Carlaw Park

Clubs who have used this venue as a home ground are listed below:

Competitions this venue has been used in.

• J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup

Carlaw Park - History 1921-2002

There was plenty of nostalgia at Auckland's Carlaw Park on Bartercard Cup grand final day Saturday, 14 September, 2002.

Mount Albert's 24-20 victory over Hibiscus Coast, and Hibiscus Coast's 44-40 extra-time win over Otahuhu in the Fox Memorial curtain raiser, were the last major club matches at the 81-year-old spiritual home of rugby league.

Not forgetting that two minor representative games were played in September and October, during the hastily arranged tour by Tonga.

Carlaw Park was officially opened on Saturday, 21 June, 1921, by the Auckland Rugby League President Hon. Arthur Myers, after a postponement of one week occasioned by inclement weather. The main game, played that same afternoon, was between City Rovers 10 who defeated Maritime 8.

The honour of scoring the first try went to Herb Lunn, the Maritime halfback.

The opening of Carlaw Park was the culmination of three years of negotiations and months of toil to transform it from a Chinese market garden. It was na-!Iled after long-serving Auckland Rugby League administrator James Carlaw, who had been the driving force behind the project.

There were early milestones. Terraces were installed, the original 640-seat grandstand was doubled in size in 1922, a match was held under electric lighting in 1923 (52 years before permanent floodlighting), and hot showers were available by the time Jonty Parkin's 1924 British tourists arrived to give the park back its test debut.

Even though only one test has been played there since
1992 - against Tonga during the 1999 tri-series - Carlaw Park still dominates the record books. It hosted 68 of the 123 test and world cup games played in this country. A distant second is the Addington Show Grounds (now known as Rugby League Park) in Christchurch, with 11.

For decades the playing surface turned to mud without too much hdp from the weather. Because most overseas teams came to New Zealand after completing full tours of Australia they unfortunately arrived in the wettest month of the winter July.

One French manager was moved to pick up a handful of sodden 'turf and proclaim Carlaw Park was "mud, mud, mud".

But the spectators loved it because of the intimacy. You could hear, almost feel, the big hits whether sitting in the current wooden grandstand, which was opened by Governor General LoJd Bledisloe in 1934, or the terraces, which were concreted and covered in 1954. The press box, perched atop the grandstand, swayed at the slightest inclination but offered the very best viewing in the rugby league world.

And the mud problem was solved by sand slitting and the laying of a sand carpet between 1985 and 1993. For the last decade or so Carlaw Park was usually in pristine condition.

The biggest (estimated) test crowd at Carlaw Park was recorded as 28,00 when the 1928 Lions toured, but capacity was gradually reduced to about 17,000. It was necessary to find other venues for the major internationals, hence the preference for North Harbour Stadium and Ericsson Stadium in recent years.

Carlaw Park was also used for such attractions as professional boxing, international soccer, supercross motorcycling, and the crusade of American evangelist Billy Graham. It had a golf driving range in the 1960s. A second playing field at the Stanley Street end ran at right angles to the main ground and was used for club football until 1993.

George Rainey was chairman of the farsighted Auckland Rugby League which purchased the park from the Auckland Hospital Board for $200,000 in 1974, financed largely by a loan of $180,000 from the hospital authorities. The embankment behind the Railway Stand was bought from Railcorp for $35,000 in 1994, and a road access from Stanley Street cost $239,500 in 1993.

It was a stunningly successful businessdeal, considering Carlaw Park was worth about $13 million when it hosted its last grand final. But current chairman, Cameron McGregor, was adamant that "selling is not an option". Consideration was being given to building a new stadium or engaging in a joint-venture commercial development of the site which would provide finance for the game.

In the meantime, Carlaw Park was to be reduced to a car park. The old No 2 ground was bringing in $250,000 a year in that capacity, and the main playing field was destined for a similar role, while resource consents were obtained.

Whatever its fate, Carlaw Park will ever be part of rugby league folklore as old timers and historians recount great days such as the dramatic one-off test against the 1951 Frenchmen, John Ribot's heartbreaking try to win the second 1985 test for Australia, or how the Kiwis picked themselves up to win the third test by 18-0 a week later.

Others will always remember when they played in the kids halftime matches and perhaps even scored a try on the hallowed turf.
- Source http://www.rugbyleaguenz.com/news.php?id=204