Practice makes perfect on total-play's multi-use surface

Sports surface specialists total-play have been busy this summer, with recent projects including The King’s School, Chester and Wells Cathedral School, Somerset

The Cricketer | 17/11/2022 at 17:05

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

With schools' cricket now back in full swing following the Covid-disrupted 2020 season, total-play have been working hard, installing non-turf cricket pitches to schools requiring a facilities upgrade.

Headed up by former first-class groundsman, David Bates, total-play boast a huge amount of experience with their work including first-class counties through to high-profile, independent schools and cricket clubs all over the UK.

With a choice of six-ECB approved systems, total-play offer more choice than any other supplier, creating bespoke solutions that match all requirements. Suitable for practice nets and matchplay, their synthetic pitches replicate a high-quality grass pitch offering balance between bat and ball, with a true bounce and the opportunity to extract both pace and turn. Their surfaces require minimal maintenance and are eligible for ECB funding while also meeting ECB Performance Quality Standards (PQS) and ECB technical guidelines.

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^{The Multi-Use Games Area has been an 'absolute game changer' for Wells Cathedral School (supplied)}

Perhaps their greatest innovation lies within their Multi-Use Games Area's (MUGA), vital at utilising space and ensuring multiple sports can be played on the same surface. A recent example of this type of project is the 20m, four-lane install at Wells Cathedral School, Somerset. Director of sport Tom Webley expressed his delight with the new facilities and stated: "The MUGA has been an absolute game changer for us as a school. It's enabled us to train on a high-quality surface throughout the whole year in a variety of sports. The cage system is brilliant as it allows us to practice safely as well as control its use outside of school hours. The cricket lanes are superb, providing excellent shock absorption for the bowlers and good even pace and bounce for the batters. Overall, the MUGA has enabled us to up-skill our sports performers; it’s proved to be an asset for us, taking our sport to the next level.”

Displaying their tenacity at taking on projects big and small, their MUGA at The King’s School, Chester is mighty impressive, allowing provision for a combination of sports including football, hockey and basketball. Fully fenced and enclosed, their retractable netting system transforms into an ECB approved cricket facility suitable for match play or cricket practice. The ‘tp365’ system incorporates a dynamic unbound aggregate base along with their unique ‘tp2’ shock-pad and premium grade ‘tp1’ Wilton Woven playing surface to replicate a grass cricket surface, perfect for high-performance play.

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^{total-play's synthetic pitches replicate a high-quality grass pitch (supplied)}

Head groundsman Neil Smith eulogised: “The MUGA installed by total-play has become an invaluable sports area here at King’s. For cricket, it means pupils can start training earlier in the season compared to the old grass nets. They can use the area more often and by even more pupils than before, even if the weather and ground conditions aren’t great – the cricketers are happy with how the surface plays, which is very important. It has also become a more than useful area for fielding drills.

“The cricket nets are brought down with ease and, in the winter it, gets a lot of use throughout the day as an area for pupils to play football during free periods or at break and/or lunch. It serves all manner of games lessons and after school clubs including football, hockey and basketball. All in all, it has become a very popular and useful part of the sports complex.”

To find out how total-play can help your school or club, visit their website, email info@total-play.co.uk or call 01604 864575