City diamond in for upgrade
Facilities built in Palmerston North for the junior men’s softball world cup will leave assets that help the sport in Manawatu¯ for years to come.
Work on Colquhoun Park is about to start to prepare for the tournament in February, including upgrading the changing rooms, more bathrooms added, a new deck extending from the clubrooms, overhauling the main diamond and upgrading the second diamond.
The New Zealand Community Trust has also given the Manawatu¯ Softball Association $125,000 for four new floodlights.
Manawatu¯ softball chairwoman Alison Kensington said work was due to start on August 5 and be completed by December 16.
‘‘It will be state of the art once this is all done. It will be pretty cool for us.’’ Kensington said the association was seeking funding through several avenues and some money was already secured.
The main diamond will be replaced and will get new dugouts, new fences and a new outfield.
‘‘The CEO of Softball New Zealand said we’d be left with the second-best facilities in New Zealand. It’s exciting for the development of Manawatu¯ softball.’’ North Harbour is supposed to have the best facilities in the country.
Colquhoun Park has two large old-style changing rooms. One will be converted into four separate changing rooms and the other one into two changing rooms.
Once of the changing rooms will have fold-down seats, so it can be used as a tournament office.
More toilets and showers will be added and the kitchen will be upgraded.
Kensington said the upgraded facilities would mean Manawatu¯ could attract more tournaments, particularly senior ones, and with the lights the diamonds could get more use at night. Portable seating will be brought in for the world cup. ‘‘We need seating for 4000 people. There are 12 teams competing,’’ she said.