The key components of the second phase of the Basing Hill Ballpark project have now been completed.

The first phase of the project was to level and resurface the playing field with new grass.  That was implemented last September and October by the contractor Inscapes and it was time to move to phase two.

The club, with the help of Sport England, club members and the wider community successfully reached the £20,068 crowdfunding target in April and the London Borough of Barnet planning department granted the planning permission for the project to commence.

Over the last three months the club secured the services of several fantastic contractors. Galldris Group, who have been busy across the street with the huge Brent Cross Town development, implemented the excavation of the infield cutout areas around the bases and the pitcher’s mound.

Working on a very tight budget, the club relied on its own members and volunteers to do the heavy lifting of laying the 20 tonnes of sub-base and 40 tonnes of infield mix onto the cutout areas.

They somehow managed to avoid disruption to the youth and adult league schedules by squeezing all of this work into the five days between two weekends packed with games.

The first games on the new infield was the Triple-A League clash between the Herts Cardinals and the Cambridge Monarchs on 26 June, pictured above.

The mound clay blocks were installed on the pitcher’s mound and the batters’ and catcher’s boxes a week later.

Today, the installation of the baseball backstop was completed by contractors Tate and Tonbridge Fencing.

The last remaining task in this phase of the project is the installation of the spectator rails on the first and third base side of the infield. With steel and fuel prices rising, the cost of this increased by 30% which pushed the total project cost above the amount which was raised and the club is now looking for solutions either to raise more funds or find a fencing contractor who is able to install the spectator rail fencing panels at a lower price, or hope that inflation will correct itself in the coming months but that looks highly unlikely at the moment.

Although the 2022 BBF regular season is over, players will have a chance to play at the upgraded Basing Hill Ballpark before 2023 as the first Hunlock Series game day is scheduled to be played there on Sunday, 2 October.

Herts Baseball Club has been awarded a grant of £2,851.63 by BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK).  The club has separately raised £3,000 and the total amount of £5,851.63 will be invested into upgrading its Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead.

The work on the project has already commenced with the installation of the pitching mounds on the two diamonds using clay mound blocks which will provide a more stable and durable structure in line with baseball regulations.

The next steps in the project involve a number of procedures to enhance the grass playing surface including verti-draining, top dressing, aeration and fertilising on both diamonds. The club is consulting with the contractor to determine the optimum time to implement these procedures – either in the autumn after the end of the baseball season or in the spring for the start of the 2023 season.

Grovehill Ballpark was opened in the early 1990s. The facility expanded its capacity with the building of the second diamond in 2010 enabling it to host high-profile events such as the National Baseball Championships, Herts Spring League, Herts Futures Tournament, Hunlock Series, and others. This year over 100 adult and youth league games are scheduled to be played at the ballpark and this project will make the ballpark even better.

Herts is one of seven recipients of the 2022 Facilities Fund, with £10,558.24 being directly invested in grassroots facility development projects this year.

As part of BSUK’s Two Sports, One Ambition Strategy launched in August 2020, BSUK reaffirmed its commitment to help grassroots baseball and softball organisations across the UK to become stronger, safer and more sustainable. A key part of the commitment was creating the Facilities Fund to support Chartered clubs and leagues to develop and improve their facilities, with BSUK committing £50,000 over five years, starting last year, to allow clubs and leagues to use the investment not only to support facility development but also act as a lever to attract further match funding.

Chris Rawlings, Head of Development at BaseballSoftballUK, commented on the submissions, remarking, “This year’s submissions were just as strong as last year’s, and the selection committee had a very tough task in awarding funding. This is a further step towards improving facilities across the United Kingdom, and we are very proud of all the clubs who submitted for the fund this year.”

This evening Major League Baseball and the Mayor of London issued the following press release which Herts baseball fans have been hoping for.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred Jr. today announced a long-term strategic partnership that includes Major League Baseball’s commitment to hold major events in London over the next five years including regular season games in 2023, 2024 and 2026. Also announced was the formation of the MLB London Legacy Group which will include members from the Greater London Authority, Baseball Softball UK and other key stakeholders in the UK. The Group will be focused on delivering a wide-reaching and long-term legacy program that maximizes the impact of hosting MLB regular season games in London.

The Mayor of London is in New York City as part of a four-day trip to America to support London’s economic recovery from the pandemic and promote the capital to international visitors and business. Mayor Khan said: “Today is an historic day for London and baseball. I want to continue attracting world-class sport to our city as part of my mission to make London the sporting capital of the world. This long-term partnership with Major League Baseball is ambitious and includes regular season games as well as a legacy program designed to grow the number of Londoners watching and playing baseball at a grassroots level in
London. These games will be a fantastic opportunity to once again showcase the London Stadium as a multi-use venue and a fantastic asset for the capital.”

“All aspects of the inaugural MLB games in London were an overwhelming success,” said Commissioner Manfred. “It was clear that sports fans in London had a great appetite for baseball and that passion was shared by Mayor Khan as well as the business and media community. We are confident in making a long-term commitment to London and are looking forward to returning to the city with more MLB games, special fan events, and other opportunities to play and watch the game.”London hosted Major League Baseball games for the first time in June of 2019 when the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox met in the inaugural MLB London Series. The two-games at London Stadium were the first-ever regular season games played in Europe.

To complement these events, MLB Europe will continue to conduct new London-based fan engagement events, expanded UK-focused content, baseball participation programs, and other city specific media arrangements to help continue the growth of baseball’s popularity across London.

A prime example of this is Home Run Derby X, an electrifying new baseball format which will take place in London’s Crystal Palace Park on July 9, 2022. Home Run Derby X has been designed to frame baseball in a fun and unique way to a new audience, with MLB Legends competing alongside characters new fans trust and care about and integrated into digital platforms and live event experiences that appeal to them.

Fans can register their details at [link] to keep up to date with the latest information from MLB Europe.

Earlier today, Herts Baseball Club issued the following message to supporters who contributed to the Basing Hill Ballpark (Phase 2) crowdfunding campaign.

With the fantastic support and generosity of club members, Sport England and the wider community, today we reached the Basing Hill Ballpark (Phase 2) Crowdfunding target of £20,068.

This now makes it possible for the club to install the backstop, infield perimeter fence and the infield cutout clay areas around the bases and the pitcher’s mound. We hope that we can replicate at Basing Hill Ballpark the growth and the wonderful programmes which we built at our Grovehill Ballpark branch in Hemel Hempstead over the years.

There were several critical moments over the four weeks of this campaign when there was very little light at the end of the tunnel and the project seemed impossible, but club members and supporters mobilized friends, family, neighbours and colleagues and generated vital momentum for the campaign in those critical moments.

Over the next few days, we will start the process of distributing the rewards which supporters picked up as part of their donations.

The next step is to go through the formalities with Barnet Council and book the contractors to implement the installations. We hope that we will be able to complete it by the end of May. We are relying on contractors and the Council and hopefully we can deliver the project without any major delays.

We will keep everyone updated. 

The crowdfunding campaign is still live in case any other supporters would like to make a donation.  A number of rewards are still available to pick up. Any extra funds that we raise above the original target can be used to add items such as team benches, field equipment and other upgrades around the park.

Thank you for the amazing support.

Herts Baseball Club