Best Kept Playing Fields Competition
BEST KEPT PLAYING FIELDS COMPETITION
If Spring is traditionally heralded by the first cuckoo, then we might with all due modesty suggest that the onset of Summer is equally marked by the launch of our annual competition.
The Best Kept Playing Fields competition was first held in 1971 and has been held annually ever since.
Over the years the number of Classes has grown, and there are now seven:
• Class 1 - for playing fields serving communities of 2,500 or more
• Class 2 - for playing fields serving communities of fewer than 2,500
• Class 3 - for children’s playgrounds (whether on or off playing fields, but judged apart from
any playing field on which they are situated)
• Class 4 - for cricket grounds (on which a winter game may or may not be played)
• Class 5 - for playing fields that are professionally maintained and managed by larger authorities and
commercial organisations
• Class 6 - for Special Needs and school playgrounds
• Class 7 - for exceptional work carried out during the year
Any member of EPFA can enter any or all of their facilities in as many Classes of the competition as appropriate. There is a £10.00 entrance fee, which is a fee for overall entry to the competition, irrespective of how many facilities are entered or how many Classes are entered into.
Entry to the competition is exclusive to EPFA members (which is a way to encourage you to become members if you aren’t already!) and any member, whether Parish or Town council, sports club or organisation – indeed anybody or group involved in the management of playing fields or children’s playgrounds – is welcome to enter. Just contact Malcolm Webb on the Helpline for an entry form or download one. Judging takes place throughout the Summer (so don’t be alarmed if you see somebody furtively prowling around your playing field armed with a clipboard and furiously making notes – he’s probably one of ours!) and the awards are announced at our AGM in October.
We routinely get in excess of 100 entrants, and we have a panel of volunteer judges who are given random entries to judge each year (although we try not to send the judges too far from home!) Currently we have 24 judges, so every judge has no more than five or six entries to mark at most. They can judge their allocation at any time to suit themselves between early June and the middle of August. There is no need for a representative of the entrant to be present during the judging (indeed, it is preferable if there is no-one around!), and all the judges agree that it is a most agreeable way to spend a sunny summer’s morning. If you would like more information about becoming a judge, please contact Malcolm Webb on our Helpline (01277 218005). We even pay a mileage allowance!
As many of you will know, in 2004, for the first time in the 30-plus years history of the competition we succeeded in obtaining sponsorship for the appropriate classes.
Sponsors for our competition in 2008 are:
Ground Control Ltd
RoSPA Playground Management Ltd
Rigby Taylor Ltd
Wicksteed Leisure Ltd
Disability Essex
Essex Environment Trust
Ernest Doe & Sons Ltd
They each supply the winners with vouchers worth several hundreds of pounds towards their goods or services, and for an entry fee of £10.00 per organisation – irrespective of how many classes you enter – this strikes us as being a pretty good deal.
You can see a list of past winners by clicking on the List of Class Winners.
The competition was the original brainchild of Gerald Snook, a past Chairman, and in his honour and to acknowledge the unstinting service he gave over so many years to Essex Playing Fields Association, at the suggestion of our Patron Lord Petre the cup awarded to the winner of Class 3 (Children’s Playground) has been re-named “The Gerald Snook Trophy”.
Since Gerald’s retirement in 2004 the management of the competition has been in the hands of our Competitions Sub-committee.
If you manage or are responsible for a playing field or children’s playground that is not currently entered into the competition and would like to rectify that, there is an application form on the website that can be downloaded and sent to Malcolm in May. (Closing date for entries if 31 May each year). Equally, if you would like any further information about the competition you can call Malcolm on the Helpline. The competition is open to any member organisation of EPFA, whether it be a Parish or Town Council or a Sports Club or Association. And all the Classes with the obvious exception of Class 5 are sponsored to the tune of goods or services worth several hundred pounds each.
BEST KEPT PLAYING FIELDS COMPETITION
Click below to obtain Competition Entry Form
