The Te Puke Cricket Club is to celebrate a unique milestone in the history of club cricket in New Zealand when they commemorate 125 seasons since the club first fielded a team.

The celebrations are to take place over Easter weekend 2013.

In September 1887, the Te Puke Cricket Club was constituted with the president being captain Evered and the first chairman George H Lee.

The vice-presidents were captain Bennett and George Lee, with the secretary listed as Mr Steel, believed to be Peter Gillies Steel, headmaster of Te Puke School.

The first subscription was set at five shillings.

However, cricket had been played in New Zealand since the 1840s with the first recorded game in Te Puke in 1884.

The first fully recorded match in New Zealand was played in Nelson in March 1844.

The game was between a Nelson side and the surveyors of the New Zealand Land Company. Nelson won handsomely.

Records show that runs were recorded as notches – the earliest scorers in England made cuts to sticks to record the score.

Tall hats, cravats, trousers tight at the ankles were the fashion and it was the custom for matches to end with both teams sitting down to a gargantuan meal.

The first match against Tauranga in the 1887/88 season was lost by an innings however the new clubs first success came against Katikati at the Tauranga Domain.

There was an 11 year wait until Te Puke first beat Tauranga, with the Te Puke victory coming in 1898.

The records show that Te Puke scored 150 and dismissed Tauranga for 126.

Over the years the club has had a number of high profile players don the colours of the club. The Te Puke honours board is littered of the achievements of Lance Cairns during the 1980s while son Chris also played for the club as a youngster.

Another Te Puke club player to represent New Zealand was Andy Roberts who played seven tests during the mid-1970s.

Welshman John Derrick also played alongside the Cairns in the club team.

As a player, Derrick was considered by many as extremely unlucky not to wear the colours of England.

After representing Glamorgan, Derrick made the journey to New Zealand during several English winters to play for the Te Puke club.

In recent years it has been the turn of two local brothers to go on to play for the Black Caps. Mathew and Robbie Hart played both test and one day international for New Zealand.

More recently current Black Cap star Kane Williamson has turned out in the Te Puke uniform, while All Black legend Grant Fox played for the club in his younger days.