A poppy was painted on the pitch at Huddersfield RUFC’s Lockwood Park as a simple and poignant symbol of Remembrance.

The design was created by Slaithwaite-based landscaping company boss Garry Scott who also put the late Queen’s EIIR cypher on the pitch at Newsome Panthers back in September. That symbol was so large it could be seen from the top of Castle Hill.

The poppy artwork was created by a special robot with help from a company in Denmark and it was painted by Martyn Ashley, who works for Garry’s company.

Garry said: “It’s about giving something back to the community. Remembrance Sunday is an important event and this is about supporting our local community.

“I have owned the business for 17 years and we do a lot of work around the community. We have 42 local schools on board, the John Smith’s Stadium, the Huddersfield Town training ground and then we have partnerships with lots of junior football and rugby clubs.”

The pitch at Lockwood Park

To mark the Queen’s passing, Garry created 33 cyphers but the poppy only appears at Lockwood Park, and could remain visible for around four weeks.

“If people like it we will do more next year,” said Garry. “The poppy took just 20 minutes to do and if you were doing it by hand it would take a few hours.

“We will continue to work with local clubs and see what new designs we can come up with. All we want to do is make people smile and we’ve had some great feedback so far.”

Newsome Panthers pay tribute to Her Majesty by marking the Queen’s cypher on the centre of the pitch