Welcome to this edition of our InTouch Newsletter

It’s been a while since our last newsletter, as we’ve been busier out of season than we are in season…. A great problem to have and we’ve certainly been making the most of it. You’ll read updates below from both Steph & Jimmy as to what we’ve been up to as a team but suffice to say it’s been nonstop here.

Consequently, we’re roaring into the new financial year and doing all we can to make haste while the sun shines after a devasting few years of covid restrictions.

Christchurch Park Motels & Events Centre

We are proud of the work we do to look after our club members and guests, and we encourage you all to think about using Christchurch Park for your next function or event. Equally if you have friends, colleagues or family visiting and needing a place to stay – our motel units are set in a beautiful courtyard garden and provide a clean and comfortable option for short- or long-term stays.

As with any service, the strongest recommendation is from our guests…….recent reviews and feedback from happy customers.

We’re always keen to do a deal for our club members, so get in touch with Jimmy if you want to find our more. He can be reached on manager@christchurchpark.co.nz or 027 4335529.

We are in the process of securing our 2023 sponsorship relationships for next season. If you would like a great opportunity to promote your brand, within the largest community rugby club in the South Island, please let us come and meet with you to look at ways we can partner together. Next year we will be hosting multiple tournaments and events, in addition to numerous large corporate groups and networking opportunities. Providing sponsorship support is a great way to give back to your club community.

We have sponsorship packages to suit all budgets, with each package tailored to your requirements. If you’d like to know more, please click here to complete a sponsorship expression of interest form or feel free to call or email Nic Flint on 021 906833 / nicola.flint@christchurchpark.co.nz

Our volunteers are the backbone of our club and it’s been great to see Milsie and his crew on site getting into the numerous jobs that need doing to maintain and improve our club. If you’re able to lend a hand please let us know – we are always grateful for your support. Thanks Milsie and crew – you’re all absolute legends!

Canterbury Rugby 2022 End of Season Awards

We were delighted to see several of our club members recognised and nominated for awards this year.

Our absolutely outstanding junior girls’ coaches, Jono & Vicki Campbell were both nominated for Coach of the Year. What Jono & Vicki bring to the club and our girls cannot be quantified in words. While they missed out on winning the award, to be nominated as junior coaches in an awards ceremony that almost exclusively featured only senior coaches and players, tells you how massively valued and aware our community is of the work they have done.

A massive congratulations to one of the true legends of our club family. Steph has always done the Mahi and earned everything she has received. Our club is blessed to have such an individual as our RDM and the pride she shows in the Red and Black hoops is second to none.

Congratulations to Atlanta Lolohea for being named Patterson Cup Most promising women’s player. With all the ability in the world Atlanta is sure to be a superstar in the years to come.

Our club and community is super proud of the efforts & the Mahi all of our award nominees and recipients put into rugby!

160th Anniversary

2023 will see our great club celebrate its 160th Anniversary – an amazing achievement and an opportunity to celebrate our past, present and future opportunities. This year, we will be unveiling a range of commemorative apparel and collectors’ items to our club members, which will also help us to achieve some of our fundraising goals. We will also be arranging a range of functions and events to celebrate this special milestone. More to come in our upcoming monthly newsletters, but if you have any ideas or suggestions as to what you would like to see, please email nicola.flint@christchurchpark.co.nz

Jimmy’s Operational Update

So, it’s been an interesting time since the end of season, but as a club we’ve managed to stay pretty busy, and our turnover has been strong with 100% occupancy now a regular feature for both the motels and function rooms. The Motels are seeing a great mix from both independent travellers and group’s we’ve had through, with many becoming repeat guests, which is fantastic to see.

A brief overview of October and November to keep everyone updated. The start of October saw the end of the Junior Crusaders camp which involved their use of motels, grounds and facilities with breakfast/lunch and dinners which was an awesome way to showcase what we can offer. They had a good win over the Junior Highlanders to finish off their camp.

Steph utilised the facilities with a holiday programme which created a new dimension for us.

We’ve had an engagement party, NZ Jetboat prizegiving and even our own Craig (Hitman) Armstrong clocking his 50th with us (and his daughters 21st) the same night.

November has seen us hosting a special unit from the NZ Police which utilised the motels, facilities along with breakfast/lunch and dinners (hopefully not too many neighbours were alarmed by their real-life simulations).

The Learning Place has a number of bookings for the facilities to educate our youth and also making use of the motels.

Another engagement party and looking forward to the NZ Police National touch tournament being held next week for the first time at our facility.

The month will finish of with another education company workshop, and what will shape up to be an entertaining night with a key sponsor, Naylor Love’s Movember function.

Steph’s Rugby Development Manager Update

Even though the Rugby season is meant to be over, it has been an exciting few weeks of rugby for the club. 

