Notts Sport Portfolio 2018

project portfolio 2018

www.nottssport.com



contents

5 Introduction
6 Woking Hockey Club
10 St Joan of Arc Catholic School
14 Wycombe Abbey School
18 Lord’s Cricket Ground
20 NottsGrass Ultra
22 Dean Close School
26 Stamford School
30 K Sports Cobdown
34 ShockWave and ShockWave EcoBase
38 Central Park, New York City
42 St Peters High School
46 Oakham School
50 Bryant Park, New York City
54 Norwich School
58 Fast Track Funding



Welcome to the third Notts Sport Company Portfolio, highlighting some of the exciting and prestigious
Sport, Play and Cricket projects we have completed in the past 12 months.

Looking back over our previous portfolios and the projects in the following pages, we have much to
be proud of and even more to be excited about with record numbers of customers signing up for their
2018/19 projects across our three key departments; Sport, Play and Cricket.

2017/18 has been a seminal year for Notts Sport, with the company due to move to new build offices
in July 2018 after undergoing a company-wide restructure to ensure that we are flexible and robust for
today’s ever-changing marketplace. In doing so, we are able to offer improved levels of service at all
stages and levels of the Notts Sport customer experience.

In addition to the design, development and delivery of some extraordinary projects, we have also
been hard at work in our Innovation Hub, launching our revolutionary NottsGrass Ultra surface for
non-turf cricket facilities. With installations completed at Lord’s Cricket Ground and Dumpton School,
we anticipate being in the position to have full ECB approval by Summer 2018. Turn to page 20 to
learn more about how we are bringing cricket surfacing into the 21st Century with our state-of-the-art
monofilament yarn technology.

As well as leading on innovation in Cricket, we are also seeing record numbers of enquiries and projects
for artificial grass rugby pitches. Our ShockWave base system leads the standard across the world for
head impact safety for artificial grass facilities with an unparalleled 2.5m Critical Fall Height result when
tested to World Rugby standards. As such, many customers see Notts Sport as ideally placed to ensure
that their rugby pitch offers the safest possible performance for players, coaches and parents alike -
while also providing elite performance for general playing characteristics.

Our industry-leading innovation and value are reflected in the number of Independent Schools and
customers working with Notts Sport on their external sports facilities. This year we are proud to
showcase Dean Close School, Stamford School, Wycombe Abbey and Oakham School’s projects, and
we have over 10 new Independent School customers working with Notts Sport for their hockey and
cricket projects in 2018. These projects include sports facilities for Monmouth School for Boys, Howell’s
School, Rendcomb College and Queen Mary’s School, with many others in the pipeline for our 2019
portfolio.

As market leaders and trusted advisors for customers in all sectors for synthetic facilities, we would be
delighted to discuss any future projects you may have in mind and we hope you enjoy this collection of
our work.

Kind regards

Duncan Bennett
Managing Director

Professional | Enthusiastic | Innovative | Honest | Supportive

page 6

WOKING HOCKEY CLUB

Woking Hockey Club is one of the largest clubs in the South of England,
the club fields nine men’s teams, six ladies’ teams and a range of youth and
veteran teams. The club is accredited by England Hockey Clubs First Scheme.
Notts Sport was asked to work with Woking Hockey Club to resurface the
existing hockey pitch at their Wishbone Way home ground and delivered the
National Level of FIH Certified Field Performance in Summer 2017 which
received acclaim from hockey players and clubs throughout the South of
England.
The facility was officially opened by Great Britain and England Hockey player,
and Notts Sport Hockey Ambassador, Sam Ward as part of the nationwide
hockey event HockeyFest.

page 7

Woking Hockey Club, Wishbone Way, Woking GU21 3RT

Facility size: 97.40m x 61.00m

Sports: Hockey

Pitch System:
• Sand dressed FIH national compliant
hockey turf
• 15mm insitu shockpad
• Engineered macadam base

