High School Old Boys may challenge the validity of a proposal by Canterbury Cricket to remove its senior status next season.
HSOB is one of the longer established clubs in the province and next season intends celebrating its 75th anniversary. It has a proud history, having produced numerous New Zealand and Canterbury players, among the best known the Hadlee family.
If the side was stripped of its senior status, it could be the death knell for a club which could not then attract promising young players.
Canterbury Cricket is seeking to reduce the number of first-grade teams to eight for the 1999-2000 season as recommended in the Adams report last year. It called for fewer teams to strengthen the standard of club play.
If there is not a merger between two clubs during the next year, Canterbury Cricket suggests stripping High School Old Boys of its place in the first-grade competition.
The Press understands a club advisory group of independent observers has recommended that the clubs in outlying suburbs of the city -Marist, Burnside-West, East-Shirley, Sydenham, Old Collegians, and Lancaster Park/Woolston -- should keep their first-grade status as they serve their local areas.
It then focused on the three clubs based at Hagley Oval -- Old Boys, Riccarton, and St Albans. It has been deemed desirable to shift a club off the heavily-used ground if possible. The clubs were assessed on various criteria including finance, facilities, club, and administrative strength.
Old Boys was judged the most vulnerable, leaving many in the club unimpressed at the club's recent annual meeting.
It is understood the strength of the senior team, which has been solid in recent seasons, was not an over-riding factor in the decision. Last season Old Boys finish fourth in the 10-team competition and the previous summer it was second, thwarted from winning the WestpacTrust title by bad weather on the final day.
Old Boys is also the only club of the three to have a junior boys' section.
Incoming Old Boys president Cran Bull, a solicitor and former Canterbury captain, is representing the club and is believed to have requested a meeting with Canterbury Cricket.
Neither Canterbury Cricket nor Bull would comment on the issue yesterday. Canterbury Cricket's new board chairman Maurice Ryan also would not comment after a board meeting two nights ago where the recommendations were presented.
Christchurch clubs have been informed of the situation.
When talk of mergers first surfaced, Old Boys considered linking with Old Collegians to form a club at Elmwood Park.
It had hoped to form a ``super club'' combining tennis, bowls, and cricket, but the Elmwood Tennis Club was understood to be cool on the idea. It was hoped the Old Boys rugby club, which has no playing home for its senior side, could also have come across.