Warkworth withdraws from cricket competition

The Warkworth Cricket Club won’t be fielding a team in this summer’s Rodney competition because it can’t find enough players.

The current club started in 2014 with ambitious plans to field multiple teams in the T20 and 40-over competitions, catering for men, women and juniors.

However, club president Hayden Searle says it has been a struggle from day one to attract players. This has been exacerbated by the disruptions caused by Covid.

“It’s pretty disheartening, but I think people’s lives have changed over the past three years,” he says.

“Some players have become more involved in their children’s sport but for others, I think they have got out of the habit of weekend sport and maybe are enjoying weekends with less commitments.”

Searle says a number of club players lived in Auckland and travelled north for the competition.

“Having to sit in the summer traffic queues on Saturday mornings has also put some players off.”

The club had repeatedly tried to establish a cricket pitch at the Warkworth Showgrounds without success.

“The sport needs a higher profile in the area to draw people in. The other sports codes at the showgrounds were all supportive, as well as the committee behind the multisport centre.

“The difficulty was Auckland Council. It refused to help – they wanted us to pay for everything and then vest it in Council.”

Searle says the club will try to muster a team for the 2023/24 season.

“There’s a lot of volunteer hours behind the scenes that go into running the club, securing sponsors and so on. It’s pretty heartbreaking to invest that time and then not be able to find players.”