This week in Sports Construction News – THE Bordertown Basketball Stadium extension and refurbishment should be complete before summer this year. Albury-Wodonga tennis court curator Shane Reid has prepared some of the finest surfaces on earth – including one memorable grand slam green-top. And University of Ballarat set of criteria that would enable synthetic turf to mimic the performance characteristics of natural turf is now downloadable.
Construction work, a slam dunk
4/14/2014, Benn Gransden – Border Chronicle
THE Bordertown Basketball Stadium extension and refurbishment should be complete before summer this year.
President Chris Jefferies gave an update on current works by local tradesmen to the Border Chronicle last Wednesday.
Work started on the stadium just after Easter thanks to a Department of Sport and Recreation dollar-for-dollar grant of $80,000 last year.
Work last week involved excavation, trench digging and concreting.
The building will be extended from 4-6m and stretches to a width of 37m from its previous length of only 14m.
Mr Jefferies said the extension was necessary due to excess clutter during peak season.
Tending the grass: Wodonga to Wimbledon
5/8/2014, Nick Fogarty – ABC
When Lleyton Hewitt won Wimbledon in 2002, not many Australians took much notice of the grass underneath his feet.
But Albury-Wodonga local Shane Reid, that year responsible for the state of centre court, certainly did.
The experienced tennis court curator said the tournament was “a real buzz”.
“During the championships I was required to mow centre court and number one,” he said.
“Then obviously after that was responsible for lining as well, and some rolling.”
Mr Reid was first noticed by Tennis Australia while working as an apprentice at Wodonga Tennis Centre.
Tennis Australia’s turf consultant, Murray MacFarlane, invited him to Sydney where he began working on Davis Cup courts.
Synthetic Turf Surfaces
In 2007, the AFL and Cricket Australia commissioned the University of Ballarat to develop a set of criteria that would enable synthetic turf to mimic the performance characteristics of natural turf.
Since the development of those criteria the AFL and Cricket Australia has developed a Synthetic Turf Program. A brochure outlining the program can be downloaded here.
