Mowing the grounds for Hockey Match between West Coast and India,Rugby Park, Greymouth

About this image

DescriptionTrevor Molloy.." 4th from the right was Dave Nimmo , they were all hockey players.The reason for the handmowing was for a hockey match to be played on the football grounds , the match was between India and West Coast ."

Pic courtesy Sidey HillMap^[1]ContributorDenise Lois Gordon - Hill

Shown in this image

Location (city or town)GreymouthPersonDave Nimmo Landmark (Place)Rugby Park, GreymouthEventMowing the grounds, Rugby Park, Greymouth

Category Information

Category Tagsport

From Facebook

Date Created13th December 2019CommentsArthur Dehn My we have come a long way in these last 70 yrs , everything motorised, now .... I still work on these reel mowers

Caroline Emily Donovan Arthur Dehn i had one of those too, up until about a year ago! Bloody hard work but you feel good at the end of it

Trevor Keith Scott Sidey Hill, I remember Sydey very well he used to look after me when I went in for a suit or something to wear. Liked going to Sidey's as he was always kind and had fun with us young ones then, very good man and well liked.

Geoffrey Bell Definitely Rugby Park and most likely taken prior to the Buller- West Coast verse Springboks Game on the 24th of August 1937. This photo shows my mother and father making their way into the Grounds. The same two storey building can be seen in the background. Adam Gilshnan is correct.

Mary Moffitt Curses. Much as I like the evidence that this is a group of workers preparing something eg a rugby field, I prefer my first thought - that this was the beginning of a race. What fun. The only way we could replicate this experience would be with weedeaters.
I bet those mowers did race each other a bit once they got going!!

Mary Moffitt Now my hubby is telling me that they could NOT race because each mower would have to follow just behind the previous one to get the rugby field even.
Still think that each man would want to make a better job than the one in front. Bet the chaps had to sharpen up blunt blades beforehand, under supervision, or else!

Don Hutton Rugby Park. The old changing / groundsman's shed is behind the mower men and to the left is the shuttered refreshments stall where we bought toffee apples for a penny. One of the groundsmen was brilliant with numbers.

Mary Moffitt Old fulla here reckons the grass was always quite long on rugby fields. Since he was a hockey player, he agrees that such special mowing must have been for a hockey match which needed the field to be as smooth as possible, the reason being that it used a small ball.
He played in Greymouth when his Christchurch Hockey Club visited in the fifties, and again in the sixties. Are hockey games like this still happening?

Brian Langton
Would that have been around 1955 i got there autographs when they play Buller still got them.

Peter Leone Robertson
I went to that game. Bob Best a pupil at Grey Tech played in it.

Trevor Molloy
I think it was 1955 as I was a ball boy , I still have my free pass to get in .
Bill Garth
I remember that game. First time I saw a turban. Ace Boustridge played in the game

PaulAnthony Teens
Bill Garth bill. The nuns had them on all day!!!
Carol Linklater
My father Johnny Hurren was also a West Coast Hockey rep. and I have the emblem which was on his blazer with the dates 1935 -1940 and 1947 -1955 so I am wondering if he was in this team..

PaulAnthony Teens
I think in that game the Indians won on corners??

Carol Linklater
Paul brother Percy also played Hockey and was in the West Coast v Sth Canterbury Team played in Timaru 1936.

OCR Text Transcription Edit Edit +-Close

Editing is temporarily disabled

Cancel Edit

Start typing here to find a location	Latitude	Longitude	Zoom	Actions

loading google map....

Save Cancel

Menu

Mowing the grounds for Hockey Match between West Coast and India,Rugby Park, Greymouth

Editing is temporarily disabled