Get ready for slog sweeps, arm balls, badgers and cow shots, but hopefully no sledging or sticky wickets as cricket is set to come to Joe Magani Park.
Construction of the new cricket field is well underway with the concrete slab laid, turf surface installed on the pad and the ground around the slab feathered in advance of sod, which is expected by the end of the week, weather permitting, according to Terry Foran, director of community services.
Despite experiencing a somewhat soggy summer, Foran said the project has only seen minor delays since work began on the west side of the property on June 22.
“Maybe we’ve lost two weeks out of it. We were always planning on completion towards the end of August. We’re now looking probably for early September. The sod that goes down now, needs to knit. Essentially the roots need to take for approximately two to three weeks, depending on the conditions,” he said.
Because the timeline can’t be guaranteed down to the day, no date for a grand opening can be announced yet, but Foran said staff have been co-ordinating with interested organizations to permit their time on the field once it’s ready.
“They have been asking, and we’ve been letting them know what our ETA is so they can get out there for their first date,” he said.
To make way for the field, two trees were relocated within the park and one failing ash tree was cut down as a result of damage from emerald ash borers.
At 100 metres by 90 metres, the oval field will be smaller than a regulation cricket field, which usually measure 140 m by 150 m, meaning hardball cricket games won’t be permitted, and as a result the pitch is being considered a temporary solution, but Foran expects it will still be appropriate for softball cricket games.
“It’s called temporary and that’s fine. The concrete pad is quite permanent, and even if a greater facility is built in the near future, like a full-sized pitch, it’s not to say that this one disappears. It could be used for different types of programming. There’s always going to be potential up here to continue using this as a facility for this sport,” he said.
Foran compared starting with a softball cricket pitch to starting with a junior ball diamond before building a senior ball diamond, or a five-versus-five soccer pitch before a full-sized soccer pitch.
“As a start I think we are really, really forward thinking. I’m very encouraged to see where it goes for our long-term planning. ... We’re very excited anytime we have an opportunity to deliver a new service for any kind of organization and see how the general population grows into it,” he said, acknowledging a growing demand for cricket.
“We know that it’s happening in other small communities, but there’s no formalized pitch anywhere. We’re probably the first ones out of the population up in this kind of latitude that are getting it going,” he said.
Over the last 10 years staff recognized that the potential demand for cricket would grow with the increasing population, Foran explained, and as part of the most-recent efforts to update the town’s Leisure Service Master Plan, he said one group participated in stakeholder meetings specifically to request cricket facilities in town.
Foran prepared a report for council in early October last year in response to then Ward 3 Coun. Gary Lamb who, during the Aug. 2, meeting of council requested staff provide information about installing a cricket pitch in Henderson Park.
While the report noted that there were no formalized municipal cricket pitches available in comparable nearby municipalities, it also acknowledged, “the sport of cricket has been gaining in popularity for many years within the province and across the country and ... as Bradford West Gwillimbury has been experiencing, greater growth-related needs present themselves.”
Based on space constraints as well as advice from municipalities within the GTA and from Cricket Canada, staff presented council with four options for the cricket field at Joe Magani Park with council selecting Option 4, which included a 12-foot by 174-foot (3.5-m by 53-m) cricket wicket, with a reinforced concrete slab covered in a synthetic turf surface and two stump boxes.
Staff initially estimated the project would cost $93,000, but the winning tender from Latitude 67 Ltd., came in about 7.5 per cent more expensive at $99,780.77.
“We do a cost estimate internally and we prepare our tender documents based on that specification. The market then dictates. What you saw with the cost increase was basically our anticipated costs and the market dictated higher. Sometimes we win; sometimes we lose a little bit,” Foran said.
Once the pitch and field are finished, anyone wishing to rent it should be able to contact the town’s booking clerk at 905-775-5366, ext. 5202.
