Ohoka Cricket Club celebrates 150 years

• Published date: 26 January 2023
• Publication title: North Canterbury News

Tickets are selling fast for the celebration weekend, so past and present members are being urged to register now using the club’s Facebook page or website

President Richard Belcher says early history about the club, which was formerly known as the Flaxton Cricket Club, is scarce, but an exert from the Lyttelton Times, from its Town & Country sections, shows the club’s first meeting was in October, 1873.

Mr William King presided over the meeting, which followed its first season, and which said the report was ‘‘fairly prosperous’’, not withstanding ‘‘very limited support’’.

The club’s home was initially at the Ohoka Domain, before moving to the Mandeville Sports Club, at Mandeville, in 1981.

Today the club is one of the largest in North Canterbury. It has five senior sides, and nine junior sides.

It has five cricket pitches, and its fields are considered to be among some of the best in New Zealand, hosting senior and junior representative games regularly.

Mr Belcher says the club also runs its own in-house twilight cricket competition.

While it has not had any members selected in the national team over the years, John Hamilton, a life member, played in the New Zealand under 19 side, followed by his...