Sports Facilities Guide

A wide range of sporting activities.

The John Ashby Sports Hall.

Sports Facilities Guide

Introduction

This guide is designed to provide students, staff and visitors an overview of the sports facilities and the activities on offer at the College. It also explains the aims, objectives and past performance of the facilities, which have developed rapidly since the John Ashby Sports Hall opened in July 2000.

The facilities on the Holcot site of the college now include a 30 � 18 metre multi-purpose sports hall, upgraded fitness suite with studio, sports therapy clinic, lecture rooms, a sports science laboratory and both indoor and outdoor changing facilities. The outdoor facilities include one rugby pitch, two full size football pitches, training areas, junior and mini-soccer pitches, floodlit sand-based artificial pitch, tennis courts, netball courts as well as a third generation rubber-based artificial pitch - the first to be built in the county, which is also floodlit.

The sports facilities are run on a commercial basis and are available for hire by clubs, organisations and local groups. One of Moulton College's key aims is to develop commercial activity as a means of demonstrating good practice, providing realistic practical experiences for students within the equestrian and sport faculty and positively contributing to the college budget. This approach ensures that the facilities are well maintained and that there is continual investment in new facilities.

The faculty uses the sports facilities extensively for teaching purposes and provides for the needs of students both as part of their chosen course and during their leisure time.

Sports Facilities Management Structure

The sports facilities are managed on a day-to-day basis by the Sports Resources Manager and assisted by two Assistant Managers. There is a small team of supervisors that works under the management team, operating the facilities from 08.00 to 22.30 on weekdays and 08.30 to 19.30 at weekends.

The Sports Resources Manager is responsible for the efficient and effective management and marketing of the sports facilities outside the college to generate lettings, thus maximising occupancy and income. The manager also has an active role in developing future sports resources and providing a varied programme of sport through the development of strategic partnerships.

The Assistant Managers support the Sports Resource Manager in the day-to-day running of the Centre, dealing with commercial and teaching bookings and contracts as well as overseeing health and safety within the sports centre. Maximising membership and promotion of the fitness suite is also a key objective.

The John Ashby Sports Hall - Holcot Centre

The John Ashby Sports Hall was opened in July 2000 and is a modern, multi purpose sports hall. The hall is used extensively for teaching during college hours and is available for hire on a commercial basis out of academic hours. It caters for a wide variety of sports including badminton, basketball, volleyball, archery, fencing and karate. A broad range of equipment is also available to use for these sports.

Some of the centre's external clients include: Northampton Town Football Club, Kettering Town Football Club, Northampton Saints Rugby Club, Northampton Fencing Club and numerous other sports teams. Other organisations that regularly host events include England Basketball, England Netball and the Football Association.

In recent years the hall has also been used for a number of conferences, and is also used to host the annual college awards ceremonies, celebrating the achievements of college students during the academic year.

Indoor Sports Arena - Pitsford Centre

A second indoor sports arena, with both indoor and outdoor changing facilities, has been open since early 2007 at the Pitsford Centre. The indoor arena provides new and exciting facilities and is a superb addition to the opportunities available at Moulton College.

The playing area in the new arena is 40 � 20 metres, with a specialist free weights facility designed for use by teams and academies, as well as providing a training resource for professional clubs.

Also included in the arena is a climbing wall, adding to the interesting and varied opportunities on offer.

Futsal, Netball and Kickboxing activities are already well established at the arena and the variety of activities continues to grow, including an indoor hockey league as well as a number of high profile events and competitions for numerous regular clients who use other facilities on the campus.

Most recently this centre has hosted The England Futsal squad and the England Indoor Hockey squads for training camps.

The Fitness Suite

The fully air-conditioned Fitness Suite and Studio complement the College training and teaching facilities superbly. The Fitness Suite, with 17 stations including cardio and resistance machines as well as a free-weights and stretching area provide an excellent facility for users to reach health and fitness goals as well as assist in the academic activities of the students. The Studio is home to DanceScene, a dance school that offers a wide range of disciplines to people of any age and also is used by the sports facility staff to deliver spinning classes; a motivating group exercise, cycling to inspirational music.

