Campey Turf Care Systems help Langley Cricket Club build for the future
As with most clubs, hosting matches is vital for Langley Cricket Club, as it provides them with a means of revenue. With the old outfield as it was there were regular call offs, and a lack of training space made it very difficult to establish a youth section within the club.
The club realised the importance of being able to maintain the new surface once the first phase of work had been completed in October 2015, with the second phase due to start in the middle of September 2016.
After consulting managing director of Campey Turf Care; Richard Campey, they purchased a Sisis Comibrake, Turfman, Trio Rotorake, Dragbrush, Sarel Spiker, and Raycam Dragmat, which Langley Cricket Club Grants Officer Matt Stevens explains has kept the surface in fantastic condition, contributing heavily to the growth of the club.
"It's absolutely crucial for us to properly maintain all the work that's been carried out," he said.
"What we've done in conjunction with Richard and our groundsman is to identify the equipment needed to maintain that standard.
"This season the groundsman has been able to use all the right machinery to provide us with a very good playing surface, and we just wouldn't have been able to produce that standard of surface without it.
"Campey's has supported the project fully and as a result the grant funders have been assured that the club has made some very good decisions in terms of equipment and what materials to use. And being able to provide such a positive report back to them, has really helped us."
With postponed matches and training the motivation behind the project, Matt wanted to make sure that this wasn't just a quick fix.
A main focus of carrying out the improvements was to build the youth set-up, and have the ability to carry out regular sessions to allow that to happen.
"We were finding because our drainage had been in place for circa 40-50 years that it wasn't fit for purpose, and a lot of games were being cancelled due to the weather," Matt explained.
"As a club we have to host games to survive, so we took a stance and said we needed to do something about it.
"A lot of our junior practices take place on the outfield and we've only had two practices called off this year because of the weather. Ordinarily with the poor summer we've had, the count would have been eight to ten sessions.
"We've only started our junior section in the last two-years, and this project has enabled us to go from just six kids to now having over 50.
Before the second phase of work has even begun, Langley have seen a financial benefit through being able to host more games, and an infrastructure benefit through their youth cricket system.
Matt is keen to attribute the current growth of the club, to the work that has taken place, and with particular mention of the advice and assistance from Richard Campey. He hopes the second phase of work will help the club grow further.