St Kevin's College developing future Black Caps

31 Jan 2019

Funding Stories

We would like to extend a big thank you to the team at St Kevin's College, Oamaru for these wonderful action shots of their newly upgraded turf and cricket nets. Otago Community Trust was pleased to support the College with this project via a $34,000 grant approved in June 2017. 

The project was initiated as the old surface was ripped and had holes through it which was becoming increasingly dangerous when hockey balls were hit near them, and when athletes were running on the surface. The surface was also not conducive to racket sports as the balls did not bounce consistently. Furthermore, the old cricket nets had deteriorated significantly with the wire netting rusting and lifting. The ever increasing number of holes in the nets meant that cricket balls were often going through.

One of the drivers behind the surface upgrade was to increase cricket playing numbers in the region, especially 14-16 year olds, as there is a large drop off in this age range. 

It is wonderful to hear that since the new nets have been up the school has already seen an increase in numbers using them.  SKC Cricket numbers have increased and we had the most number of cricketers at our first training for a number of years. On top of this, teams from the community are using the nets - Oamaru Senior men's team and the North Otago Primary School Cricket team. It is great to see the facility improving the schools community links throughout the region.