GAME SET AND MATCH FOR GLENDALE
A PROJECT by green specialists Glendale to bring two public tennis courts up to professional standards paid dividends at the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament 2004.
Glendale’s commitment to completely overhaul two public tennis courts delivered ace results at the five-day tournament in June featuring tennis legend Ilie Nastase and 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek.
The company played a central role in renovating the public tennis courts in Calderstones Park providing support, expertise and specialist green skills to Liverpool City Council, as well as sourcing additional sponsorship from suppliers.
Mike Brunskill, Regional Director of Glendale Managed Services, said: “Everyone enjoyed the tournament immensely and we were delighted to see that the courts met with the approval of the players.
“More importantly, the community of Liverpool now has two tennis courts built and maintained to professional standards in a public park, accessible to all.”
Glendale has been providing a variety of green services to Liverpool City Council for more than four years.
Plans to renovate the courts were instigated in 2002 after players at the tournament noted that although the quality of the grass was good the surface was uneven and lacked effective ball bounce.
In conjunction with the council’s Leisure Services Department, Glendale designed and renovated the two new courts.
High quality materials for the project were sourced from Rigby Taylor, the UK’s leading supplier of products to the construction, amenity and landscape sectors.
The project included digging out 1,100 tonnes of sub soil which was replaced with 660 tonnes of kettering loam/clay. This was then dressed with 40 tonnes of sand and soil mix and finished off with 2200m of quality sports turf.
The work was completed in March 2003 however the tournament was cancelled that year and the new courts were put to the test for the first time in June this year.
Peter Cosgrove, Glendale’s Contract Manager for Liverpool, explained: “The project to renovate the tennis courts was very demanding because we had to incorporate it into our very busy work load of maintaining the parks and gardens in the south of the city.
“When the plans were announced to hold the tournament this year, we stepped up the maintenance programme adopting working practises that would be expected of a high quality professional tennis court.
“We were very pleased to be part of the tennis tournament because we believe it is important for Liverpool and its work to become European Capital of Culture in 2008.”
Chris Briggs, Head of Sport and Leisure for Liverpool City Council said: “The tournament was an immense success this year and the condition of the courts was superb – it was greatly appreciated by everyone, especially the players.”
Glendale is in partnership with Liverpool City Council on several projects forming part of the city’s environmental and cultural programme of activities.