New pitch ‘would spell the end for top junior hockey team’
HOCKEY COACHES’ CONCERNS FOR FUTURE
COACHES at an award-winning hockey club claim they will have to scrap their junior team if council leaders go ahead with plans to lay a 3G surface.
Bangor City Hockey Club’s junior sides train and play at the Plas Arthur Leisure Centre, Llangefni, which currently has a multi-purpose Astroturf playing surface.
Because the pitchis in a state of serious disrepair, and following multiple complaints from opposition teams, Anglesey Council has decided to invest in a brand new 3G surface.
A spokesman for the council said the multi-use pitch surface is reaching the end of its life-cycle.
He said: “We are aware of many clubs from the island having to travel to the Bangor area to train and play games due to the current standard of this pitch.
“We are currently in the process of finalising funding to provide a new playing surface which will benefit local schools and clubs, and the wider community, by providing access to a highquality sports area all-year round, regardless of the weather.”
However, Katie Roberts, a junior development coach at Bangor City Hockey Club, claims a 3G surface would make hockey “unplayable”. She said: “3G has a big natural bounce. It tries to replicate grass but the rubber makes it very springy.
“From a hockey perspective, it means the ball comes up in a very dangerous way and you can’t get a true run of the ball on it.
“It would be the end of the junior development side of the club, as there’s no other venue that the club could move to within the area, it would have no choice but to disband.
Ms Roberts said the club should have been consulted over the move.
She added: “We haven’t known for very long, it’s only been about two months and it feels like it’s already a done deal.”
In the past five years, the junior side of Bangor City Hockey Club has grown from just six players to 80, with players in North Wales’ Under 13, U16 and U18 squads.
The club is also the only one in Wales to be awarded the Insport Gold club standard from Disability Sport Wales and hopes the decision will be reversed.
Ms Roberts said: “We’ve been in contact with Anglesey Council and we’re also meeting with Hockey Wales to try and get their input on it because they’re very keen to maintain all the development that we’ve done over the past five or six years.”
A spokesman for Anglesey Council added the authority was aware of the club’s concerns.
He said: “We have raised them with the Collaboration Sports Facilities Group who we look to gain financial support from for this development.
“As a result we understand that Hockey Wales, who sit on the Collaboration Group, is supporting the club at this stage to try and find an answer to their concerns.”