South Northumberland Cricket Club — the first large-size DuraFlex installation in ECB-approved Mint Green

DuraFlex was the first of our systems to receive ECB approval, meeting the standard for ball bounce without needing additional roll-down layers over the top. Mint Green is the flagship colour, chosen for contrast against the ball in play.

South North was where it went in at scale for the first time. A large-format installation is a different proposition to a few lanes: the surface has to behave identically across the whole floor, and any inconsistency in the base beneath it shows up as inconsistency in the bounce.

The nets are retractable, so the lanes are there for practice and pulled clear when the floor is needed as open space.

Around the outside is a tension cage, which keeps the ball inside the confines of the facility. That matters more in a hire operation than in a club-only centre — with paying customers using the lanes unsupervised, a ball leaving the netting is not something anyone can rely on being retrieved sensibly.

South North hire their cricket centre lanes out to customers on an hourly basis.

It is worth spelling out, because it changes how a centre like this is justified. A facility used only by club sides sits idle most of the week. One that takes bookings from the public, from schools, from coaches running private sessions and from other clubs without indoor provision generates income across the whole winter — and that income is what services the investment.

Any club weighing up an indoor centre should be looking at South North’s model as much as at the specification. The building is an asset, not just a facility.

The surfacing was the start rather than the end of it. Since the centre went in we have also supplied and installed a scoreboard, batting cages, a ball stop netting system, and a DCB2 replacement of the club’s outdoor practice area.

That is a whole ground fitted out by one supplier over a period of years — indoor surface, indoor netting, outdoor practice, ground equipment and scoring, all specified by people who already knew the site.

You can design your own indoor cricket centre online with our facility builder, and see how the lanes, netting and surfacing come together before you speak to anyone: durantindoorcricketcentrebuilder.durantsports.co.uk

Every installation we have completed is plotted on our map. Tick Indoor Surfacing to see the rest: installations.durantcricket.co.uk