Other features:
• New spectator stand
• 2 tone green surfacing
• Rigid panelled fencing with super rebound
• Hockey equipment

Completed: September 2017

Build Cost: £260,000

Points of interest:
• Officially opened by GB Player Sam Ward
• FIH Quality programme for hockey turf -
certified field

page 9

page 10

st joan of arc
catholic school

Starting the project development in 2014, Notts Sport worked with St Joan of
Arc for three years to obtain planning consent, including the redirection of a
public right of way (PROW) through detailed design and planning consultation.
Utilising the ShockWave EcoBase technology in the pitch base has resulted in
the FIFA and World Rugby compliant pitch being used by leading rugby clubs
in the area for training and junior development.
The Headteacher, Peter Sweeney was delighted with the project, “I found
their approach very professional from the start, we were kept informed of the
stages of development and the amount of pre-planning information made sure
the specification was exactly what we want and was really informative.”

page 11

“Notts Sport shared their experiences of working
with similar facilities which allowed us to make some
really informed choices about what we actually
wanted for our facility at St Joan.”

“The facility has been an immense increase on
the facilities we have at St Joan but it has been a
real benefit not only to our school but to the local
community. We have lots of additional groups from
outside of the school who come in and use the facility
at the weekend and evenings. It has enhanced
our own sports facilities and the experience of
our pupils, it has been a fantastic addition to our
facilities at the school.”

“It has also helped bring in additional revenue for
the school, there is, of course, some upkeep of the
facility but we have put in a plan to make sure we
have the funds available to relay the surface within
7 to 10 years, so we are making sure we get the
funds to do that but it also does bring in additional
revenue to support other activities in the school so
we are able to fund things we wouldn’t otherwise be
able to do.”

Facility size: 97.0m x 61.0m

Sports: Football and Rugby

Pitch System:
• NottsGrass 60
• ShockWave EcoBase
• 150mm of type 1X stone, 25mm of 0-6mm
quarried aggregate

Other features:
• 97.0m x 3.0m macadam spectator area
• Rigid panelled fencing with super rebound
• LED sports floodlighting
• Rugby and football sports equipment

Completed: September 2017

Build Cost: £680,000

Points of interest:
• World Rugby 22 compliant
• FIFA quality

page 12

St Joan of Arc Catholic School, High St, Rickmansworth WD3 1HG

page 14

Wycombe abbey school

Wycombe Abbey is recognised by School Sports Magazine as the eighth
best independent school and the third best girls’ school for sport in the UK,
and to maintain these achievements their facilities need to be delivered to
completion to the highest standard.
Notts Sport worked with Wycombe Abbey in 2017 to resurface their multi-sport
pitch to include lacrosse, tennis, hockey and netball. The pitch was designed
with a two-tone green sand dressed FIH compliant hockey carpet, that was
also suitable and designed for the school’s other required sports.
The facility was well received by Great Britain hockey player and Olympic Gold
medallist, Giselle Ansley, who commented, “This facility is absolutely fantastic,
obviously having more of these facilities around can help participation ten
fold, and it is fantastic for kids to be able to play on proper surfaces...what
could be better for them really?”

page 15

Wycombe Abbey School, High Wycombe HP11 1PE

Louisa Taylor, the Director of Sport at Wycombe
Abbey School was thrilled with how the project
developed saying, “We were recommended Notts
Sport by other schools, we also looked at their
reviews and they came really highly recommended.
We wanted a supplier that we could guarantee to do
an efficient job because we were looking for a high
quality surface.

The communication was great, they were very
clear on trying to create a project that we wanted.
Because it was a multi-sport surface, we had a few
different processes of design in terms of the amount
of lines that we needed on the pitch, and also the
nature of the surface so it would be appropriate for
different sports. They were great on giving advice
from their previous experience, but also listening to
what our needs were.

The surface is beautiful, not only to look at but
its functional purpose for our different sports is
fantastic. It did exactly what it was required to do. We
required a surface that was appropriate for tennis,
netball, hockey as well as football and lacrosse.
The bounce on the surface is great for tennis and it
plays really well with the various temperatures and
weather conditions that we have.

