NEW LEASE OF LIFE FOR NETBALL COURTS
20 January 2009
Work has begun re-surfacing 11 netball courts at Dudley Park’s North Canterbury Netball Centre.
The job, partly funded by NZCT, is expected to take two weeks to complete, with the courts opening for twilight netball on 2 February 2009.
Centre President Patricia Johnson says laying a new asphalt surface is an expensive, but vital, maintenance practice.
“Netball is a very physical game and it’s tough on the body. Falls and spills are part and parcel of the sport but, to minimise the risk of injury, we try to provide the safest possible environment we can,” says Patricia. “This means keeping the courts ‘up to spec’.
“Over time asphalt deteriorates, cracks and thins so we need to re-surface the courts every 10 years or so,” she says. “The issue is funding of course. It costs around $100,000 to do this job – and we simply couldn’t raise that sort of money from club levies or player subsidies. We rely on funding from other sources and we are grateful to NZCT for contributing to this very worthwhile exercise.”
NZCT Canterbury Regional Advisory Committee chair Stephen Boock says the trust was only too help to help.
“We are the largest funder of amateur sport in New Zealand because we believe amateur sport is a vital part of our society” says Stephen. “However, we know how hard it is to raise funds while keeping sport affordable and accessible to all. That’s why we’re backing the North Canterbury Netball Association,” he says.
“We always try to return money we raise back to the community from where it came, so we’re proud to be involved in this project.”
The court re-surfacing coincides with a major upgrade of facilities at Dudley Park. A new sports pavilion is due to open at the beginning of the winter netball season. Twenty netball clubs – from Amberley through to Oxford - use the Dudley Park courts. During the winter season, more than 60 games of netball are played there each week. In summer, mixed twilight netball is increasing in popularity, with 30 teams playing last year and 46 registered for 2009.
