Cambridge’s ‘800 Years With No Sports Centre’ - as the student campaign protested - are nearly over. A cutting-edge sport facility moves ever closer to completion, and construction work is right on track.

While students broke themselves into revision for last term’s exams, ground for the new Sports Centre was broken on 1st May 2012. Representatives from seven Cambridge sports teams attended the ground-breaking ceremony, along with the scheme’s engineers, architects and other contractors. Hannah Pennicott, representing the Blues netball team, says: “The ground-breaking ceremony for the long awaited Sports Centre was great to be part of: a good opportunity to showcase the Sports Centre plans, as well as to thank those involved with the project. Representatives from some of the sports who will use the centre were all very excited at the prospect of having an excellent venue to train and compete in. There was much anticipation after the ceremony for the muddy field in west Cambridge to be transformed into a state-of-the-art Sports Centre – we now cannot wait for the opening ceremony!”

Since then, construction has been smooth and efficient: welcome and well-deserved news to those campaigners who fought through years of reluctance and snail-paced progression to allow the Sports Centre to be funded and built at all. Now, finally, much of the fundamental structural work has been completed over the summer vacation. It has brought a dramatic change to the west Cambridge site (off Madingley road), which many students may not yet have noticed.

The completed centre will certainly not go unnoticed, however: the fitness suite will boast a sizable strength and conditioning wing, a three-lane plyometric track and free-weights platforms; currently homeless sports – such as netball, basketball, badminton and volleyball – will be catered for by a large sports hall of two full-size basketball courts; multi-purpose rooms will provide space for fitness classes, martial arts and fencing. At sixteen million pounds, the Sport Centre indeed represents the largest financial investment in student sport facilities in the University’s history.

Those keen to slam-dunk into the new basketball courts still have to wait until August 2013 for the scheduled opening of these Phase 1 developments. But project leader Antony Lemons is optimistic that his team’s work is on target: “The building work is going absolutely to schedule: absolutely on time, on budget.” He hopes to be taking possession of the building on June 14th, and then to begin commissioning. “This next part of the year will be extremely busy with marketing the facilities, setting up price structures and really ensuring that we staff it correctly. We want to hit the ground running with new members in August next year. There’s still an awful lot to do, but we’ve got it in hand.”

Mr Lemons also drew attention to other improvements to sporting facilities: namely, the summer refurbishment of the hockey pitches at Wilberforce Road Sports Ground. The new sand-dressed, colour-coded surface – which is “up there with the best surfaces in the UK” – came into use for league matches last week.

A dip in the proposed 50m swimming pool would require a slightly longer academic commitment for those studying here now. Keen swimmers should consider PhD proposals: this next venture lacks, as yet, funding. Indoor tennis courts have also been proposed for a potential second phase. For now, Cambridge students can be confident that completion of the Sports Centre is less than a year away.