Club Docs & Info

Finding and Securing Ground

Rather than purchasing land outright, rent from local councils, schools, or institutions. Clubs investing in diamond construction and ongoing maintenance should negotiate favourable terms — you're adding value to their facilities, not just using them.

The Guildford club succeeded by partnering with Kings College, a school wanting to develop revenue-generating facilities and diversify beyond football. The advice: "Talk to local councils. Play the diversity card. Build up your club to ensure you have an active junior section, as that always helps with funding."

Essential Landlord Agreement Points

• Scheduled usage days and seasonal availability
• Operating hours and event duration
• Parking arrangements (standard and overflow)
• Facility access — changing rooms, toilets, water for maintenance
• Line marking responsibilities
• Site security and equipment storage
• Cost structure and payment frequency
• Liability and maintenance responsibilities

Planning Permission

Creating fencing typically requires planning permission and professionally drawn CAD scale drawings. Costs are typically £1,000–£1,500 depending on jurisdiction. Critical advice: "Try and get it right first time" — relocating structures after approval may require a full resubmission.

Field Layout Specifications

• Outfield fence: 300–330 feet minimum
• Home plate to backstop: ideally 45 feet (60 feet maximum)
• Backstop height: 7 metres (21 feet)
• Mound cut-out: 20-foot radius
• Home plate cut-out: 26-foot diameter
• Bases: 13-foot radius with 3-foot extensions along straight sides

Recommended fencing: double/twin wire 868 panel system, galvanised with green powder coating, 200mm × 50mm mesh. Central section 7 metres high across three 7.5m panels; two 10-metre wings at 2 metres with gates.

Soil & Safety

Kings College's diamond sits partly on clay and partly on sand/gravel, causing uneven drainage. Despite spring waterlogging pre-season, the field is fully playable by April–May. Foul balls are the biggest safety consideration — maintain minimum 40–50 metre distances from buildings wherever possible.

Why Permanent Fencing Matters

A permanent backstop eliminates the burden of erecting and dismantling temporary netting before every session and fixture. A minimum height of 4–7 metres is recommended for effective ball containment.

Kings College Backstop Design

Three central panels (7m × 7.5m each) angled at approximately 120 degrees, complemented by mid-height protective sections (10m, 1.8m tall) flanking the structure, and lower sections (1.2m) extending toward first and third base. The backstop is positioned 45 feet from home plate — closer than the official 60 feet, which works better for developing players.

Suppliers We Contacted

• Tate & Tonbridge — selected provider
• Alpha Fencing
• Zaun Fencing
• Jacksons Fencing

Installation Considerations

• Land access restrictions during the school calendar
• Field drainage mapping before post placement
• Precise post placement to specification
• Gate orientation decisions (affects ball flow and access)

Diamond Design

An ideal baseball diamond has a fully cut-out infield, but due to cost and shared-facility constraints the Kings College project uses five cut-out areas — quarter circles around 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base, plus the mound and home plate — with strips along the radius lines. This is the practical UK approach.

Marking Out

Correct layout requires at least three people. Ensure "the middle of each base is a line exactly halfway from both sides of your fence" to prevent misalignment. Tools needed: string lines, pegs, tape measures, and spray paint.

Cutting & Excavation

Hire machinery — a 1.5-tonne digger and 3-tonne dumper — rather than hand-digging. Remove grass and excavate to 15cm depth (5cm foundation + 10cm dirt mix). Budget approximately £300+ for disposal via grab lorry.

Materials

• Foundation: MOT Grade 1 aggregate
• Surface: baseball-specific dirt mix, approx. 70:10:20 sand-to-silt-to-clay ratio — Bourne Amenity supplies a "Baseball mix" at roughly £110/tonne
• High-wear areas (batter's box, catcher's box, mound): unfired clay bricks from JJ Sharpe in Devon, approx. £550 per pallet of 400

Key Lessons

• Compact in layers, not all at once
• Build cut-outs slightly raised above ground level — compaction reduces volume by 25–50%
• Moisture is essential for effective compaction

Costs vary by circumstance and year — the club's 2019 quotes were approximately 30% lower than the 2022 actuals due to post-COVID price inflation. Use these as a planning baseline, not a guarantee.

