Today was the final first class rugby game at Carisbrook. I saw the last few minutes when I got home from campaigning just now. Sadly for Otago they did not win today, but I am sure Clare Curran will have been there with the rest of the crowd to celebrate one of the legendary venues for New Zealand sport.
I pretty much grew up at Carisbrook. It was in South Dunedin to start with, which meant I could walk there from home. And I did, every Saturday. I think I know more about club rugby in Dunedin in the late 70s and 80s than almost anyone. There was some awful times. I shut my eyes as an 8 year old because I was too nervous to watch Steve Marfell from Marlborough kick a penalty that would have sunk Otago from the first division to the then second division south. He missed, god knows how it was right in front, and Otago survived.
Soon enough I was a ball-boy at the ground. Dozens and dozens of club games, rep games, and one test match. It was the All Blacks v Lions in 1983. The temperature barely got above zero, the ground was drenched, I was drenched, but it was the greatest day of my life to that point. Stu Wilson scored his then NZ record test try right in front of me , and my mate (now Prof) Tony Ballantyne as we stood a metre away on the sideline. (starts at 3.41 on this video clip.) I almost got hypothermia. The next year I did after struggling through a hail storm for some game or other. But we loved it- and there was usually a pie for us in the dressing room at the end of the day.
At the end of 1983 they dug the ground up. They had to it was mud-bath. The final game of the 1983 season was a 0-0 draw between Otago and Auckland. There was no way anyone could score points- no one could run the mud was so bad. When the dug up the ground they found a jersey buried under the mud at one end. The new turf was magnificent and it coincided with some golden years under Laurie Mains and Gordon Hunter. I moved to watching from The Terrace and saw some magnificent rugby. A lightweight Otago forward pack, backed up by the genius of Forster, Bachop, Leslie, Ellis, Wilson and co. beat all comers. At a tough time in my life Otago won the NPC for the first time in years, and I stood in the stand at the end of the game and I think I might have cried.
We shouldn’t forget the cricketing triumphs at Carisbrook as well. I wiled away many days with my scorebook watching Otago and New Zealand play there. I was there when Otago won the Shell Trophy one sunny day. And when Jeremy Coney and Ewen Chatfield batted New Zealand to a famous victory against Pakistan before anyone even talked about bookmakers.
The facilities were fairly basic at the ‘Brook. And the arrival of professional rugby, and the requirements for night games for television pretty much finished it off. But it was a real rugby ground, in a real rugby part of town. Its a new era down south, but for someone who can still feel the sawdust under the stand and still smell the mud on the ground, I can say for sure that Carisbrook will never be forgotten.
Good to hear your memories Grant. I’ve spent a lot of time at Carisbrook too, the first Rugby World Cup and many great games through the nineties – not all wins but you always knew it would be a top Otago effort – were great.
But now I can see what the new stadium offers I’m not sad to see the change, guaranteed weather will be good but I’m particularly looking forward to being able to watch from much closer to the sideline, the advantage of a non-cricket ground. I’m going to to enjoy the occasion and watch North Otago and West Coast play tomorrow.