Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Walking around the confines of Blake Park last week revealed to Sideline Sid what a valuable, green space the Mount Maunganui sporting venue has become

A little historical digging revealed that Blake Park is named after the surveyor who laid out the original Mount Maunganui township in 1913, with the park on the very outskirts of the (then) small village.

Mount Maunganui attainted Borough status in 1945, which kick-started the growth and development of the sleepy sea-side town. In the early 1950s, there was local support to develop sporting facilities in the town, with a Queen Carnival held to raise funds.

Monies raised at the beauty pageant event were subsequently handed over to the Borough Council to clear the park, level the embankments and spread top soil to establish playing fields.

A railway container-load of Port Albert soil was ordered and delivered to establish the first cricket wicket at the park.

Council later acquired a further 40 acres, adjoining the original eight acres, which today is a sporting oasis that sits slap bang in the heart of Mount Maunganui.

One of the real benefits of Blake Park is that its sits on a former sand spit that provides spectacular drainage for the Bay Oval international cricket wicket.

The walk around Blake Park during the school holidays showed a variety of sport and training being undertaken.

A cricket age-group day camp was taking place on the Bay Oval, a football group were in action, there was junior tennis being played on the courts and the skate-board ramp was in constant use.

Just across the road, the hockey fields were a blaze of action, with a myriad of bowlers taking part in competition on the nearby greens.

We should be forever grateful, for the forethought of the former Mount Maunganui Borough Council, which has given us a superb, centralised sporting base for a wide variety of sporting codes.

My trip to Blake Park was primarily to watch the Bay of Plenty cricket stars of the future taking part in a one-day junior development camp.

This season, Bay of Plenty Cricket has upped the ante in junior cricket development, with Sport Bay of Plenty delivering nutrition and mental skills workshops at the Bay Oval camp.

In addition, the local Northern Knights took time out from their busy spring training schedule to provide specialist batting, bowling and fielding sessions.

The year seven to year ten youngsters lapped up the hands-on instruction from Daniel Flynn, Brett Hampton, Bharat Popli, Jono Boult and Tony Goodin, along with Dean Brownlie, who resides in the Western Bay.

With Black Caps Flynn and Brownlie in attendance, there was plenty of autograph requests and animated chatter during the day.

Maybe there was a future Black Cap (or two) in the group who will look back on the day that their local heroes came to town.