Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Blake Park has risen from humble beginnings over a century ago to a highly regarded sporting venue recognised by many sports fans throughout the world.

During 1913, the town surveyor of the day laid out the plans of Blake Park when the area was nothing more than part of a deserted sandy peninsula.

The foresight of the surveyor to put today's sports Mecca, in a wilderness several miles away from the small seaside community of the day, paid huge dividends a century later.

Originally the sports reserve was the size of a rugby field, and also served as the local rubbish dump, preceding structured development over the years to encompass 25 acres today.

The negative of early development from a sand spit, turned into a real positive, with sandy free draining surfaces that are the gold-plate standard for today's turf sporting venues.

Since the dawn of the new millennium, the Blake Park sporting venues have hosted a kaleidoscope of international sport. From ICC cricket tournaments and tours, to hockey test matches to croquet world championships, international sports men and women have chased their dreams in the shadow of Mauao.

Hand in hand with the multitude of sports played at Blake Park, has been the development of multi-sports training bases at the park that sits in the heart of Mount Maunganui.

In the coming months a number of world class sporting teams will visit the region to hone their skills in training, before embarking on battle campaigns.

No bigger sports stars will come to our town than the All Blacks who train at Blake Park this week. Let's hope that their 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign, is more successful than when they started their 2003 World Cup crusade, with a Mount Maunganui camp.

The Black Caps and White Ferns will be regular visitors to the Bay Oval indoor grass training wickets as they prepare for overseas assignments.

One of the super-star teams of FIFA Women's World Cup to be played in New Zealand during July 2023, is the Netherlands, who will be based in Tauranga and utilise the Bay Oval as their home training base.

The Dutch side were 2019 Women's World Cup runner-ups (to USA) and there is likely to be no bigger match in the preliminary rounds, than the replay of the 2019 final.

A full house is likely to be on hand at the Cake-Tin in Wellington on the 27 July 2023, when the Dutch go into a head to head battle, with the reigning Women's World Cup titleholders.

Known as the Oranje Leeuwinnen, the Dutch team will play Portugal in Dunedin, meet the USA in Wellington, before rounding out their preliminary round assignments in a return to Dunedin to square off with Vietnam.

Over the years, there has been no more interesting international team to train at the Bay Oval, than Afghanistan, who prepared for 2015 Cricket World at the Western Bay of Plenty venue.

October 2014, saw Afghanistan arrive in Mount Maunganui to play Auckland and Northern Districts, who were preparing for their NZC season assignments.

Future cricket fans will look at the Bay Oval website honours board in amazement, with the feat of Afghan batsman Usman Ghani, who smashed 107 runs against Auckland.

Back to the present – the Dutch support at the Women's World Cup is likely to include Western Bay of Plenty football fans who have caught a glimpse of the Netherlands at the Bay Oval, as they get ready for the Biggest Show in Town.