Sutherland memorial park in Burpham Guildford have recently upgraded their sports pitches with Playrite products, after their previous courts, built in the 1980s, had literally come to the end of their life span. The Park is a prized and highly used resource to the people of Burpham with nearly 40 local teams using the pitches every week.

Cllr Matt Furniss, lead councilor for environment, said: "The astro-turf courts are very well used by the local community but it is now time to upgrade the facilities so we can continue to provide safe, high quality sport facilities for all."

Playrite a leading UK sports surface manufacturer were brought in to consult and deliver three courts that could be used for both tennis and football and an artificial cricket wicket. It is highly unusual that the requirement would be for both football and tennis to be played on one surface but luckily for Burpham, Playrite are unique in being able to manufacture products that cater for specific needs within differing sports.


Playrite's Matchplay 2 surface was chosen for the courts. Matchplay 2 is an excellent choice for multi-use games areas due to its hardwearing, durable nature and suitability for many different sports such as tennis, netball, hockey, football and basketball. Inlaid lines can be permanently added in white, yellow, red and blue, keeping maintenance to a minimum.

The cricket wicket was Playrite’s woven cricket surface, Practice Play Junior which is a professional standard, high quality woven cricket wicket with cross linked backing to provide extra strength and reduce damage caused by general wear and tear during play. Suitable for both practice and match play, it has been designed to offer unparalleled stability and balanced play for the modern game and a playing experience as close as possible to natural turf in terms of ball bounce, spin and speed.

The facility, though council run, is also hired out to bring in revenue so the surfaces had to be robust and resilient enough to take the level of usage required by the authority.

"It is very unusual to see Tennis courts being hired out for football use," said Playrites Steve Byrnes, "but we have the perfect product that can accommodate both sports plus others such as netball, basketball and hockey should the need arise."

www.playrite.co.uk