Memorial Park has received a facelift with upgrades to its cricket facilities completed at the end of last month.
The works included an upgrade of the Oval Number 3 cricket wicket and surrounding sprinklers, the creation of a grassed area around the cricket training facility near the main oval, which includes automatic sprinklers, perimeter fencing and additional lighting.
It was the first of several Deniliquin Rhinos Cricket Club projects to be completed, with new clubrooms set to be built near Oval Number 3 later this year.
Rhinos secretary and treasurer Brad Todd said the $45 000 worth of works would be of huge benefit for the club.
‘‘Better cricket will result from the wicket upgrade and it will provide a much more consistent surface to play on,’’ Todd said.
‘‘With the planned change room facilities, that council has a grant for, this will also improve our facilities at the oval as currently we are the only club in the league that don’t have any.
‘‘This could lead to higher level representative games being held in Deni.
‘‘The lighting will allow training to go for longer where needed and the fenced off grassed area that has recently been finished will provide a good spot to watch training from as well as give the area surrounding the cricket nets a more aesthetically pleasing landscape.’’
Works on the new pitch started on March 10, with the existing 200 mm of soil and grass in place for the pitch being removed.
A new black clay was used as the base before Santa Ana Couch grass was laid on March 21.
‘‘We couldn’t get consistent play out of it (the pitch) week to week and opposing teams weren’t too happy with it,’’ Todd said.
‘‘So we decided to get some proper black cricket wicket clay in from Colac to use as the base this time round.
‘‘In regards to the lights, we initially had two lights erected last year to the nets and were then lucky enough to get another small grant to help erect two more in March.
‘‘This was mainly done to give that little bit of extra light during the pre-season and at the start of each season until daylight savings kicks in, as the sun sets quite early until then.
‘‘We were able to source some small government grants and a local Bendigo Community Grant to contribute to the lights and grassed area.
‘‘We also received $8000 from the NSW Government two years ago to help contribute to purchase an electronic scoreboard to be erected at Oval Number 3, but as the change room facilities the council have funding for haven’t been done yet, we needed to spend the money or lose it.
‘‘We had to seek permission to change the project and were lucky enough to be able use the money to cover some of the costs for the new wicket.
‘‘We have also used our cash reserves to fund the remaining amounts which had been built up over the past few years, via sponsor contributions and fundraisers.’’