An $820,000 upgrade to the Thames Valley hockey turf was made possible by financial support, teamwork and dedicated advocates.
The newly upgraded blue turf at the Thames Valley Hockey Association in Ngatea is set to celebrate its official opening on October 19.
The Thames Valley Hockey Turf Society and Thames Valley Hockey Association upgraded its facility in December last year due to safety issues.
Society chair Julie Stephenson told The Profile underneath the old turf, it ruffled and just “wasn’t in a good state” – so they switched to a specialised water-based synthetic turf. “This has been a massive upgrade,” she said.
Six water cannons are dotted around the turf on four corners and two sides, and after every one or two games “they literally spray the whole thing with water”, she said.
Even though the official opening was set for this weekend, the turf has been used this season, and the most common piece of feedback was about how soft it was, Julie said.
If someone fell on the previous sand turf “it was very unforgiving”, she said.
It also had a few “lumps and bumps” but the new layout was flat.
“If you hit a ball straight, it runs straight.”
But the “key” thing for the entire project was the funding.
“Some people think that the funding space is hard, but if you have all the information that you need – we’ve actually found that it’s just been a pleasure dealing with some of the funding organisations.”
Julie said $400,000 came from the Lottery Community Facilities Grant, $164,220 from Grassroots Trust, $156,700 from Hauraki District Council and $100,000 from the Thames Valley Hockey Association. They also received $35,000 from the Hockey Turf Society for associated costs.
The project also required a dose of “typical grassroots” ingenuity.
It was going to cost somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 for a contractor to uplift and dispose of the old sand turf, she said.
But in true grassroots fashion, Julie said some of the Thames Valley hockey dads arrived with their tractors and “uplifted the turf”.
“There was a great team led by a local farmer.”
She said the Thames Valley hockey community was more like a “unique hockey whānau”.
For a smaller association that’s probably “punched above its weight a little bit”, Julie said people liked being hosted by them.
They used to have a lot of people who would come from Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, “just everywhere” to play the sport.
However, because the condition of the previous sand hockey turf “wasn’t good” – they “missed” being able to bring those people to the area, she said.
But the newly upgraded facility was drawing more attention and involvement to its grounds.
Julie said a new nationwide competition called Premier Hockey League was about to kick off in November.
One of the franchises, Midland Mavericks, intended to send their teams to the Ngatea turf to practice, she said.
But there was a special connection. One of the team members, who also plays for the Black Sticks, was “one of our homegrown players”, Julie said.
Black Sticks midfielder Aidan Sarikaya grew up in the Thames Valley and would be heading to the Ngatea turf not only for his Mavericks training, but as a special guest for the opening ceremony this Saturday.
People could expect to see a few primary and secondary school games, an invitational game featuring past and present Black Sticks and local players, as well as the special ceremony and tributes to Thames Valley sports stars.
Julie said she wanted people to know anyone could go and use the turf if there were no games on.
She said it wasn’t usual for turfs to be open like this one – normally they’d be locked or fenced off.
“And if they [people] wanted to play hockey – there is a summer league, which is a good way to start.”
DETAILS: To find out more or to get involved, visit valleyhockey.org.nz or find them on Facebook. The official opening is on October 19 from 11am at Hugh Hayward Domain, Ngatea.
