Thornton Sports Latest News. http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/ Copyright, Thornton Sports Mike Steer appointed as our new dedicated in-house Design Manager The start of 2012 sees Mike Steer join Thornton Sports as our new dedicated in-house Design Manager. His role within the operations team will encompass the creation and management of all design drawings, co-ordination of project specific health & safety documentation and the provision of operation and maintenance manuals. With over 10 years design experience Mike brings with him a skills set ideal for Thornton Sports. His most recent role as a Landscape Architect at Preston City Council involved preparing planning drawings for projects, and many site specific schemes he was involved with incorporated sports surfaces such as Multi Use Games Areas and Synthetic Grass Pitches. Furthermore in an earlier role as a Landscape Architect at Capita Symonds Mike was involved in many Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects, many of which as the leading Project Officer. David Saxby, Managing Director of Thornton Sports comments: “We’re delighted to welcome Mike Steer to our team. Specialist advice and assistance with regard to the design aspects of sports projects is an important aspect of what we offer at Thornton Sports. Mike’s skills and experience will maximise further the support we are able to provide to our clients throughout the life of their project.” http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=71&year= http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=71&year= Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:00 GMT Listen to a radio interview with David Saxby of Thornton Sports ... Wycombe Wanderers and Accrington Stanley are just two clubs keen to reintroduce artificial pitches in a bid to cut costs and increase revenues. So called ‘plastic pitches' were banned by the Football Association in 1988 as a result of complaints that they caused injuries and that the quality of football played on them was poor. However since then technology has advanced significantly and a number of clubs in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland & Russia now play on artificial pitches. Interest in artificial pitches particularly comes from clubs at the lower end of the Football League, where the potential revenue boost combined with benefits to community schemes would have a significant impact. Rob Heys, Chief Executive of Accrington Stanley, recently commented:"There is an income to be gained from hiring the pitch out and money to be saved in maintenance costs and the fact that you can train on it.The community benefit is that you can get people down to the ground seven days a week rather than just 23 times a season for home fixtures". Thornton Sports Managing Director, David Saxby, aims to dispel fears about the quality of artificial grass pitches explaining:"The ball bounce and uniformity of play of synthetic grass pitches is much improved, so that they are now very close to natural grass" He also adds: "Due to the income potential of artificial pitches it now reasonable to expect to be able to replace the capital expenditure of a new pitch in around 4 years".To hear more on Rob Heys's and David Saxby's thoughts on artificial pitches listen to a recent interview on Radio Lancashire by clicking on the link below... Sport Grass interview BBC Radio Lancashire by Thornton_Sports   http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=70&year= http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=70&year= Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:00 GMT Alderley Edge Hockey Club are delighted with their glorious new high performance hockey pitch Alderley Edge Hockey Club are delighted with their recently completed FIH national standard hockey pitch.The project which finally got underway in July of this year following a determined 18 month fundraising programme, involved construction of a full-size Premier 10 sand-dressed synthetic grass hockey pitch with associated drainage, fencing and floodlighting works. Difficult ground conditions experienced on the site were overcome by the installation of re-inforcing geogrids, and stringent planning and environmental requirements were successfully met. Kelvin Briggs, who has been instrumental in transforming the Club's 20 year dream of building their own hockey pitch, recently described their new facilities as "a little piece of heaven on earth" and comments:"Thornton Contracts added great value to our own design ideas. They delivered a high quality facility, on time and on budget. The devil is in the detail and the Thornton's team are clearly experts in every aspect of what they do. I would have no hesitation in recommending them to any club, school or local authority looking for expert advice, a quality build and a partnership approach to project management"Their new high performance hockey facilities were officially opened at the end of October by two playing members of the Great Britain Olympic squad, namely Katie Long (Leicester Hockey Club) and Kirsty Mackay (Bowdon Hockey Club). Also in attendance at the spectacular launch event was England Hockey Board Facilities Manager Alex Teasdale. After testing out Alderley Edge's new facility their verdict was that "the pitch is of the standard that all teams should be playing on".We certainly agree and are proud to have worked with one of the North West's Premier Hockey Clubs. http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=69&year= http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=69&year= Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:00 GMT Isle of Man's National Sports Centre hosts the XIth Commonwealth Youth Games The XIth Commonwealth Youth Games recently took place on the Isle of Man from 7th - 13th September, with all athletics events hosted at the National Sport Centre in Douglas.Thornton Contracts refurbished the National Sport Centre's athletics track in 2010. Works involved removal of the existing 6 lane athletics track and two 8 lane sprint straight surfaces, followed by complete resurfacing of the track with our IAAF approved Polyflex 950/3 sandwich track system. Associated works included modifications to the drainage system, extension of certain areas of the track, construction of new field events plus the application of new line markings.The final day of competition at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games saw England overtake Australia on the overall Gold Medal table, finishing with 37 Gold medals across the event's seven sports, to Australia's 29. All running, jumping and throwing events took place at the National Sport Centre. On the track all eyes were on the Kenyan athletes and they didn't disappoint; Timothy Kitum (1.49.32) out-sprinted his compatriot Leonard Kirwa Kosencha (1:50.62) on the final straight while Wiliam Malel Sitonik took the 3000m mens title. England's women dominated the final day's track and field action with five gold medals, won by Louisa James (Women's Hammer), Katie Snowdon (Women's 800m), Emelia Gorecka (Women's 3000m), Dina Asher-Smith (Women's 200m) and their 4x100m relay team, while there was also a Gold medal for Callum Brown in the Mens Hammer. South Africa also enjoyed a successful last day's athletics with three golds, while Australia and India both won two Golds, and Scotland Sprinter Tom Holligan from Edinburgh won the Mens 200m title. Thornton Sports' Polyflex 950/3 track system is an elite level surface and performed excellently at this international competition level. Resurfacing of the athletics track was the latest in a number of projects carried out by Thornton Sports at the National Sports Centre, with a full size sand-dressed, floodlit sports pitch also being constructed in 2008, surfaced with our in-house UK manufactured Premier 20 surface. It's always a delight to see our high performance facilities being put to use at a national and international competition level, and we look forward to seeing many other events taking place on Thornton Sports facilities UK-wide in the future. For further information about our full range of athletics track surfaces click here. http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=68&year= http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=68&year= Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:00 GMT Thornton Sports are delighted to be 'Building Confidence' accredited for the second year running. ‘Building Confidence' is a collaborative supply chain accreditation standard designed for the construction industry which provides an effective solution for managing supply chain risk in the areas of safety, sustainability, CSR, quality and financial stability. Following an intensive 2-day audit Thornton Sports are proud to have received accreditation to this standard for the second year running. An increasing number of leading construction companies now recognise this standard and integrate it within their supply chain approval process, including: Balfour BeattyLend Lease British Land Costain Davis Langdon Kier MaceShepherdSimonsSISKSkanskaSwift HorsemenTarmacThis recent accreditation is the latest in an impressive list of standards successfully renewed by the company, demonstrating the excellence of our management systems, policies and procedures. We welcome the opportunities presented to work with the above companies on future sports surfaces and equipment projects. http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=67&year= http://www.thorntonsports.co.uk/news_article.php?id=67&year= Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:00 GMT