{"id":7192,"date":"2020-07-04T16:29:59","date_gmt":"2020-07-04T16:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=7192"},"modified":"2020-07-04T16:29:59","modified_gmt":"2020-07-04T16:29:59","slug":"winter-sport-returns-across-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/07\/04\/winter-sport-returns-across-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter sport returns across the city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Winter sports return today after City of Newcastle staff worked with sporting associations, clubs and neighbouring councils to support the resumption of competition and ensure a safe and consistent approach.<br \/>\nAround 140 sportsgrounds are hosting players in adherence to each sporting association\u2019s COVID-19 safety plan.<br \/>\nMaryland Fletcher FC come back to two vastly improved fields at Kurraka Reserve, thanks to new turf and a $160,000 irrigation and drainage upgrade delivered by the City with the help of a $100,000 Federal sporting grant.<br \/>\nRegeneration of the two playing surfaces also included relevelling, top dressing and over sowing with ryegrass.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Maryland-Fltecher-FC-Kurraka-Reserve-inside.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/getattachment\/Council\/News\/Latest-News\/Winter-sport-returns-across-the-City\/Maryland-Fltecher-FC-Kurraka-Reserve-inside.jpg.aspx\" alt=\"Maryland-Fltecher-FC-Kurraka-Reserve-inside.jpg\" \/><strong><sup>Federal member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon with Maryland Fletcher FC President Dave Carter and City of Newcastle Councillor Matthew Byrne\u00a0on Kurraka Reserve&#8217;s new playing surface.<\/sup><\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cWe are delighted to welcome all sports back from this weekend and especially happy for the young Maryland-Fletcher players returning to a picture-perfect playing surface,\u201d City of Newcastle Councillor Matthew Byrne said.<br \/>\n\u201cThe new drainage system will prevent Kurraka becoming waterlogged in winter while the irrigation system will dramatically improve the turf quality and playability for both soccer and cricket year-round.<br \/>\n\u201cThe past summer\u2019s drought and water restrictions, which turned many sporting grounds into dust bowls around the country, underline the importance of efficient irrigation systems.<br \/>\n\u201cBetter grounds encourage greater participation while minimising labour and maintenance costs, and the City\u2019s parks and recreation staff do a fantastic job maintaining and upgrading fields.\u201d<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Fletcher-s-Kurraka-Reserve-inside.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/getattachment\/Council\/News\/Latest-News\/Winter-sport-returns-across-the-City\/Fletcher-s-Kurraka-Reserve-inside.jpg.aspx\" alt=\"Fletcher-s-Kurraka-Reserve-inside.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nMaryland Fletcher FC President Dave Carter said the club\u2019s youngsters were eager to play on the newly improved fields.<br \/>\n\u201cThe result of the upgrade is a vastly improved and sustainable playing surface that\u2019s going to save us hundreds of volunteer hours and ongoing maintenance costs every year,\u201d Carter said.<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a great example of what can be achieved with cross-government and local community cooperation. We\u2019re grateful for Council for managing the installation and the support of our Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon MP in obtaining a Federal grant.\u201d<br \/>\nWhere sporting activities involve more than 20 participants, organisers must have a COVID-19 Safety Plan. The City will continue to liaise with clubs to ensure they meet requirements.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"MFFC-inside.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/getattachment\/Council\/News\/Latest-News\/Winter-sport-returns-across-the-City\/MFFC-inside.jpg.aspx\" alt=\"MFFC-inside.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winter sports return today after City of Newcastle staff worked with sporting associations, clubs and neighbouring councils to support the resumption of competition and ensure a safe and consistent approach. Around 140 sportsgrounds are hosting players in adherence to each sporting association\u2019s COVID-19 safety plan. Maryland Fletcher FC come back to two vastly improved fields &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/07\/04\/winter-sport-returns-across-the-city\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Winter sport returns across the city&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}