CRUSADERS ON THE MOVE

Category: Sportelizabeth

Date Added: 2 March 2010

It's a sign of the times that Crusaders Rugby Club will be playing their home fixtures at Hume Park as of the 1st of June this year.

It's a sign of the times that Crusaders Rugby Club will be playing their home fixtures at Hume Park as of the 1st of June this year.

Whilst the catalyst for this move is certainly the fact that regular home St Georges Park will be in use as one of the designated FIFA 2010 World Cup Fan Parks during much of this rugby season, Club President Martin Nefdt feels it's simply brought into focus a far deeper problem that's been developing at the club over a number of years: "Look, let me firstly state quite categorically that this move by us to Hume Park this season is only temporary" he told Sport Elizabeth. "There is far too much heritage, dating back to the very first Test Match the Springboks ever played, in 1891, attached to the Crusader Ground for us to ever contemplate relocating on a permanent basis, but the tragedy of our situation is that we face increasing difficulty to get optimum use out of our home venue each year. As you know, cricket and rugby are supposed to share St Georges Park but the way professional sport has gone means we now have a situation where cricket needs the venue for up to 10 months of the year and rugby probably needs it for 8 months out of the year! Previously we could look at starting training on the "A" field at the start of February but this year the earliest we can get on there is mid-March  and then only on the "B" Field. It's become very difficult and makes preparing for a new season very challenging. With the Fan Park this year denying us even more time at the venue it just made sense to look elsewhere and since we'd investigated using Hume Park as a possible practise field last year, that was the most logical option."

Preparation in advance of the move proved a little problematic.

"A lot of work was needed to get the field up to scratch and one of the requirements was for a lot of fertiliser. Unfortunately we introduced the fertiliser during what turned out to be the start of a very dry spell for PE and the lack of rain led to a very unpleasant odour enveloping the surrounding residential suburb of Hume Park. Residents were quite upset by this and I understand their frustrations completely" Nefdt said. "I spent all of Christmas trying to locate graders and trucks to cart in soil and water to cover the fertiliser and sort the problem out."

Nefdt is particularly thankful to Lionel Kretzmann for help in this regard: "After appeals to the Fire Department and the Municipality came to nought Lionel heard of our plight and came to our rescue and I'll forever be indebted to him for that. So will the Hume Park residents, I'm sure!" Nefdt adds that he fully understands the problems that prevented assistance from the Fire Department and Municipality:"Water restrictions meant the Fire Department couldn't help me and the Municipality are obviously short-staffed over that time of year. I'm sure that if they could have helped me they would have."

Crusaders will still play some of their home games this season, until June 01, under their new lights on the "B" field at the Crusaders Ground but, as far as the temporary home at Hume Park goes, their supporters will be hoping that the initial foul odour of fertiliser will be replaced by the sweet smell of success!