The Waterboard Cricket Club veteran is at pains to point out that he has no ill-will towards the new rival Suburban Districts competition being launched by Newcastle District Cricket Association (NDCA) this month.

Mr Rippon admits his club even investigated moving to the new competition, but decided not to because it didn't want to risk losing Jesmond Park as its home ground.

So when the club found out this week that City of Newcastle has assigned Jesmond Park to the new competition, and Waterboard would no longer have access to the ground, its members were "gutted".

Mr Rippon and other Waterboard club volunteers curate the ground and last year raised $10,000 for a new roller.

"Having our home ground of thirty years taken from us without notice a week from the season is not only unfair and heart breaking, but is a slap in the face to the way our club approaches the game and others," he said.

"Jesmond Park is our home, we have built mateship, made lifelong friends and memories, grown up together as young men and are now bringing our young families up there together as well."

As the Newcastle Herald reported in June, months of bitter infighting in the NCSCA, triggered a landslide of support for the breakaway Suburban Districts one-day and T20 Saturday competition in the Hunter.

In it's inaugural season, Suburban Districts will have 52 teams, or about 1000 players.

The NCSCA, in it's 100^th year, will field 60 teams this season, down from 110.

NCSCA president Phil Northey said his players had been "wiped off" several turf wickets across the Newcastle local government area, including Jesmond Park, in favour of the new competition.

Mr Northey said NCSCA members had been playing on the grounds and maintaining them for decades.

"It's becoming a bit of a joke and we'll have to look at shifting some things out of Newcastle to Lake Macquarie or Port Stephens," he said.

"We've been looking after these pitches for years and have bought specialist equipment to do it, we've put money into the grounds via grants to upgrade water supply and these type of things and now we're told we can't play on them."

Suburban Districts chairman Aaron Gray said Jesmond Park would become home to NDCA's growing women's mid-week competition, its masters competition and the new Suburban Districts first-division games on weekends.

A professional curator, Green Options, has been employed to look after the turf wickets used by Suburban Districts, including Jesmond Park.

Mr Gray said NDCA planned to play all its 1st-division Suburban Districts and women's cricket on turf wickets for improved player safety.

"We are very grateful for the council's decision and looking forward to getting on with the business of growing cricket," Mr Gray said.

"We've always wanted to be respectful of the situation with C&S, we just presented our case for how the grounds would be used, and that involves more utilisation, and the council made its decision which we respect."

A spokeswoman for City of Newcastle said it supported Cricket NSW's push to grow the game in the region.

"City of Newcastle's ground allocation for the 2020/21 season has been based on advice from Newcastle Zone Cricket taking into account the recent restructure of cricket in Newcastle, the skill level of teams within the different competitions and opportunities to increase female participation in the sport," she said.

Mr Rippon said Waterboard Cricket Club would not give up without a fight.

He said Jesmond Park was "more than just a cricket oval", it was the club's home.

"The only reason it's an A-grade wicket is because all the work we've put in and we'd be happy for the other competition to have it mid-week and Sundays," he said.

"I love cricket and if people play cricket I think that's great, this just isn't fair.

"Jesmond Park should be for everyone to use, it's a great location, it's not meant for just one competition."

Mr Northey said he was waiting to speak with City of Newcastle chief executive Jeremy Bath in the hope of resolving the situation.

"We just want to get on with our competition like we have for 100 years," he said.

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