Our history

The Wellington Wanderers’ Cricket Club played its first fixtures in the summer of 1946/47 having been formed by the efforts of Dutchy du Chateau and John Standish. They wanted to have a social cricket team who, because they didn’t have their own ground, travelled gypsy-like to each venue.

The striking club colours of navy blue, green and yellow were decided on and with active recruiting of members from national and local representative teams, the Wellington Wanderers undertook games against teams such as the NZ Nomads (Wairarapa), London NZ, The Nondescripts (Hutt Valley), Erewhon and The NZ Army, and as well as club sides including Johnsonville and Eastbourne. One of the primary objectives of the club became the promotion of the game of cricket to secondary schools by playing games against College first XI’s. The Wanderers’ teams would always contain some Wellington representative players and occasionally a NZ player, which would provide inspiration to the young cricketers. This promotion of the game at secondary school level is what the club is now all about.

As a result of Dutchy du Chateau’s friendship with Waikanae farmer Peter Field, a cricket ground was formed on one of Peter’s sheep paddocks, and the Wanderers had a home ground to call their own. In December 1961 the first game was played and the pavilion followed soon afterwards. The original grass wicket was replaced in the mid 70’s by a coir matting surface, and then in 1988, with the help of the Norwood Trust, a top-class artificial AstroTurf wicket was installed. Sadly, due to declining interest, the last game took place in 2003 and the ground is no longer used. This means the Wellington Wanderers CC has returned full-circle to its roots as a ‘wandering’ cricket club.