Sports fields readied for winter season

More than 330 sports fields in Christchurch will be transformed this week as the switch-over between summer and winter sports gets under way.

With just a one week turn-around between codes, Council and contractors have a short window of time to get winter lines done and goal posts ready in time for kick off.

Christchurch City Council Head of Parks Andrew Rutledge said the short turn-around placed pressure on contractors as codes pushed for longer seasons.

“There are 338 fields being prepped and that amounts to about 1000 hours of work they are doing for the turnaround.

“We’ve been working on the lines for the last month so some summer codes have been playing with winter code lines on their fields for the last few weeks, but that is just what has to happen if there isn’t going to be a break between seasons. We end up imposing winter code lines on summer sport.” 

Sports fields at Hagley Park ready for winter sport kick off this weekend.

Mr Rutledge said the short turn-around also meant fields do not get renovated between seasons.

“Both the summer and winter codes are wanting to extend their seasons as much as possible, so we are faced with competing objectives at both ends of the season.”

The field conditions would differ around the city depending on whether they had irrigation, but most would be green yet dry.

“We’ve had four years of no moisture at depth so the fields will be green but still hard and likely slippery. We’ve been monitoring irrigation closely since Christmas, but not all fields have irrigation so we’re telling parents to expect different conditions depending on where they play.”

Mr Rutledge reminded parents to plan early for Saturday sport, including allowing time to find a car park and walk to the ground.

“There are plenty of parks near our sports fields, so we would just ask parents in the first few weeks particularly to allow plenty of time to find a park and figure out your timings. Allow for a 10 minute walk to the fields, and we would remind people that parking on the verges of Hagley Park is strictly off limits.”