Seddon Park

Infobox Stadium
stadium_name = Seddon Park
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location = Hamilton Central
Hamilton
NZ
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owner = Hamilton City Council
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former_names = WestpacTrust Park
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Seddon Park is a cricket ground in Hamilton, 4th largest city in New Zealand and is renowned for its "village green" setting, affording a picnic atmosphere for spectators. It is the second largest proper Cricket Ground in New Zealand. The Stadium was named after the former New Zealand Prime Minister Richard John (King Dick) Seddon. It has also been known as Trust Bank Park, WestpacTrust Park and Westpac Park. In 2006, Westpac Trust Bank NZ decided to end its sponsorship of a number of different sporting events and grounds in New Zealand and the stadium has reverted to its original name of Seddon Park starting in the 2006/2007 season.

Ground

Seddon Park is round. Originally outfitted for cricket, Seddon park is a well-grassed stadium with a centre block of 9 pitches, running approximately North/South. These are usually very good batting tracks. There is an embankment going around three-quarters of the perimeter and, outside this embankment is a tall hedgerow. On the side of the oval opposite the pavilion (the south-eastern side) is the semaphore-style scoreboard which shows all the names of the players in each team all the time etc. Seddon Park has a flexible stadium environment that can be modified to fit-for-purpose. The ground has been used for hockey, rugby and rugby league matches during the off-season and concerts on several occasions. Providing the weather is fine it has a hard outfield. During 2005 a sand slit sand carpet drainage system was installed into the outfield. The drainage system is made up of lateral drains spaced 10m apart running approx north to south and 13km of sand slits spaced 1m apart running at a 45 degree angle over the laterals. Then 40mm of san was applied to the top surface in layers. The drainage on the outfield is now excellent.

Usage

The Ground is used for hosting both One Day International Matches as well as Test Matches. Apart from these, First Class Matches are also played on this ground. It has hosted a total of 9 ODIs and 5 Test Matches. The First ODI played here was between New Zealand and India in which India was defeated.

The ground was also used for one season in 2001 for the majority of Waikato and Chiefs rugby home games. Temporary stands were raised for the games. Rugby returned to the newly built Waikato Stadium for the following year.

ee also

* List of Test cricket grounds

External links

* [http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/newzealand/content/ground/58831.html Cricinfo Link]
* [http://www.cricketweb.net/country/venue.php?CategoryIDAuto=8&VenueIDAuto=39 CricketWeb]
* [http://www.westpacpark.co.nz/index.asp?pageID=2145822663 Westpac Park Original Website]