McLean Park, Napier
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The interesting things you find on the net.
I admit I didn't know much about the history of McLean Park, so I found this article interesting.
Newspaper Article 2005 – Settlers kicked off long goal to park
A living record of Hawke's Bay and its people
I assume the second field is what's now the Rodney Green stand and Events Centre? Or was it at the other side?
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After a bit of googling, I found this. Some interesting milestones.
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My recollections are quite hazy .It's almost 50 years ago and these were the days when you drove with a quart bottle of lion wedged inbetween your thighs which you would be sipping at regularly.
We'd camped at Taupo and my old van didn't cope very well with the Kaweka's so it was a slow old trip across so we were pretty happy by the time we made it - not long before kick off.
We sat at the western end of the stadium. I remember it was a reasonable crowd for a mid week game, bloody cold and a pretty dour game which Auckland won. The ground. A bit old - quite spartan, lots of concrete, but that was true of Eden Park in those days too.
Despite visiting Napier at least four times a year and having walked past the ground many times, that remains the only time I've actually been inside.
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@dogmeat Not much concrete back than. Both the now gone McKenzie and the fire destroyed Harris Stands were definitely basically wooden structures with brick or possibly concrete bases. At the Western End would have been the Centennial Stand which went up in about 1956 so not sure what was there before that went up (before my time obviously!) The eastern end has always been known as "The Bank" and it's 100% grass.
History | McLean Park