It has improved the amount of sports we can offer,
particularly when the weathers not so great.”

Facility size: 95.7m x 59.2m

Sports: Hockey, Lacrosse, Tennis and Netball

Pitch System:
• Sand dressed FIH National compliant
hockey turf
• 15mm insitu rubber shockpad
• Engineered macadam base

Completed: September 2017

Build Cost: £200,000

page 17

Lord’s Cricket Ground, St John’s Wood Rd, London NW8 8QN

lord’s cricket ground

Notts Sport has spent over two years developing the first truly new non-turf
surfacing technology and is delighted to work with Lord’s to complete the
world’s first state of the art NottsGrass Ultra installation.
Due to the success of the work Notts Sport completed at the iconic Lord’s
Cricket Ground in 2016, the ground staff and Director of Cricket were keen
to ensure that they had the latest and leading cricket surfacing technology
available to the teams playing at the “Home of Cricket”. In 2016, Notts Sport
refurbished the two practice lanes by extending their length, laying new
NottsBase performance pads and NottsGrass NG7 carpets.
Ryan Le Roux, part of Lord’s groundstaff team, commented: “We were
very happy with the service we received from Notts Sport. They were very
professional from start to finish.”

page 19

NINTOROTDUTCISNGGRASSULTRA

BRINGING CRICKET SURFACING INTO
THE 21STCENTURY.

Notts Sport is proud to announce the launch of its pioneering new cricket
surface NottsGrass Ultra.

Incorporating a state of the art texturised monofilament yarn brings huge
advances in cricket surfacing technology and catapults non-turf cricket
surfacing into the 21st Century. Indeed, due to the unique position Notts
Sport has in the hockey market, we were uniquely placed to take the yarn and
surfacing innovations in hockey and apply that technology to create the first
monofilament cricket surface in the UK.

Combining the NottsGrass Ultra with our proven non-turf cricket systems
combines the best of traditional system technology with a new surface and
fibre advances and sets new parameters for how a cricket surface and system
performs.

Creating consistent performance is at the heart of all our research and
development for cricket systems and NottsGrass Ultra has been developed
to maintain performance at all times. This ensures that coaches and players
are confident that ball to surface interaction will be as consistent as possible
resulting in better teaching, coaching and playing experiences.

Independent laboratory test results show that the NottsGrass Ultra fibre
maintains critical performance characteristics for longer when compared to
previous NottsGrass surface technology. This significant development will
provide coaches, players and customers with improved playing performance
over a much longer period of time which, in turn, creates more realistic and
consistent performance throughout the life of your cricket facility.

These yarn and surfacing advances means NottsGrass Ultra is substantially
more durable to long-term wear and tear than our already long-lasting NG7
and NG12 surface materials. This reduced wear will result in NottsGrass
Ultra maximising consistency of play throughout the life of the surface as
fibres remain intact and upright as close to day one as possible whilst also
maximising consistency for coaches and players alike.

By offering a state of the art non-turf surface, we are able to be in a position
to future proof your strategic investments along with any wider designs and
specifications required incorporating NottsGrass Ultra as the latest non-turf
technology.

The first installations are already completed at Lord’s Cricket Ground and
at leading independent schools as part of the ECB approval process and as
such we are now able to offer customers a true state of the non turf technology
for your cricket facility.

page 21

page 22

Dean close school

Notts Sport was appointed to deliver the resurfacing of the existing water
based hockey pitch at Dean Close School and obtained planning approval for
new fencing as part of our turnkey design and planning service.
During construction, it was determined that the original base was not of sufficient
quality to support the new FIH Global standard surfacing system. As a result,
Notts Sport led the project team through the additional reconstruction of the
pitch base which developed in to the pitch being completed and accredited as
a Certified Field under the FIH Quality Programme for Hockey Turf.
Great Britain hockey player and Olympic Gold medallist, Lily Owsley said “I
didn’t have a pitch at my first school and so I didn’t start playing hockey till
quite a late age and I feel I missed out on quite a lot. Going to clubs and
schools, it’s good to see how big the opportunities are now that people have
got good facilities.”

