Hockey players turfed out
The only hockey turf in Blenheim will be out of action for more than two-and-a-half months, delaying the start of the winter hockey season.
The hockey turf at College Park will be closed for earthquake repairs from February 14 to the end of April, and could see teams having to head to Nelson to get a game.
Hockey New Zealand board member Andy Rowe said he was ‘‘hoping’’ the season would get underway at the end of April, but that depended on what contractors found underneath the turf.
‘‘The hockey season will start a little later as long as everything goes as planned,’’ Rowe said.
The Marlborough hockey season usually kicked off at the start of April, however damage caused by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in November 2016 made games a little tricky.
The hunt was on for alternative venues for junior players while the turf was being repaired, Rowe said.
‘‘We’ve just started looking [for venues], so there’s a number of schools that have got small artificial areas. There’s an opportunity to play them on grass, there’s all sorts of things but it’s a bit early at this stage,’’ he said.
If progress on repairs was delayed past the end of April, Rowe said senior teams might have to travel to Nelson to play.
Marlborough District Council property and community facilities manager Jamie Lyall said the timeframe for repairs was ‘‘worst case scenario’’.
‘‘We don’t know because until such time as we uplift the current turf, we don’t know what damage has been caused and what remedial action has been required,’’ he said.
Lyall said players noticed the hockey ball wasn’t rolling like it normally did along the turf.
‘‘People playing the game noticed that the ball was behaving differently so the hockey turf is the only facility that I’m aware of that has had any material impact from the earthquake,’’ Lyall said.
The council was aware of the issue immediately after the earthquake but said they could not repair it until now as they had to do testing and levelling.
‘‘Ripples occurred in the asphalt so we need to lift up the turf and ascertain whether the asphalt needs to be removed and the sub-base levelled and the asphalt replaced, we need to ascertain whether it’s all of the asphalt or pockets within the footprint of the hockey turf.’’
Marlborough hockey player Caitlin King, 16, said with the turf being ripped up at this time of year, she wouldn’t have anywhere to train for trials.
‘‘I think it [repairs] will be good for overall play but I think it’s just kind of inconvenient timing with Tasman and Capital under 18 and senior trials coming up which affects me,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s a matter of not having anywhere to train because the indoor centre wouldn’t be that flash for my goalie gear.’’
Lyall said the council was not aware of any other damage to sports fields in the region as a result of the earthquake.
Council did not consider putting a new hockey turf in at Lansdowne Park as the turf at Col- lege Park was installed in 2009. However, that wasn’t to say a turf was off the cards for the sports hub in the future. Fulton Hogan was carrying out the repairs at College Park, on Stephenson St.