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

One of the few silver linings to come out of the coronavirus lockdown has been the rediscovery of exercise as a way to cope with trials and tribulations that the nation is undergoing at present.

A little research on the Sport New Zealand website reveals that casual exercise such as walking, running, swimming and bike riding is the most common form of sport and recreation in the country.

People throughout the Western Bay region have hit the pavements and green spaces in our local communities during the lockdown, in order to bring some stability and routine along with the health benefits to their lives.

The biggest benefactors of the big increase in casual exercise are likely to be the numerous young families, who are out and about every day.

Along with plenty of family bonding, many youngsters will experience the pleasure of regular walking for the first time.

Regular exercise frees the shackles of our sedimentary lifestyle, where screen-watching is a major daily activity.

The very first Tauranga sporting ground was established in the 1860's, with the arrival of the 12th Regiment, who built the Monmouth Redoubt.

Adjacent to the redoubt was the Government Paddock, somewhere near the present-day rose gardens on Cliff Road.

The military brought their love of cricket to play on Government Paddock with the formation of the Tauranga Military and Civil Cricket Club around 1866, likely being the first organized sporting club in the region.

In 1873, a group of Tauranga residents applied to the Government Native Minister for a public park.

Although their first choice was an area between the Huria marae and the newly formed road to Waihi, the Government handed over the more central area which became the Tauranga Domain.

Money for the upkeep was obtained by leasing land for grazing. This caused almost more problems than it solved.

The athletics and rugby clubs disliked using land on which cows had left their offerings, and the cattle often ate the small shrubs and trees laboriously planted by volunteer labour.

Football and cricket pavilions were constructed on the Tauranga Domain in the 1890s, with bowls, tennis, croquet and hockey played on a regular basis.

Mount Maunganui residents can be thankful of the vision of the town surveyor who laid out the Moturiki Township in 1913, in which a recreation area was an integral component.

Blake Park was named after the surveyor who had the foresight to allocate an area of land for the playing of sport in the future.

Today, the Tauranga Domain and Blake Park, are the flagships of the myriad of parks and reserves that provide sport and recreation opportunities for all in Tauranga.