Case studies

Banbury CC tp365 enclosed

As one of the leading club sides in Oxfordshire running several sides of varying age groups and abilities including four Saturday sides, a very successful ladies’ section and a strong youth set up, Banbury CC’s practice facilities get some pretty heavy use.

With its existing 3-lane non-turf practice facility having been installed in 1996 and, despite numerous repairs, becoming unfit for purpose the club started to research new facilities in 2018. With limited space on site, the club was keen to invest in an enclosed system to free up a section of the outfield for training its junior section; and visited numerous other clubs to look at different system types and suppliers.

total-play Ltd’s installations impressed on all counts and, having provided a competitive quote for the installation of a new, bespoke 4-lane fully enclosed system to its flagship ECB approved tp365 system design, was contracted to undertake the project.

Work started on site in autumn 2019 with the new installation pivoted from the position of the original facility to run parallel to the hedge; providing space for a 4-lane system with 2 lanes at 40m and 2 lanes at 33m; freeing up a good ¼ of the outfield for coaching use. Despite some pretty inclement winter weather, total-play’s in-house groundwork and installation team battled the elements to deliver the completed facility on time.

In Summer 2020, we caught up with club spokesman Paul Taylor, who led the project to find out how the new facility had been received:

“The whole project was seamless from start to finish; everything ran to time despite the winter weather, the finish of the system is second to none and it will be a great asset to utilise in the development of our club. Having watched people perform in it, the surfaces are excellent and the flexibility of the system, with the two 40m lanes, mean our first team bowlers can get a full run-up and really give it all they’ve got, giving the batsmen a real challenge. It’s a great facility for practice at all levels in the club and we’re really pleased with the result.”