A new sport landed in the athletics infield at Ngā Puna Wai this winter as it hopes to grow participation of the sport in Waitaha.

Canterbury Lacrosse is the latest sport to have utilised the facility for weekly sessions on a Monday evening from 6pm since the end of June.

Lacrosse is Canada’s national summer sport and has a lot of similarities with hockey - if you have a hockey skill set - you are likely to be good at lacrosse.

There are a few variations played of the game in terms of numbers of players in a team (usually 10), but one of the main differences is between the men’s and women’s game. The field markings are different for men and women and the women’s game is non-contact, while the men’s is full contact.

The sessions at Ngā Puna Wai were mixed and were open to anyone in the community whether new to the sport or an experienced player.

“The aim of these trainings was to get as many people with sticks in hand as possible,” said Canterbury Lacrosse President Liam ­­­­Griffiths.

With lacrosse now recognised by the International Olympic Committee it is hoped it will be a introduced to future games in a six-aside forma

With opportunities like this for the sport, Canterbury Lacrosse are looking to grow the game across the Canterbury region.

“The loose goal over the next 18 months is to have a six-aside league for open age and then high school leagues,” said Liam.

The Ngā Puna Wai Athletics infield was welcome discovery for the organisers who were searching for some lit field space over winter. 

The group had limited but good quality sessions  due to bad weather which interrupted the season.  However, Participants that came along were impressed with the superb facilities Ngā Puna Wai had to offer and were appreciative that they were able to use them.

Lacrosse as a sport was reasonably popular in Ōtautahi before the earthquakes with Christchurch winning the National Championships in 2009 but the sport in Christchurch has struggled to regain this status in recent times after the earthquakes.

Reigniting again, Canterbury Lacrosse began to get its momentum back about three years ago and now has four voluntary board members including Liam.

Since then, the sport had been building back up slowly with over 30 people coming to the summer sessions each week but like most sports has struggled to get the numbers back up post Covid-19.

The Canterbury Lacrosse team are building the sport in Canterbury by going into schools to run sessions and providing teachers the tools and skills to be able to run the games themselves.

Whilst the winter training sessions have come to an end at Ngā Puna Wai, the sport will be starting back up in summer with weekly trainings and games at South Hagley. They are free, all the gear is provided and there is no need to pre-register.

Contact Lacrosse President Liam ­­­­Griffiths on Facebook to register - https://www.facebook.com/cantylax/

Those involved with the sport cannot get enough of it and speak of its uniqueness in Aotearoa.

“I love plying lacrosse because its different - it’s something I’d never played before until I saw it and thought, ‘I want to play it,’- I have been playing for five-six years now. I got introduced to the game from an intermediate club day when I lived in the north island - a guy came to my school and introduced me to it. I then played the second year of high school and now I’ve played representative stuff,” said lacrosse player/participant James Burns.

“Not a lot of people have experience with it so everyone’s at that base level,” he added.

Contact Canterbury Lacrosse directly to find out more - Click here