Bespoke Cricket MUGA
Brief:
To create an ECB (England & Wales Cricket Board) approved non-turf cricket practice facility that would also provide the school with a surface suitable for football, hockey and netball, alongside a synthetic long / triple jump facility, including landing pit area.
TP Solution:
total-play’s in-house team undertook all work on the scheme; from facility design and initial groundwork through the laying of the dynamic aggregate sub-base, shock pads and carpets to the erection of specialist rebound perimeter fencing. In terms of specification, the main MUGA surface was constructed to the tp365 ECB Approved Pitch System. A proven fully retractable netting system, based on a design in use at Birkdale School for over three years, was installed to transform the facility from non-turf pitch to cricket practice nets. Bespoke elements include waist-height, twin-bar rebound fencing with timber kick boards and recessed goals and a catch net due to the proximity of neighbouring playing fields. The synthetic long / triple jump facility was installed alongside the MUGA area; its landing pit finished using rubber-top perimeter kerbs.
Works were carried out during the 2013 school summer holidays for completion in time for the start of autumn term – representing tight timescales for a major project. The total-play team returned to site early in 2014 to install the retractable netting system enabling to facility to be transformed into cricket practice nets as and when required.
“Due to its versatility, we foresee the MUGA getting a significant amount of use. Unlike traditional cricket practice nets, which would only have been in use for three months of the year, this will give us a useful year-round facility. Evidently this makes financial sense but, from a practical perspective, it means that every pupil in the school will, at some point during the year, make use of the facility – whether it’s during cricket practice in spring and summer or hockey and PE lessons in the autumn.”
Adrian Brown, Headmaster
