By Dale Budge

The United Cricket Club is one of the younger clubs in the Counties Manukau region but they are part of a much longer history and clearly have a massive future.

“It was formed as a combination of Massey Park Cricket Club and Ardmore Cricket Club,” club chairman Mike Bongard told Counties Sports Hub. “They got together in 2022 to form United Cricket Club.

“Collectively there was about 70 years of combined history playing Franklin or Counties Manukau competitions.

“In those 19 years we’ve had competition wins in various grades from T20 up to Senior A as well as two years in Prems.”

While there is a storied history there the most interesting part of the United Cricket Club is almost certainly about the potential that is there. Located in the heart of a population explosion, there will be natural growth in the coming seasons.

But that is only part of the equation.

“We have been based at the Drury Sports Complex for the majority of those 19 years but an exciting opportunity exists at the Opaheke Sports Ground,” Bongard explained.

“We have a grass wicket at Opaheke – there was no opportunity to do that at Drury – and the population growth in that Runciman/Ramarama/Opaheke area is just staggering.

“The council and Papakura Local Board have put a provision in for a pavilion to be constructed there in the coming years.

“Counties Manukau Rugby, Counties Manukau Rugby League, Auckland Football and the Papakura Sea Eagles are all looking at basing themselves there and there is an opportunity perhaps with Counties Manukau Cricket to work on an academy or other things there.

“In addition to the grass wicket there are already two artificial wickets there and the plans for the pavilion are at an early stage but the funding is already there so it will happen.

“We are playing T20 and Senior B games there now.”

Naturally United has ambitions of playing in the Premier grade again in the near future after a brief cameo in the grade in the mid-2010s.

With the future looking so rosy it is bound to be more successful than before.

“We struggled a bit with naivety with all of what was required at Premier level,” Bongard admitted. “Being the new boys we were on the wrong end of some score lines and I’m not sure we were prepared for that.

“I think we have bit more of an idea of what we need to do and what to expect if we were to get the opportunity again.”