From the sticks to the city: Cricket fans make annual trip to T20 Black Clash

Tradies, sparkies, miners and farmers. For Luke Barrow and his Reefton mates, a trip the city is a rarity, so they go pretty large.

The 26-year-old and his friends made the trip from the West Coast to watch the now annual T20 Black Clash match in Christchurch on Friday.

The rugby team took out last year’s clash and now both teams – Sir Graham Henry’s Team Rugby and Stephen Fleming’s Team Cricket – each have two wins under their belt going into this year’s competition at Hagley Oval.

The Black Clash has grown since it started in 2019. In 2022, tickets sold out and another million or so Kiwis watched it live on television. This year it will also screen live in Australia.

READ MORE:
* Live: Black Clash T20 – Team Cricket vs Team Rugby in Christchurch
* Andrew Ellis, Joe Wheeler called in as Team Rugby injury replacements for Black Clash
* Daniel Vettori says ‘We’re pretty, pretty desperate for a win’ in the T20 Black Clash

When the Black Clash was first mooted, some critics said watching a bunch of retired cricketers go up against a team of past and present All Blacks could be a little cringe. Maybe it is.

But Barrow and the boys have made the trip for it before and here they are again.

They took the boy’s trip on the odd occasion to get away from work, home and their wives (said with absolute tongue in cheek, Barrow adds).

“We haven’t got nightclubs, just country pubs. So we have a good old lare up here and there… I’m not much of a city boy myself, but it’s good to get over here for a bit.

”We are all tradies, builders sparkies, one works in a mine. A typical weekend for us is hunting, fishing, tramping.”

The nightlife in Reefton isn’t all that exciting, so Christchurch provides them with the bright lights and more options for the single guys in the eight-man strong group, he says.

”We are always looking.”

Jokes aside, he wanted to see Team Rugby win the match, but he held little hope.