page 23

Facility size: 95.7m x 59.2m

Sports: Hockey

Pitch System:
• FIH Global standard monofilament water
based hockey turf
• 15mm insitu rubber shockpad
• New reconstructed engineered macadam
base
• New irrigation system

Other features:
• New rigid panelled fencing with super
rebound
• Hockey equipment

Completed: September 2017

Build Cost: £580,000

Points of interest:
• FIH Quality programme for hockey turf.
Certified field

page 24

Dean Close School, Shelburne Rd, Cheltenham GL51 6HE

page 26

stamford school

Notts Sport met Stamford School at the 2016 ISBA Conference and within
six weeks were onsite undertaking a full pitch condition survey to provide a
comprehensive working document to establish short, medium and long-term
requirements.
This led to the school deciding to appoint Notts Sport ahead of other pitch
consultants and contractors to lead the resurfacing of the hockey pitch in
Summer 2017.

page 27

Stamford School, Southfields House, St Paul’s St, Stamford PE9 2BQ

Facility size: 91.40m 55.20m

Sports: Hockey

Pitch System:
• Blue sand dressed monofilament synthetic
hockey turf
• 15mm insitu shockpad
• Engineered macadam base

Other features:
• 1m wide spectator area
• New macadam footpath

Completed: September 2017

Build Cost: £265,000

Points of interest:
• Custom supplied logos included within the
pitch

page 29

page 30

k sports cobdown

Notts Sport worked for three years to deliver two world-class sports pitches
and in doing so helped K Sports become one of the leading sports hubs in the
South East of England.
With both the 3G FIFA compliant football pitch and the recently completed
FIH National certified hockey pitch, the local sports teams have moved back
to Cobdown after playing at different locations in Kent and the outer London
area, ensuring that the Cobdown community has their sports clubs at the
heart of the community for the first time in many years.
Boasting a completely refurbished clubhouse and function centre, alongside
the floodlit hockey and football pitches, the K Sports brand is now a leading
destination for all manner of schools, Governing Bodies and wider sports
development activities and programmes.

page 31

Facilities size:
• Hockey pitch - 101.4m x 63m + recesses
• 3G Football pitch - 106m x 70m + recesses

Sports: Hockey, Football and Rugby

Pitch systems:

Hockey
• FIH National sand dressed monofilament
hockey turf
• 10mm specialist XC cut foam shockpad
• 300mm unbound dynamic base

Football
• NottsGrass 60
• ShockWave EcoBase
• 150mm of type 1X stone, 25mm of 0.6mm
quarried aggregate

Other features:
• New rigid panelled fencing with super
rebound
• Fully compliant lighting to both pitches
• Full complement of sports equipment
• Access road leading up to the pitch
• Macadam spectator areas to both pitches

Completed: November 2017

Build Cost: £1,100,000

Points of interest:
• World Rugby and FIFA compliant 3G pitch
• The home to K Sports Hockey and Football
Clubs

page 32

K Sports Cobdown, Station Rd, Ditton, Aylesford ME20 6AU

SINANFOEVTAYTION
SPUERSTFAOIRNMAABNILCITEY
UNRIVALLED

A ground-breaking development in shockpad and base performance, Notts Sport’s ShockWave
EcoBase System has revolutionised the safety and performance standards to which 3G Rugby and
Football pitches are measured. Constructed from Expanded Polypropylene (EPP) which is used in
car bumpers, cycle helmets and packaging materials, ShockWave was developed in consultation with
major sports governing bodies and is manufactured at world-class plants with world-class supply chain
partners.

