Magazine - Canterbury's Synthetic Turf Pitch Delayed

By Editor in Hockey on 24th May 2009 6:00

Hockey South Canterbury's second synthetic turf at Aorangi Park has been delayed until spring.

Poor weather and scheduling problems appear to have caught out Tiger Turf, the synthetic hockey turf supplier, by 10 days. While only the surface carpet needs to be laid Tiger Turf needs 10 days in a row without the ground temperature falling below 13 degrees celsius so the glue will set.

Therefore the new water-based surface is not expected to be in action before October, missing the whole season and leaving the South Canterbury Hockey Turf Trust somewhat embarrassed. The turf should have been in action already, but warm-up national hockey league games have had to be cancelled while another tournament was only retained after entries fell to 15 and it could be accommodated on the refurbished surface.

Trust chairwoman Colleen Hardacre said they were very disappointed by the delay and the trust was meeting to discuss the matter. "We have had to apologise to Hockey New Zealand over the matter."

Hardacre would not say if there would be any recourse taken against Tiger Turf.

Tiger Turf's New Zealand general manager Peter Leeves said he was tremendously disappointed they had not been able to complete the job. "Poor weather has been the biggest issue to us over the summer."

Leeves said while they had taken on seven hockey turfs nationally over the summer, one more than they had done previously, they had brought out extra workers from Holland to help. "We resourced up and had three teams working but laying a hockey turf is very weather-dependent."

Leeves said there would be no damage caused by leaving the surface without the carpet, but serious problems would be caused if the glue did not set. Some hockey insiders have told the Herald they believe the delays were because Tiger Turf was under resourced when Timaru's weather was perfect to complete the job, despite pressure from the South Canterbury Hockey Turf Trust.

The existing sand turf, which was laid in 1994, has been replaced and hockey is continuing to be played on that one. Both projects cost the trust approximately $1.9 million.

Source & More: www.stuff.co.nz
By STU PIDDINGTON - The Timaru Herald

Read more articles in Hockey, by Editor or from May 2009.