First and foremost we can’t go past the fact we had two wāhine toa who represented not only our club but themselves their whānau and the country proud. Phillipa Love and Amy du Plessis were an intregal part of our New Zealand Black Ferns team and we would like to congratulate them on behalf of the club for their hard work and taking out the English to win the World Cup. We have loved following your journey to retain the trophy and you both played some fantastic rugby. We hope you have some well earned rest and we welcome you back next season in the red and black.

Also Congratulations to our very own Axeman #127, Mike Cron (Crono), for his coaching wisdom for the forward pack which grew in leaps and bounds through the tournament. Mike has been involved in our club since 1978 and is true club stalwart and rugby legend.

Our mens and womens 7s teams entered in the interclub 7s tournament over 2 weekends in November and competed well. Our mens took a game to find their stride, but managed to come away with a win in the bowl final agaist CBHS/uni combined team. The 2nd week the men went one better and made the plate semi only to go down to New Brighton in a hard fought battle.

Our Womens team, after a slow start to the morning with a default from Sydenham, ended up taking out their pool games and progressing through to the final against University club, after a tough battle, coming out to win the first weekend. The 2nd week again going through pool play unbeaten and ended up playing a strong High School Old Boys team in the final and going down to them in the end (although they had a couple of borrowed CFC players). They ended up coming away with the trophy, as they came away with the most points over both weeks. Congratulations to the women for adding another trophy to the club cabinent.

We have named our coaching staff for our premiers for 2023 and would like to wish John Sherratt and his management all the best in preparation for the season, there is also some pretty handy resource coaches that will be offering their skills to the squad. Look forward to season ahead and watching what this group can do with the team.

We are into preparing for our 160th year next year by starting our preseason on Tuesday 15th with a great turn out for the first of the season with all involved connecting over kai afterwards. 

We welcome back Duncan Trevella as Strength and Conditing Coach and to help club wide, to get everyones’ fitness up before the season starts.

Our pre season trainings will be:

Tues at the club 5.45-7.15pm

Sat morning 9-10am - off site (beach, hill, stairs, crossfit)

Look forward to seeing everyone at these trainings and we encourage you all to get into sooner rather than later.

This year, we are stoked to be able to offer free pre-season kit to those who sign up and get involved, so it’s a win/win, not only preparing you for next season but also rocking some sweet CFC kit heading into summer holidays. Massive thanks to our pre-season kit sponsors, who have made this possible – we are so grateful for your ongoing support!

JUNIOR CORNER

The Junior Club keeps on rolling throughout the year, with our teams now firmly into the Touch season, representing the red and black into the summer months. We are delighted to be fielding in teams in both the Nunweek Park and McFarlane Park tournaments, but our aim continues to be to run our own tournament at Christchurch Park, so our families can make the most of our wonderful onsite facilities.

Our junior girls also had a super successful NZ Girls Rugby Tournament up in Auckland, making the most of the once in a lifetime experience to take in the Women’s RWC action while also providing outstanding performances against the teams from all around NZ over the weekend.

Taking part in 25 games over the two tournament days, we had some exhausted but happy girls and parent support returning back to Christchurch on Labour Day. This tournament caught the sports headlines on all the major national news channels over the weekend and the Christchurch girls featured heavily in the coverage. A massive and heartfelt thanks to all the parent support that helped make this trip a reality. The club, girls and their families owe you a debt of gratitude for your time, care, and attention.

This tournament was a CFC initiative, put together and devised to be hosted at Christchurch Park in 2021, before Covid caused us to cancel. We partnered with Global Games and Ponsonby Rugby Club to move the tournament to Auckland for 2022, so the girls got the unique opportunity to experience the RWC, but we are delighted to confirm, that we will be 2023 hosts of the tournament and biannually thereafter, with Ponsonby hosting on alternative years at Western Springs. If you’d like to see a bit more of the girls in action, you can view a video of the event here.

Bunnings Assist Update

We were so lucky to be one of the Bunnings Assist recipients of $30,000 worth of Bunnings products and related items to enable us to complete a renovation of our changing sheds 3 & 4. Over three quarters of all eligible clubs applied to be in to win this prize and we were one of 10 lucky clubs throughout NZ to have their applications accepted.

We are loving working with Bunnings Shirley to get our renovations completed and Christine and her team at Bunnings have been outstanding to deal with. As you can see from the before photos, the changing sheds were pretty grim, but we now have the new plumbing in, painting nearly finished and we hope to have the renovations completed prior to Christmas.

Thanks Bunning Shirley – we are so lucky to have this opportunity and we know our teams are going to absolutely love the new space when it’s finished! Here are some pictures of the renovations underway.

Next stop will be to start installing the shower cubicle partitions and storage in the changing area....we can't wait to give you an update in our next newsletter!

More information about the Bunnings Assist programme and the recipients please click here

That's it for now - we'll be back before Christmas to give you an update in our next monthly newsletter!

Article added: Thursday 17 November 2022