Closed and damaged venues disrupt sports

The closure of their normal indoor training venues after Saturday's earthquake has forced the Canterbury netball team to train outdoors this week to prepare for a national championship game against Otago on Saturday.

The team's normal training venue at QEII has been closed along with all the other indoor facilities operated by the Christchurch City Council, and the Bryndwr YMCA stadium.

Kay Norris, the regional manager of Canterbury Netball, said the team had tried to turn the setback around.

"They are taking the attitude that from adversity will come strength."

No date has been given for the reopening of the council facilities and in the meantime Canterbury netball is contacting schools in the city to see if any have a gymnasium available.

Norris said the team had already made the decision to travel to Dunedin this weekend if Christchurch Airport was open.

The following two Saturdays, Canterbury will have home games against Southland and Auckland Waitakere, and Norris said they hoped QEII would be open by then. If not they would look at a school gymnasium and if that was not possible, they would have to take the games out of town.

"But we don't want to do that because we would miss the support of the home crowd and it would be a cost for us," Norris said.

Canterbury Netball's office at QEII is also closed but Norris is hopeful they will be able to return on Monday and that the indoor facilities will be available then or soon after.

John Filsell, the council's facilities manager, said all the council's sport and recreation facilities were closed after the earthquake and engineers' reports were being prepared .

The results of those reports would be released at the same time and Filsell was hopeful it would be tomorrow, but said continuing aftershocks could mean some facilities had to be inspected more than once.

"We want to get the facilities open but until we get the structural reports, and reports that things like water and sewer lines are OK, we can't reopen."

The Canterbury Indoor Bowls Association hall in Kearneys Rd, Linwood, is also closed. "We had a few panels fall off the ceiling but we had a report today and we are hopeful we can be open again at the weekend," said the CIBA president, David Bullock.

Grant Lewis, the general manager of Golf Canterbury said several clubs had reported damage to clubhouses and courses including Clearwater, Windsor, Coringa and Avondale. Amazingly the Kaiapoi club escaped damage, as did the Waimairi Beach club.

Two rounds of the premier interclub competition, the Woodward Cup, will be played on Sunday at the Christchurch club at Shirley, which also escaped damage. It is only a few hundred metres from one of the worst-hit areas in the city, Kingsford St.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Rugby League is considering switching the South Island's national championship match against Waicoa Bay Stallions on Sunday to an alternative venue as Canterbury Rugby League Park, the sport's traditional Addington home, is closed until Monday.

NZRL chief executive Jim Doyle said a final decision would be made tomorrow.

The Canterbury Rugby Football League (CRFL) has been forced to postpone some senior and junior grade finals for the second consecutive Saturday. The matches were to be played at Rugby League Park, but CRFL general manager Graeme Sole said the venue was closed to the public till Monday, pending inspection by the Christchurch City Council.

- © Fairfax NZ News