A new third generation (3G) artificial grass pitch (AGP) has opened at the Clifton Campus of Nottingham Trent University (NTU) for the benefit of students and the community.
The university unveiled the £900,000 purpose-made, floodlit 3G AGP by staging the FA’s Girls' Football Festival.
The new state-of-the-art pitch aims to strengthen the connection between professional football clubs and their local communities. Women's Super League Notts County Ladies will use the pitch for training as will West Bridgford Colts FC –and the Young Elizabethan League Nottingham for over-fives will stage weekend competitions.
NTU Director of Sport and Lifestyle James Hayter said: "This pitch is a great addition to our sport offer at the university and will allow our sports clubs, as well as those in the community, to have access to top quality facilities all year round."
It is the second of this type of pitch at the campus but is the only one suitable for football and rugby with the other being used predominantly for hockey.
Dawn Fencing Limited of Leigh, which has been going more than 30 years and is the only fencing contractor dedicated solely to sports, installed the fencing to FA rules around the 116m pitch.
They installed over 300m of fencing in total – at heights of 1.2, 2, 3 and 4.5m –including recesses at either end to store goals and two on either side for team dugouts. There is an additional storage area outside one end of the pitch, while one complete side is fitted with low-level spectator railings.
The fencing is Zaun’s high Duo8 Super Rebound twin horizontal wire panel fencing which is highly durable, low maintenance, ‘graffiti-proof’ and offers great rebound properties similar to a hard surface.
The university secured funding from the Premier League, The FA Facilities Fund, Sport England and Rugby Football Union to pay for the majority of the new pitch's costs.
NTU was one of 38 projects awarded funding from the first round of Sport England's Improvement Fund, which invested £9.9 million of National Lottery funding into upgrading pitches and swimming pool changing rooms across the country.
The sports centre is named after Lee Westwood, one of the world’s top golfers of the last 20 years and one of the county’s top sportsmen, to whom NTU awarded an honorary degree as Doctor of Science in 2007.