A number of the sports facility staff are trained as fitness instructors and personal trainers to help members with their exercise requirements.

The fitness suite provides particular benefit for all full-time sports students and to students living in the college halls of residence, as membership is offered as part of the course or residency. It also provides access to a modern fitness facility, at a reduced rate for staff and other students throughout the college.

The Holcot Sports Pitches

The sports pitches on the Holcot site are a longstanding feature of the college, and are still used to support the college football and rugby academies. Currently two full-size football pitches 110 � 70 metres, one rugby pitch 120 � 75 metres and three training areas are available for use.

The excellent quality of the turf is reflected by the clients that use them. Northampton Saints Rugby Club, Northampton Town Football Club and Kettering Town Football Club use them throughout the year.

The pitches are also home to Moulton Fields Football Club and the college sports facilities have been instrumental in the development of this community-based club that has recently been awarded 'development club of the year' by the Football Association and now boasts over 20 teams in all age-groups including two female sides.

The Pitsford Sports Pitches

The sports pitches at the Pitsford site were used for the first time during the 2007-08 season and are proving to be surfaces of excellent quality. Two football pitches (60 � 90 metres and 70 � 110 metres) and a floodlit rugby pitch (120 � 70 metres) are an excellent addition to the playing fields at the college and allow for increased usage by the college academies as well as external clients, including Northampton Saints Elite Player Development Centre and Northampton Town Football Club's Centre of Excellence and Youth squads.

Artificial Pitches

The rubber crumb artificial pitch was the first thirdgeneration pitch to be developed in the county. The rubber crumb based surface is specifically designed to accommodate both football and rugby. The surface has been sanctioned by the Football Association for tournament match play and as such, allows more fixtures to go ahead during periods of adverse weather, helping to maintain the quality of the grass pitches. Extensively used by the FA for their coaching programmes throughout the year, the artificial pitch is also heavily used within the various academic programmes and provides a facility of outstanding quality for students and external clients.

Northampton Town Football Club, and Kettering Town Football Club use the surface for training, and it also hosts, along with the Pitsford pitches, the Northampton Saints Rugby Club Elite Player Development Centre.

The dimensions of the artificial pitch are 93 � 57 metres. The pitch can also be set out as four five-a-side pitches or two seven-a-side pitches and is home to the Intersoccer small-sided football leagues as well as several recreational football clubs.

A full-size sand artificial pitch, which can be used for hockey or football, has been a superb addition to the complex. It can be used as one full size pitch or divided into thirds for smaller size games, and is also fully floodlit.

The sand artificial pitch is used for hockey training and match play and is also used by football teams for training and match purposes.

The water-based hockey pitch is based at the Pitsford site. Fully floodlit, the pitch provides a carpet surface that utilises water cannons to wet the playing area prior to play, in order to reduce the friction on the ball and enhance the speed and quality of play. The pitch provides a truly magnificent facility that supports the academic programme followed by the College hockey academy students, as well as providing a further facility for hire by external clients. Local and regional hockey teams use the new facility extensively throughout the year as does the England Hockey team who will also be using the indoor hockey arena at Pitsford to run their programme of training and development for 2010.

Tennis and Netball Courts

Six floodlit all weather courts, which can be set up for tennis, netball or football, are also available adjacent to the sand-based artificial pitch.

The courts are currently booked to host a number of clubs training and match activity, as well as for community sessions. The tennis courts are also available throughout the summer on a pay-as-youplay basis and as part of fitness suite membership to members of staff, students and the general public, however prior booking is advised to ensure availability.

Future Plans

Moulton College has been chosen as one of the official pre-games training venues for the 2012 Olympics in the sports of Equestrian, Fencing and Hockey. For the Paralympics it has been awarded the sports of Boccia, Goalball and Equestrian. The status was granted after a very rigourous application process held nationally over a period of 18 months from a wide range of venues. The criteria for selection was based upon the quality of facilities, transport networks, security and general infrastructure including residential and catering capacities.