The unique way that ShockWave is engineered means we are providing the safest possible head impact
performance (as of April 2018 we offer an incredible 2.5m Critical Fall Height test results against a
World Rugby requirement of 1.3m) in combination with a circa 45% Energy Restitution and a circa
8mm Vertical Deformation test results. This means not only does a ShockWave pitch offers the world’s
safest head injury and concussion protection, it also offers what is the best all round player experience
for synthetic rugby and football pitches, combining safety with firmness and in doing so creating a pitch
designed to support fast, exciting free flowing rugby on a system that outperforms any other 3G artificial
grass system across any number of measures, particularly for Rugby (League and Union).

In terms of the practical benefits in construction terms, one of the big advantages we are seeing is the
speed of installation which contractors are proving will shorten the total installation of a new full size, new
build pitch (including lighting and fencing) to as little as 8-10 weeks compared to a 14-16 week install
with traditional options, meaning your pitch can be constructed and become available sooner, benefiting
you in achieving strategic goals and any external partners such as local Rugby and Football teams. Not
only that, our overall EcoBase system brings with it with the environmental and long term performance
benefits that suits and match many of our customer’s wider vision, strategy and requirements relating to
sustainability and long term financial planning and budgeting.

Our vision from the start of what became a 2 year Research and Development process was to create
the world’s best and safest Artificial Grass Rugby Pitch which overcame the perception that 3G pitches
with shockpads are “soft” and cause accelerated lower limb / muscle fatigue, increasing the risk of injury.

All completed projects tested to FIFA, World Rugby, Rugby Football League and GAA illustrate that our
original vision is being delivered on every ShockWave pitch and as a result we are keen to explore how
Notts Sport can partner with leading Rugby playing schools in providing state of the art, high quality
facilities offering the highest standards of safety and rugby performance to their players, students and
other stakeholders alike.

page 35

ShockWave and ShockWave EcoBase

Labosport Ltd have worked with Notts Sport in the
development of the ShockWave EcoBase system
since 2014; in the research and development
stages, laboratory testing and in the post completion
field testing since its launch.

Based on the testing we have undertaken, there is no
other system that offers a 2.5m critical fall height for
World Rugby (Reg. 22) compliance (requirements
of 1.3 m) while at the same time providing good
performance for shock absorptions and vertical
deformation. Normally a critical fall height of 2.3m
would result in a very soft and tiring surface that
would struggle to meet the shock absorption and
deformation requirements. ShockWave does not
have this problem which is currently unique from
our testing experiences.

With our 25+ years’ experience of sports pitch
systems, we have found that ShockWave EcoBase
provides an unrivalled and unique performance for
3rd Generation (3G) pitches due to its combined
results across key areas such as shock absorbency,
critical fall height and deformation.

Labosport believes innovation is key to sustained
success by driving quality, and ShockWave
EcoBase sets a new benchmark for artificial turf
sports systems. We are pleased to have to been a
part of the ShockWave development and its ongoing
success, and we look forward to seeing many
pitches in the future using ShockWave technology.

Dr Colin Young
Managing Director
Labosport Ltd

page 37

page 38

central park,
new york city

Notts Sport has worked with Central Park Conservancy for over eight years
to a point where our unique SurfacePlay impact absorbing safer surfacing
systems are installed at seven playgrounds in the world’s favourite park and
one of the most visited urban landscapes in North America.
The playgrounds which were installed as part of the conservancies, ‘Plan for
Play’ campaign, have been well received by the New York City residents.
James Lyle, a local parent commented, “The playgrounds at Central Park are
so important in such a dense, urban area. The children need these places to
run around safely, especially with homes having such little outdoor space in
New York.”

