Hurunui celebrate 25th Anniversary

As a number of the original Hurunui Sub-Union clubs celebrate centenaries and other significant milestone, this weekend signals the 25th anniversary of the combined Hurunui club, with Club Day set for Culverden Domain on Saturday.

An amalgamation of four clubs, Hurunui RFC is one of the newer clubs in Canterbury, “As a club, we’re really conscious that we’re a new club by these days standards.” said Hurunui President Kevin O’Neill, “It’s a celebration of where we’ve come from, and where we are trying to get to.”

“There’s a lot of people who have put a ton of effort in over the last 25 years to get us to the point we are today.”

“The club plays such an important role in our area, so to be able to recognize the community and support the club gets, for example, some of sponsors have been with us the full 25 years, so it’s a great opportunity to say thank you.” Said O’Neill

As a part of Saturday night’s formalities, the club will be inducting their first life members.

“Being a new club, there’s still a number of members around who have been around for the lifetime of the club,” O’Neill said, “we’ve got our our first life members being inducted tomorrow, Tim Le Pine, Emelyn Francis and Ally Youngman, so it’s great to recognize the massive contribution those guys have put in over our short history.”

“We’ve also got two guys receiving their 200-games Blazers tomorrow, Norty Anderson and Cale Dobby, they went through some hard years when we were in Division 2 and rebuilding, they’ve been a massive part of getting us back into the Senior competition and getting us competitive too.”

It’s fair to say Culverden Domain will be humming tomorrow, with all Hurunui teams at home, including an important Luisetti Seeds North Canterbury Division 1 clash with Ashley.

“It’s great to have all the teams at Culverden this weekend, it’s pretty special to have every team at home, so we’re looking forward to the occassion.” Said O’Neill.