Cost Breakdown

How We Funded It

• Sport England grant: £12,500 (requires matched funding)
• BSUK facilities fund: £3,000
• Internal fundraising and external donations
• Club reserves built up over previous years

The matching requirement for Sport England means the club needed to raise roughly half the project cost independently before unlocking the grant.

Plant Hire (One-Off Construction)

• 3-tonne Dumper — transports sand and dirt, useful for moving 1-tonne bags across the diamond
• 1.5-tonne Digger — essential for loading dirt and excavating cut-outs. Pay an experienced operator (~£150/day)
• Turf Cutter — not recommended; too hard in summer, too wet in spring
• Compactor — petrol-powered preferred; hire multiple units. Material must be moist for effective compaction

Hand Tools

• Hose: 100m length with spray nozzle, connectors (~£60) and storage reel (~£100)
• Landscaping rakes — for levelling dirt surfaces
• Spades and shovels (3–4 units) — shovels preferred for aggregates
• 10" Tamper — manual compaction in areas machines can't reach
• Marker string & pegs — 100m lengths, two lines recommended
• Wheelbarrows — multiple standard-sized units

Ongoing Maintenance Tools

• Drag mat — smooths cut-outs after raking; can be homemade cheaply
• Line marker — Network Sports equipment with white emulsion paint, watered down
• Battery strimmer — maintains grass edges near fences and cut-outs
• Nail drag — loosens soil before/after games; homemade as UK suppliers are scarce
• Infield screening rake — moves and smooths dirt efficiently between games
• Dirt repair tools — trowels, chisels, tampers, buckets
• Batter's box template — made from plumbing pipe and elbow connectors

What Worked Well

• Tarpaulins: heavy-duty tent-peg tarps over the mound and home plate were "a wise choice." Retained moisture, prevented displacement, controlled weeds, and restricted access.
• The keyhole strip (dirt from mound to home plate) prevented teardrop shaping and doubled as a coaching area for juniors.
• Scoreboard — well received by all participants.
• Ground levelling proved effective for problem areas.

Field Maintenance Realities

• Nail drag needed before and after every game — always drag from outside inward to prevent centre hollows
• Mound required repairs approximately every two game days (~1 hour per repair, using clay bricks)
• Home plate needed two top-ups of ~8 wheelbarrows each during the season
• Boundary grass required more strimmer work than anticipated
• Periodic weed-control sprays necessary on dirt sections

What We'd Do Differently

The quarter-circle design at first base caused grass damage from runner lead-off traffic patterns. A modified shape would reduce wear.

Other Lessons

• A covered storage solution for bulk dirt delivery is essential
• Temporary duckboards needed at gate areas during wet weather
• Mound rubber can be rotated seasonally to even out wear

Pre-Season Work (February)

A sunken area between first and second base was addressed by adding two tonnes of topsoil, manually levelling with a line marker, and seeding. The mound rubber was rotated to ensure even wear.

Outfield Markers

"A recommendation to other clubs: set markers in the outfield as a guide. We used eight blue sports 'carrots' at 300 feet from home plate and found this worked well."

Batting Cages — Major 2024 Project

Two side-by-side batting cages were constructed: 72 feet long, 14 feet wide and high. Cricket netting fixed with postcrete (avoiding concrete slabs to minimise cost and planning restrictions). Rubber grass mats with external cricket matting installed inside.

Season Maintenance Summary

• 5 dig-out repairs on the mound
• 3 landing area repairs
• 2 batter/catcher box repairs (16 clay bricks used)
• 48 wheelbarrows of dirt distributed across repairs
• Estimated 3–4 tonnes of dirt used across the full season
• ~5–6 hours of strimming total

Drainage Progress

The rugby club using part of the outfield during winter contributed to solving a long-standing drainage problem. Jetting drains at the upper field significantly improved conditions — enough to host a university game in mid-November.

Looking Ahead (2025+)

• Mower-trimmed marker replacement
• Improved pitching mound construction using clay-rich spoil
• Raised netting edges to prevent grass encroachment into cages
• Possible enclosed dugouts with a roof…