Yes, NZ FC does stop. We get 3 rounds very early on - basically spring Late October / early November. When the seamers plunder wickets. Anyone who makes runs on those pitches is noticed.
Then we play some of 50 over stuff. Most of the 50 over games are played in ChCh, because there are more than 3 FC venues in this city, and 2 (if not 3) are right next to each other as part of a complex. So the North Island teams play away. This keeps travel costs down. Might be fun for all the players though being hotelled together and all in one city so often and so long. Helps keep the players social.
Then we have our Super Smash, which goes most December and January. Then at the end of Jan and for Feb, we go back to 50 over stuff.
So - in summary from Nov 8 round three finishing, there is no FC until 22 February. By March, all the national focus is back to rugby. Which is when the majority of FC is played in NZ. But we go most November, all December and Jan, and most February, without a red ball bowled in anger in domestic.
Its structured this way for the fans. Most people want to watch the whack it forms, than the pure stuff. So the pure stuff is played in Spring and Autumn, witht he whack it forms getting Summer, and the t20 getting the school and xmas hoilidays, the latter being just like you guys. The pure stuff is completely free in this country. Anyone may waltz into any FC game, and sit anywhere, for free. We don't even have members for FC matches.
Those March pitches in FC are far more roady, and offer much more encouragement to the spinners than the Spring pitches do. Run scoring on these pitches can be and often is largely ignored, ala Colin Munro. But noone at domestic gets any experience on NZ FC pitches in December, Jan or most of Feb for how they will play. Which is peculiar. Cos we do play tests over this time.
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