English Park
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English Park is a
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...
in
Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
. It is the home stadium of
Canterbury United Canterbury United Dragons was a semi-professional Association football, football club from Christchurch, New Zealand. The team plays most of its matches at English Park in Christchurch, though they occasionally play in Nelson, New Zealand, Nels ...
, which competes in the
ASB Premiership The New Zealand Football Championship () was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a myriad of short-lived football leagues in ...
, as well as
Western AFC Western A.F.C. is a semi-professional association football club in Christchurch, New Zealand. They compete in the Mainland Premier League, Robbie's Premier Football League. History 1913–1920 Western A.F.C kicked off in 1913 when a small gr ...
which currently compete in the
Mainland Premier League The Canterbury Premiership League, formally Mainland Premier League and also known as New World (supermarket), New World Canterbury Premiership League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition run by Mainland Football for association foot ...
. The stadium has a capacity of approximately 3,000 people. English Park was used for cycle racing. For example, races were held in December 1927 and February 1928 to raise funds for Harry Watson so that he could compete in the
1928 Tour de France The 1928 Tour de France was the 22nd edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 17 June to 15 July. It consisted of 22 stages over . The Tour was won by Nicolas Frantz, his second win. He held the yellow jersey from beginning to end, desp ...
as part of the Australasian Ravat-Wonder-Dunlop cycling team; Watson was the first New Zealander to compete in the Tour de France. In 1929, English Park was used for
motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...
meetings until a competing organiser in Woolston bought out the interests in that sport. English Park is the headquarters for
Mainland Football Mainland Football is one of six federations of New Zealand Football, representing regions of Northern and Central Canterbury, Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast. History Canterbury United Pride was founded in 2002, to represe ...
, the largest of the seven football federations within New Zealand. From 2010 to 2011 the playing surface was changed from natural grass to
FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
approved artificial turf, new lighting was also installed to enable night matches, and trainings. In 2013 a café stall was installed. The park also features four team changing rooms, one officials changing room, one lounge with a bar, one kitchen, and a number of offices which are occupied by Mainland Football The park also hosts a number of early season
Mainland Premier League The Canterbury Premiership League, formally Mainland Premier League and also known as New World (supermarket), New World Canterbury Premiership League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition run by Mainland Football for association foot ...
games, and during the winter season where grass pitches are unplayable. Currently, most English, and Reta Fitzpatrick Cup games are played during the midweek in the evenings at the ground. The finals for both competitions are played over one day, during early September.


References

{{NZNL fb stadiums Association football venues in New Zealand Sports venues in Christchurch