Lights shine on oval

The reinvented Kevin Scott Oval took a major step toward completion last week with the instalment of the South Hedland venue’s new light towers.

Standing 30.5m tall, the four towers boast a total of 100 light fixtures, each providing 1500 watts of light, and are capable of 500-lux illumination.

Town of Port Hedland project coordinator Rob Baily said with the lights now up and running the town was in talks with North Pilbara Football League tenant South Hedland Swans as to when the first competitive game would be played.

He said Swans would begin training under lights this week but the state of the surface meant games might be another week or two away.

“We won’t know our first playing date until at least Thursday (tomorrow) when we have a meeting with Swans,” Mr Baily said. “We’re trying to get the surface to a suitable standard to host competition … It’s still a little bit tender.”

The decision to upgrade from the initially planned 300-lux to 500, which pushed the cost of the project over the $1 million mark, was to allow small ball sports such as cricket to be played at the ground.

Port Hedland Cricket Association lighting coordinator Scott Leech said the money would be well spent as Kevin Scott Oval could now be used year-round and cater for a range of sports.

He said night cricket in Hedland was scheduled to launch in late October with a Twenty20 festival featuring a number of past Australian cricketing greats, including Bradd Hogg.

“We’re going to do a 20/20 comp throughout the coming wet season just to get the ball rolling and then we’ll have a 6-month break before switching into the new season which will be August 2012,” Mr Leech said. “It’s obviously very exciting.”

The design and installation of the new lights was carried out by O’Donnell Griffin of Port Hedland.