Summer Sports Delayed

Cricket, summer football, touch rugby, softball and athletics are among the many summer sports and activities that will be affected. We're finding it difficult to get the city's parks and sportsfields into shape after the winter season and some grounds are waterlogged.

The Council's Sportsfields Manager, Trevor Jackson, says the grounds have been so saturated that his team is now behind with scheduled work, including the renovation of cricket wickets, reseeding of winter fields and re-levelling with topsoil and sand.

"Even if the weather and ground conditions changed dramatically over the coming week and we were able to get the work under way, we're still looking at a delayed start of up to three weeks to the summer season - which is officially due to begin at Labour Weekend.

"We're working closely with the sporting codes around a possible start date. There will be a potential staggered start to the season as some grounds dry out before others."

On grounds that have managed to dry out - mostly in the south and east of the city - grass reseeding and other work is currently being undertaken.

"Over the course of the renovation period we expect to distribute 6 - 700 cubic metres of topsoil and 14 tonnes of grass seed over the sportsfields," says Trevor.

Porirua and Hutt City Councils are in a similar position with the wet winter also affecting the start date of their summer sports season.

In August this year, 205mm of rain was recorded - the most wet days in August in seven years - compared to 135mm in August last year.

Please, please keep off the grass.

"We're hoping for an improvement in the weather and will keep assessing the situation but until then, we're asking teams to please keep off fields while we do this work," says Trevor.

"This will allow the grounds to recover before we head into a very busy summer period and into next winter."

If you want to check on grounds, phone our cancellation line, (04) 801 4134, or visit the Sportsgrounds section of this website.

Information is updated at 8.00am and 1.00pm daily and advises which grounds are closed and any exceptions.