Souters Sports Win Three Landscape Industry Awards
Souters Sports, one of the UK's leading specialist sportsturf contractors, has won not one, but three prestigious awards at the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) National Landscape Awards, celebrated at the London Grosvenor House Hotel earlier this month (December).
The company enjoyed success in the 'Soft landscaping construction, cost up to £300,000' category for their impressive works at Eirias Park in Wales and were awarded 'Best newcomer to BALI 2012'. Souters was also awarded Principal Winner in the 'Soft landscaping construction cost between £300,000 - £1.5 million' category for the new pitch construction at St. Helens RLFC.
Eirias Park was singled out to be one of Wales's premier pitches for hosting major rugby events both at national and international levels. The project required the complete regeneration of the existing facility including new international playing surface together with a full irrigation system to ensure full play ability. The pitch redevelopment was the centre piece to a much wider development incorporating a new indoor training and multi use facility, which complemented the existing all weather hockey pitches and the local leisure centre. Eirias Park has now redefined both community and international sport back to North Wales.
A premier facility for St. Helens Rugby League FC was established in 2011 on a former old industrial site. The pitch construction centred round a well drained fibre sand construction supplemented by a primary lateral drain installation incorporating a grit layer. A synthetic carpet was also installed to the whole perimeter whilst surface water drainage was managed via slotted drains. Souters continued with the maintenance of the pitch providing services such as fertiliser applications, top dressing, aeration and regularly grass cutting. Installation of a fully automated irrigation system was also installed by Souters Sports sister company, Souters Irrigation Services.
Adjudication of the Awards is carried out by an independent panel appointed by the BALI Board of Directors. The Judges commented: "New BALI members, Souters Sports entered two excellent rugby pitch developments into this year's awards which caught the attention of the judges. Souters specialise in sports turf design and installation and the schemes at St Helens RLFC and Eirias Parc involved drainage and fully automated irrigation systems to create the right growing conditions and world class playing surfaces. Both pitches have received high accolades from players."
The awards were presented to the company by BBC News presenter Huw Edwards.
Stewart Aird, Managing Director, commented "These awards are fantastic accolades for the Company. We fully recognise the success of our business is based on our partnerships working with consultants, customers and our suppliers. Together with the skill and dedication of our staff who have worked hard in what has been a challenging year with inclement weather and difficult economic conditions, we look forward to building on this success."