Notts were delighted to take delivery of two of our four new lighting rigs on Wednesday...
Two of the four lighting rigs that have been built by local university students from recycled materials, including lamps seized by Nottinghamshire Police, were delivered to Meadow Lane on Wednesday.
In what has been a fantastic community initiative, Notts have been helped by Nottinghamshire Police, who supplied the lamps which had been seized in cannabis raids, as well as Ailsen Ltd, who provided the workspace for the rigs to be constructed, RH Commercial Vehicles, who helped transport the rigs, a local golf club who supplied the wheels and of course the students themselves from Nottingham University.
The quartet – Tom Gallagher, Max Keizer, Janice Leung and Mark Mennear, have produced four lighting rigs, two with retractable arms that will serve large parts of the pitch and two smaller builds that will be used primarily to encourage grass growth in the goalmouth areas of the Meadow Lane playing surface.
Cat Podesta, of the Mechanical Engineering Society at Nottingham University, helped bring the project together after an initial discussion with the club, identifying the students that would work on the rig, in their own time alongside their studies, as well as dealing with a great deal of the administrative work needed to get things moving.
She explained to Magpie Player: “It all started when I got contacted by Notts County about the possibility of the project and then I sent out an email to lots of Mechanical Engineering Society members.
“[We then had] interviews and the lucky four were chosen and they started doing work around November time. Literally all of the work that has been done has been in their spare time and I couldn’t be more thankful to them for doing that.”
Wear on the pitch, particularly in the area in front of the Derek Pavis Stand, has been an on-going issue for Notts and several ideas have been tried in the past to alleviate the problem.
However, the addition of these new lighting rigs, which effectively produce a false sunlight and encourage grass growth, should see a dramatic improvement in the level of remedial work that the groundstaff are able to carry out on the pitch during the forthcoming season.
Stadium Manager Greg Smith said of the new lighting rigs: “It’s been a long hard season here at Meadow Lane and for this to happen it only gives us a bit of forward thinking for next season that we’ve got something that we can use to help support the pitch.
“It’s been a great project for me to work on, with some brilliant individuals and it’s inspiring that there are people out there in Nottingham willing to help support the club.”
The club would like to offer our most sincere thanks to all involved in this project: Tom Gallagher, Max Keizer, Janice Leung, Mark Mennear and Cat Podesta from Nottingham University’s Mechanical Engineering Society, Ailsen Limited, RH Commercial Vehicles and Nottinghamshire Police.
Magpie Player subscribers will be able to see a feature containing interviews with those involved in the project, as well as the first shots of the lighting rigs being wheeled on to the Meadow Lane pitch.