About Heathcote Cricket Club
Heathcote Cricket Club is nestled at the foot of the steep volcanic crags that form the northern edge of the Port Hills. Located 7km southeast of central Christchurch, the ground is surrounded by hills on three sides. It is one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in New Zealand.
The club has 10 adult teams, including a women’s side, and seven junior teams in the Christchurch Metropolitan Cricket Association competitions. As such, we cater for all ages and abilities. Our top men’s team is in the Premiership grade with our 2nd and 3rd XIs also playing competitive morning grade cricket. The junior section is vibrant with up to 100 children taking part in our Friday night ‘Have a Go’ sessions.
If you’re brand new to the club, contact us to find out about the appropriate training or team for you to be part of.
As well as enjoying success on the field, Heathcote Cricket Club is a social and community hub. Our club rooms, the after-match speeches, annual functions, and the excellent Three Boys Brewery beer on tap are the envy of other clubs in town.
History
While officially ‘founded’ in 1928, Heathcote Cricket Club can trace its roots back to the 1860s. In February 2014 we held a match to commemorate the 150th anniversary of a game played between the Heathcote Valley Cricket Club XI and Albion Cricket Club in February 1864.
For the first 50 years or so, the club was fairly small, usually fielding two teams, and the facilities consisted of a hut, which provided a changing room. In 1978, the hut was demolished and a community centre was built on the site. The club was allocated a changing room at the end of the new building to compensate for the loss of the hut.
The club grew considerably in the 1980s, both on and off the field. Soon it was fielding five or six teams. The single changing room was progressively added on to and by 1990, the club has a proper club house with a bar, changing room showers, internal toilets and a kitchen.
In 2008, the club took another leap forward, annexing an adjacent unused scout den, which allowed us to create a second changing room, a new entrance foyer, and an accessible toilet.
In February 2011 the epicentre of a significant earthquake was located almost directly below the club. Thankfully, most of the new addition survived the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks, but unfortunately most of the 1980s additions did not. This resulted in a major fundraising effort to rebuild the club rooms. The rebuild was completed in September 2013. We now have a two-storey building with a viewing balcony, resplendent with an electronic scoreboard donated by our Club Patron, Dave Collier.
