New Zealand: Burnside, St Albans discuss merger (15 December 1998)

15 December 1998

New Zealand: Burnside, St Albans discuss merger

The Christchurch Press

Traditionally strong cricket clubs Burnside-West and St Albans have scheduled amalgamation discussions for early next year.

While it is too early to suggest that St Albans would draw stumps and move from Hagley Oval, where it has been based since 1905, to Burnside Park, such a union would provide the Canterbury Cricket Association with its desired eight-team competition and reduction in the number of Hagley-based clubs.

The amalgamation between Lancaster Park and Woolston Working Men's Club, earlier this year, reduced the number of first-grade clubs to nine, creating an unsatisfactory bye.

While it has more than 500 youngsters enthusiastically dashing around the playing fields of north-west Christchurch on Saturday mornings, Burnside-West has suffered from a shortage of adult players.

That has been emphasised by a series of defaults in second grade, leading to its team being withdrawn from the competition last weekend.

"We have had more than the usual number of university students in the team and they have disappeared now that their exams are over," said club president Ray Burgess. Burnside-West has been left with only five teams in the CCA grades, down from 11 or 12 a few years ago.

The club has become accustomed to losing a large proportion of its juniors as they reach secondary school age, he said.

It would be far from unusual for Burnside-West to be involved in an amalgamation.

Its full title, Burnside-West Christchurch-University, testifies to previous mergers. The old West Christchurch-University club was actually a neighbour of St Albans at Hagley Oval.

Source :: The Christchurch Press (https://www.press.co.nz/)