page 39

Central Park, New York City, NY, USA

In April 2016, the East 72nd Street play area was
voted by the public of New York City as the favourite
playground in Central Park.
Along with the award winning play area, the
SurfacePlay systems have been installed in the,
‘World’s busiest play space’ at East 110th Street
playground, illustrating its popularity and, just as
importantly, its durability and play value throughout
its life.
All areas of the park are currently managed by
the Central Park Conservancy under contract
with the municipal government in a public-private
partnership. The Conservancy is a non-profit
organisation that contributes 75 percent of Central
Park’s $65 million annual budget and is responsible
for all basic care of the 843-acre park.
With an eighth facility, the Billy Johnson
Playground, due for completion in Summer 2018
and more exciting developments planned for 2019,
SurfacePlay is fast becoming the premier choice of
playground surfacing for destination parks in New
York and throughout North America.

page 41

page 42

st peter’s
high school

The hockey pitch resurface and new ShockWave EcoBase 3G pitch at the
school was fully funded via Notts Sport’s Fast Track Funding scheme in 2018.
Notts Sport led the project development, completing full planning consultancy
for the new build 3G and working closely with the school to ensure a fully
robust design was achieved to meet strict requirements with the likes of the
Environment Agency.
Stuart Crabb, the Head of Physical Education said, “A very professional
service from start to finish which removed time consuming elements of a build
program for us. The staff were very professional and always looked to meet
our needs to design a cost effective solution.“

page 43

St Peter’s High School, Stroud Rd, Tuffley, Gloucester GL4 0DD

Running parallel to the planning, Notts Sport
completed a detailed design consultancy to ensure
that the schools strategic vision for a world-class
rugby facility would be delivered.

The school has already established external
partnerships with local rugby teams including
Gloucester Rugby along with football and hockey
clubs ensuring the community now has a truly
world-class sports hub offering elite hockey, football
and rugby pitches to complement the existing high
performance strength and conditioning centre.

Fast Track Funding has been the key to creating a
funding model that is underpinned by a business
plan which has allowed the school to deliver
£800,000 worth of state of the art external sports
facilities without any capital contribution.

Facilities size:
• Hockey pitch - 97.4m x 61m
• 3G Rugby pitch - 85m x 51m

Sports: Hockey, Rugby and Football

Pitch systems:
Hockey
• FIH National sand dressed monofilament
hockey turf
• New 15mm rubber insitu shockpad
• Engineered macadam base

Football
• Lano Rugby MasterMax 60
• ShockWave EcoBase
• Dynamic base

Other features:
• Retaining wall
• New floodlighting system
• Socketed rugby posts
• 4m high fencing

Completed: April 2018

Build Cost: £667,380

page 45

page 46

oakham school

Oakham is rated as one of the top hockey-playing schools in the country, with
both the boys and girls teams enjoying consistent success after winning the
county championships and the Indoor and Outdoor National Finals in recent
years. Beyond Oakham, players have gone on to play hockey for a number of
top clubs, including Rotterdam in Holland, and Reading, Clifton and Holcombe
in the UK.
In 2016 Notts Sport were appointed to deliver the resurfacing of the second
hockey pitch at Oakham School and worked with the project team at the
school through a detailed design and development consultancy to ensure that
the specification for the resurfaced pitch met all bespoke requirements for
various sports.

page 47

The eventual specification was bespoke, in order
to meet the performance requirements established
through the involved design consultancy. Since
completion, all stakeholders have been delighted
with the pitch performance characteristics for the
key sports, hockey and tennis.

Great Britain and England Hockey Player Luke
Taylor spoke of the importance of high quality
facilities such as Oakham Schools, “I grew up
playing a lot of school hockey and having good
facilities means that better and more of the sport
can be played and will eventually make us a better
hockey playing nation with more people participating
resulting in better competition”.

Facility Size: 105m 68m

Sports: Hockey and Tennis

Pitch System:
• Tiger Turf Evo Pro HockeyTurf
• 15mm insitu rubber shockpad with 12%
binder
• Engineered macadam base

Other features:
• Green surround
• New recesses
• Full suite of sports equipment
• New scoreboard
• New spectator area

Completed: August 2017

Build Cost: £270,000
page 48

Oakham School, Chapel Close, Market Pl, Oakham LE15 6DT

page 50