In 1972 P L K Dury, in his capacity as County Playing Fields Officer for Nottinghamshire, embarked on a mission to create a synthetic turf cricket pitch to replace the unmaintainable squares at the secondary schools in the county. With two teenage sons, Peter and David, he had his own experimental team and from that point on Peter’s role was to be the first batsman to try out various combinations of base and surface whilst his father bowled.

 

Being a cricketer and cricket grounds man no system was going to be acceptable unless it mimicked the performance and pace of natural turf and after many trials with various incarnations of concrete and macadam the idea was hatched to use aggregates. A match was arranged to be played on a hard porous area between Gedling Borough Council, headed by former England international, Brian Bolus, and Nottinghamshire County Officers CC of which Peter and his father were members.

 

Such was the success of the match that a trial hard porous pitch was installed on the County Council Staff Sports ground and during 1977-78 trials were carried out with various carpets to find the best combination. Peter became the first person to score 50 on an aggregate base pitch when he and another sixteen year old batsman chased down a total of 165 in a 20 over evening match. Whilst this may not seem much in 20/20 terms these days on the grass pitches of the 1970’s it was unheard of. P L K knew he was on to a winner and the first design was finalised and constructed prior to the 1979 season, the “Nottinghamshire Pitch” was born. This was opened with a match between the Notts County Officers CC, of the now defunct Nottinghamshire Combination league, and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association, who were over for the first ICC qualification tournament, with Peter opening the batting for the County Officers side.

 

Over the next four years, being at University and always looking for some extra income, Peter helped out with many installations and investigations when problems started to appear with the initial design. Helping his father with the investigations and trialling different options through the second and to the third incarnation of the design, the “Envelope” system, Peter had a major input on the development of synthetic turf pitches.

 

April 1983 – December 1983                         Clubturf Sportspitch Construction

 

When Club Surfaces took on the synthetic turf systems developed by my father I was employed to arrange and carry out the installation of both the County Council systems and ClubTurfs’ own Natural system, which is based on the original Nottinghamshire Pitch design. During quiet periods on cricket other sports surfaces were worked on which gave an insight into handling a variety of different carpets and materials.

 

 

January 1984 – December 1984                     Freelance – Sales and research.         

 

Selling cricket pitches for Club Surfaces, outdoor, and for Rawson Carpets Ltd, indoor, on a commission basis and carried out research for Nottinghamshire County Council into the performance and design of synthetic pitches in relation to natural turf sports facilities.

 

January 1985 – November 1994                     Nottinghamshire Sports & Safety Systems

Ltd (Notts Sport)

 

Joining this company at its formation I had a number of roles, which developed and changed as the company grew from nothing to a major supplier of synthetic turf facilities. Initially as the sales representative and office manager the company was mainly involved with cricket pitches using the by then well-known Nottinghamshire County Council systems. As the company and product range grew the installation and logistics management of my role was retained but the sale side became support orientated to a now growing sales force. This included compiling specifications for facilities, demonstrating the products to potential clients and advising and training sales staff

 

Whilst cricket was the main stay of the business, with around 80 installation projects organised each year and as many again supplied on a materials only basis, systems for other applications such as Association Football, Hockey and Children’s playgrounds were developed.

 

When the company purchased the patented systems from Nottinghamshire County Council in January 1993 I then became involved in the organisation and content of training courses for potential contractors interested in installing the designs. Most of these courses related to cricket pitches, as this was the most specialised area, and a manual was compiled to cover techniques and tolerances to work to.

 

January 1995 – date - Verde Sports Cricket Ltd

 

The company was set up to specialise on synthetic turf cricket pitches from initial enquiry to completed installation. By providing a range of designs and relevant advice the scheme best suited to an individual client can be identified and installed.

 

The further refinement of the original stone and hard porous concept was developed, patented and submitted for ECB approval as the “Test Match” system. At first we continued to install Notts Sport systems where appropriate to client’s needs. However, when Notts Sport became unwilling to supply us we extended and developed our own range to provide similar playing attributes. By specialising and dealing directly with clients I have refined techniques and designs in order to improve the overall package in terms of performance and longevity.

 

May 2002 – April 2005 England and Wales Cricket Board

 

Part time Non-Turf Pitch Consultant providing advice in respect of matters relating to non-turf cricket pitch systems plus inspections and reports on facilities.

Peter Dury – A Life in Synthetic Turf Cricket Facilities