Log In

Reset Password
BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

PHC finally returning home after 20-year wait

It’s been a long time coming, but PHC’s nomadic existence should finally come to an end this weekend.Without a home for the better part of 20 years, PHC are back where they belong. The last time the senior team used the ground they were playing in the Commercial League.On Sunday, though, they will host Premier Division leaders St David’s for their first truly ‘home’ fixture since they joined the Bermuda Cricket Board’s league structure in 1993.“The last game that I was involved in was a Commercial League game, many, many moons ago,” said PHC stalwart Cal Waldron, “and I’m not even sure when was the last game played before that. That was before my time.”The return to PHC Field has taken slightly longer than the club first anticipated. In an interview with the Mid-Ocean News in 1992, Tony Binns, a member of the club’s outdoor sports committee, said the plan was to carry out upgrades to the facility and have the ground ready for the 1994 season.“We will be moving back the fences and the lights,” said Binns, who also suggested that day-night cricket might become a fixture at the ground.As it was, no football or cricket has been played at the field since the early 1990s, and it was only two years ago that the club finally laid a new wicket.“We’ve been working on the wicket since the beginning of February/March, but it’s actually been laid for a couple of years, so prep work has been done for a couple of years and the finish work has been done up to this season,” said Waldron.“We are due to get a venue inspection. I’m assuming if we get everything in place then by Friday we can get a venue inspection.“Everything is in place, if it fails anything then, we can go ahead and get it in place for Sunday.”There are still things that need doing at the ground, there is no clubhouse, so temporary facilities will have to be installed but for Waldron the important thing is that PHC now have somewhere to call home.“It’s all about the mindset, it’s now going to be a reality after we started this work two years ago and everybody is looking forward to this first game of actually playing up here,” he said. “It’s somewhere to call home.“We’ve played all over the place, we’ve been at White Hill, Bailey’s Bay, Police, last year we went all around, (Western) Stars, (Southampton) Rangers, everywhere.“It’s actually good that we’ve got somewhere to call home and hopefully the prep work that we’ve put in pays off and the wicket does good.“It’ll be good for the community, there’s a lot of people have asked ‘when are you going to play out there’, and every time we tell them ‘eventually’ they say good. It will be nice to just come off the hill, or walk down, come sit off and have some sports related activity back in the area.”In the weekend’s other games, two unbeaten sides will clash at Somerset when Willow Cuts host the season’s surprise package, St George’s. Wins over Devonshire Rec and Bailey’s Bay have propelled Clay Smith’s team to third in the table, although they are likely to face a much stiffer test on Sunday against a side boasting the talents of George O’Brien, Malachi Jones and Chris Douglas.Elsewhere, Southampton Rangers face a tough task if they are to get their first win of the season. At home to Rec, the visiting team are coming into the game on the back of an impressive Twenty20 win over St David’s last weekend. In the Premier Division’s remaining fixture, Social Club host Bay at Wellington Oval.