted call to hike public housing rents by 24 per cent.
I also can't help but wonder whether council officials would be so quick to flick RLP off to property developers if it was called Rugby Union Park?
Restore this sporting citadel to its former glory as a showpiece of the Addington sporting cluster.
------------------------------------------------------
Will be a disgrace if we lose this venue, was sad enough losing Carlaw Park.
On a side note, i like the idea for those bastards that burnt down my clubrooms too, but let all the rest of us at him along with Bond
Watching history go up in smoke
By Tony Smith - The Press | Wednesday, 30 April 2008
I knew the Hagley Park cricket clubrooms fires were serious by the tone of Malcolm Ellis's voice on his Saturday Scoreboard radio show.
Mild-mannered Malcolm is no ranting radio redneck. Yet his face was as scarlet as his beloved Arsenal's shirt as he fired a verbal salvo at the "mindless morons" who tried to torch the St Albans and High School Old Boys-Collegians clubrooms last weekend.
In decrying such wanton vandalism he was speaking for the entire Christchurch sporting community.
The little devil of a firelighter who set those buildings ablaze did more than cause $200,000 of damage. He (arsonists are invariably male) inflicted a mortal blow to the hearts and souls of everyone associated with the afflicted clubs.
The only consolation is the firebug spared the historic umpires pavilion at Hagley Park which would have been irreplaceable.
Arson is a dreadful defiling deed. It's bad enough when a family's home is razed to a smouldering ruin. But it somehow seems much worse when a school, marae or clubrooms is the victim of such a cruel conflagration.
These are our taonga; public places where many of us muster to celebrate shared endeavours and ideals in an increasingly individualistic world. They are, if you like, secular cathedrals, our homes away from home.
What pleasure these places have given down the years.
Just as it tears at the heartstrings to see kids' toys and school books littering charred classrooms, it pains many of us to think of cricketing scorebooks and honours boards bedecked with famous names disappearing in a thick pall of smoke.
The whole shebang could have gone up had it not been for someone out on an early-morning walk with their dog.
The St Albans Cricket Club has been around since 1905. Generations of players, fans and families have gathered in those clubrooms to watch and reminisce over the feats of stars such as Zin and Chris Harris, Sam Guillen and the ebbs and flows of social cricketers' careers.
The Hadlee clan, with Sir Richard as its shining knight, went to "worship" and be worshipped at the Old Boys-Collegians "church", which has escaped serious damage.
These clubrooms may be restored beyond their former glory but they will never be the same.
I'm a big fan of restorative justice so perhaps the arsonist could be made to stand up before the entire St Albans club and confess to his actions.
And rather than bang him away in a prison cell, we could volunteer him for a more creative form of punishment -- six overs against Old Boys-Collegian player Shane Bond with a tooth pick for a bat and without pads or a box for personal protection.
IT'S not in the same league as arson, of course, but the city council's proposal to tear down Rugby League Park (RLP) and sell the Addington site for housing smacks, to me, of another form of public vandalism.
When I visit RLP I try to look beyond the rickety stands and the peeling paint of the perimeter fences. I prefer to remember its halcyon days. I delve back to the late 60s to the twilight years of my uncle's premiership career which featured Kiwi caps and almost inevitable broken noses. I can almost picture the park packed with thousands of fans for club grand finals, especially those involving arch rivals like Hornby and Halswell.
And I remember, most vividly, Logan Edwards carving up the Auckland defence as Frank Endacott's Canterbury team won the Rugby League Cup final 15 years ago.
Many other people have more momentous memories of classic matches there since rugby league first graced the ground in 1912. They don't want to see it become RIP for RLP.
But their rugby league reveries are at risk of being reduced to sepia tones if the park is carved up into townhouse lots.
I'd like to believe league hasn't been singled out because it is a blue-collar sport. But I'd also like to think our city councillors would have reversed the cold-hearted call to hike public housing rents by 24 per cent.
I also can't help but wonder whether council officials would be so quick to flick RLP off to property developers if it was called Rugby Union Park?
Restore this sporting citadel to its former glory as a showpiece of the Addington sporting cluster.
------------------------------------------------------
Will be a disgrace if we lose this venue, was sad enough losing Carlaw Park.
On a side note, i like the idea for those bastards that burnt down my clubrooms too, but let all the rest of us at him along with Bond
