Hamilton beach volleyball courts take shape

PETER DRURY/ Waikato Times

PLAY TIME: Bruce Cooke, of Urban Lawns, takes a break from loading sand to test out the beach volleyball courts being developed at the old Te Rapa Bowling Club.

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Hamilton's starting to get some sunshine and now it has 385 tonnes of sand to go with it.

Some 85 truckloads of special grade sand were poured into the former Te Rapa Bowling Club grounds yesterday as part of a $30,000 transformation of the bowling green to the city's first public beach volleyball courts.

Waikato Volleyball Association jumped at the chance to take over the Ashurst Park outdoor bowling facility after a dearth of members saw the Te Rapa Bowling Club walk away from the club earlier this year.

The courts are to be tested tomorrow and a public open day will be held on Saturday in time for the summer league.

The sand, at a cost of $17,000, was trucked in from Perry Aggregates' sand mine on State Highway 1 in Ngaruawahia.

The Perry Foundation, Southern Trust, Grassroots Trust and Youthtown Trust had donated $10,000 toward the courts and the remainder had been funded by the Waikato Volleyball Association.

While volleyball would be the focus of the six-court facility as the sport continues to grow in popularity, it had also attracted the interest of the regional soccer association and touch rugby organisations.

The courts would become home to high-level, social, school and other local beach volleyball leagues and were the city's first public courts.

Hamilton volleyballers currently have to trek to Karapiro Domain and school children have used one of two single courts at two local schools.

Volleyball Waikato chairman Dave Macpherson said the association had been looking for a venue for about five years.

The bowling club was an ideal facility as it had benches, toilets and was fenced in. The courts would be available to the association's 2000 members, the majority of them children.

"We aren't expecting it will be hard to fill," Mr Macpherson said, despite Hamilton having no history of playing beach volleyball.

This would be the second time in New Zealand where a bowling club had been converted to a beach volleyball centre following the lead of Mairangi Bay in Auckland.

Waikato Bay of Plenty Football acting general manager Cam Mitchell said it was a great opportunity for the football club to give younger and social players a chance to develop their technical abilities.

The club was still in initial discussions about sharing the facilities, but if it went through he hoped to begin beach soccer tournaments and leagues in the new year.

- © Fairfax NZ News