Play The Clay - The Making of Our Courts May 2, 2019

On Thursday May 2, a six man crew from Cape & Islands Tennis & Track battled chilly temperatures and off-and-on rain threats to successfully install SYTC’s courts for the 2019 season. This fascinating process, which took the entire day, involves a sequence of many steps requiring great precision and professionalism. You can follow the process here in video and photo format as the friendly and hard-working crew gets the job done.

First, the surface layer of "dead" clay (the proper granular composition is typically destroyed by winter conditions) is scraped off and discarded (not pictured here).

Sixteen 80 pound bags of Har-Tru are laid out and dumped on each side of each court, shoveled laboriously onto the playing surface, and machine-swept repeatedly to create an even surface. More than six tons of new Har-tru on our courts!

        The surface is rolled several times to compact the new material.
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·         Next, the lines are measured with extreme care and outlined in orange chalk.
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       New white tapes are rolled out to match the orange court outline, then tacked down by hand with large tack nails in the corners and every two feet along the center of the lines.

The most meticulous step of all: smaller finishing nails are hammered in every six inches on the inner and outer edges of every line by a wheeled nail gun. Kudos to the nail gun operator for his skilled and careful work!

The net poles are scraped and repainted, then the nets are attached to the net poles and cranked into place, and the center net straps are anchored.

Finally, the crew spreads magnesium salt crystals onto the clay surface to help maintain the optimal moisture content and ensure a court on which the ball bounces correctly and the surface remains firm.

·           Success – Thank you Cape & Islands Tennis & Track! We are ready to Play The Clay 2019!
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