As rain descended on the region last week, the debate around sports field closures surfaced once again with confusion over why some sports could go ahead while others couldn’t.
Saturday football was cancelled across the board, a call that was made on Friday. However, Tasman Rugby Union opted to leave their call till 7.30am Saturday morning, and after conversations with council, junior rugby was still able to go ahead, mostly.
Nelson Bays Football regional and technical support Sheree Lapslie says, usually, if it’s been raining all week and the fields remain open, each club will check their grounds at 7am Saturday and post in a Whatsapp group whether senior, junior, both or neither, are good to go ahead. A group decision is then made on behalf of everyone at 8am.
“The problem we had last Friday is, at 7am all TDC clubs - Suburbs, Richmond, Māpua, Motueka, and Golden Bay - received a text from council saying ‘After last night’s downpour and a further 65mm forecasted today, all sports fields will be closed this weekend.’
“Once we, as a regional sports organisation, receive a text from council we don’t have a choice. I only need one council to close for it to be closed completely,” Sheree says of the sports area that spans both Nelson City and Tasman District Council boundaries.
However, later that day, she found out that the text was seemingly a mistake, with councils then working with local rugby clubs to relocate games and continue with junior rugby.
Sheree says this made for a few “grumpy parents”, but mostly because it looked as though they had chosen to make a call much earlier than rugby.
“Yes, we did call it very early, but we didn’t have a choice. There is a process, and myself and the clubs believe in the process.”
Nelson City councillor and Tahuna FC player Campbell Rollo confirmed TDC advised football on Friday morning that all fields would remain closed over the weekend.
“Football made the decision that fields are closed so football won’t go ahead,” he says. “NCC then posted, saying fields are closed but junior rugby is going ahead. That started people asking why one group are allowed to continue but we’re not.
“There are different messages going out there. For most winter sports, we’re just hitting the first quarter of the season, there’s still a long winter ahead.”
Nelson City Council manager operations deliver, Eddie Powick, says the primary reason sports fields are closed during winter when wet weather sets in is to protect the surfaces, so they remain open and available for the community to enjoy throughout the winter season.
“Experience has shown us that play during or immediately after heavy rainfall can cause significant turf damage, including rutting, compaction, loss of grass cover, and unsafe playing conditions.”
He says that repair works such as decompaction, topdressing, reseeding, turf replacement, and additional closures while the surface recovers can range from several thousand dollars for minor works to $15,000–$30,000 or more for major reconstruction and can cause “considerable disruption” to the sports community.
Marist club president Stephen Halcrow saw his club’s Club Day canned because of the weather last weekend, with Tāhunanui being one of the few Nelson fields to remain closed.
“It was very frustrating and a bit of a bummer. Sometimes I do feel the people at council are conservative and hurried to close the fields, but you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, we could’ve played on it and it might’ve wrecked the fields,” he says.
Stephen had 200 juicies and 200 sausages ready to go for Saturday, and with the draw not lining up to have all 11 junior teams playing at home again this year, Club Day is all but gone. When the call was made that Tāhuna would remain closed at 7.30am on Saturday, Stephen “didn’t really want to start jumping up and down”.
“Tasman Rugby Union’s Kahu Marfell and Chris Little did a great job. They’ve tried their hardest and that’s all we can ask.”
Both he and Campbell say it comes back to investment in the pitches, something Campbell says was agreed to some years ago in council’s Long-Term Plan.
“Last LTP we had the choice to improve drainage and lighting or invest in an all-weather turf. Council decided to improve drainage. Clubs are now asking where has that money gone because we haven’t seen the improvements,” Campbell says.
“We have to continue to highlight it. We’ve seen in other parts of the country, sporting clubs won’t pay the fees if the maintenance doesn’t happen. My hope is we don’t get to that situation.”
“I don’t know what the solution is,” Stephen adds. “It would be quite a pricey solution. We need to lean on NCC a little bit more and not be so trigger happy.”
Eddie says at this time of year, grass growth and turf recovery slow significantly due to lower soil temperatures and reduced daylight hours, meaning the damage caused during wet conditions can therefore take much longer to recover than in summer.
“Protecting our field conditions early is important to help maintain playable surfaces over the coming months. Council continues to work closely with sporting codes and clubs on a case-by-case basis for significant fixtures, tournaments, and community events where additional consideration may be required.”
Nelson Rugby Football Club’s junior club captain, Lisa Trusler, says, at the end of the day, the goal is to get everybody on the field playing sport.
