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Hemel home to 'the Wembley of baseball'
Hemel Hempstead will soon be home to 'the Wembley of baseball'.
Around 25 volunteers, including Mayor of Dacorum Stephen Holmes and neighbourhood PC Ryan Coyle, helped to get Herts Baseball Club's second diamond within touching distance of being complete on Saturday.
According to club president Aspi Dimitrov, Grovehill Ballpark will boast the best facilities in the country.
"We are now at the forefront of British baseball," he said.
"This puts in a position to accommodate all our teams and host some really high quality events in Hemel Hempstead.
"We will become the Wembley of Baseball in Britain."
The club has 10 teams. Six of these are junior or Little League, with the four adult teams playing in the four top tiers of the sport.
Facilities at the Grovehill home are a far cry from what they were a year ago, when they had only one pitch which hosted weekend games from sun up to sun down.
Dacorum Borough Council, the Dacourm Sports Network, the National Lottery and BaseballSoftballUKhave helped to make their two-pitch dream a reality.
With 25,000 worth of funding they have improved their first diamond whilst adding the second.
And Saturday saw the finishing touches put onto the project, with more than 80 tonnes of clay laid during the day and a whole load of sweat shed by the volunteers.
The club are in the process of applying to host the National Baseball Finals - the sport's biggest competition in the UK.
They should find out if they have won the right to stage the September games in the next month.
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Weather for Hemel Hempstead
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -4 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
