Club and municipality talks lead to improved facilities for Noordelikes
In 2009, a discussion between the Polokwane Municipality and BB Truck Noordelikes Rugby Club sparked the idea to establish a second rugby field.
POLOKWANE – In 2009, a discussion between the Polokwane Municipality and BB Truck Noordelikes Rugby Club sparked the idea to establish a second rugby field.
The municipality agreed to assist with the project on condition Noordelikes’ management also helped, and the collaboration saw the new field coming to fruition this year.
According to the chairperson of Noordelikes, Riaan van Schalkwyk, the agreement was that Noordelikes would do the levelling of the field. The municipality agreed to plant the grass, set-up the irrigation system and be responsible for the maintenance thereafter.
“The one field was adequate for our three teams to practise and play scheduled league matches on weekends. But when we have big tournaments, where six to 10 matches are played, it becomes a problem because such events start in the morning and end in the evenings. The field’s grass doesn’t get time to recover properly and the field gets damaged,” says Van Schalkwyk.
“The addition of a second field will benefit our club and other clubs like Black Leopards, which also makes use of this facility.”
Van Schalkwyk says the levelling was done in partnership with sponsors and willing residents. He says the costs were around R350 000. He adds that although it was a very long process to establish the field, it is the cooperative relationship with the municipality that was helpful in establishing the field.
“We have tremendous gratitude for the municipality’s sport and recreation manager, Mantoa Phihlela and her staff who assisted us with this project. We are also thankful to the club’s former chairperson, Johan van Ravesteyn, who played an essential role in getting this project started,” says Van Schalkwyk.
He also thanks the municipality for other maintenance work such as the painting of the pavilions and the instalment of new gutters on the buildings and the general upkeep of the rugby field.
“The new play field is almost ready to play on, but we have decided to rather wait until next year before we will fully use it.
We feel the field’s grass has not settled enough yet.”
