Time to turf out the turf

Wanganui Hockey's Gonville sand-based artificial turf has already doubled its anticipated working life and the association is seeking help to replace it before it falls apart.
The hockey association has around $120,000 in cash funds in reserves, can hopefully get the Wanganui District Council to underwrite a $200,000 loan based on earnings from the turf over the next six years ? and needs another $340,000 to get the water-based turf that is necessary to attract international matches and New Zealand tournaments and keep the sport going in Wanganui.
The association hopes to get together with the district council this week to talk about the turf's replacement, and is very keen on council suggestions of a centralisation of sporting facilities around the Springvale Park area.
To that end, Wanganui Hockey is keen to establish a new turf at Springvale and possibly maintain as long as possible the Gonville one. The Gonville turf is being used as much as it can be all seven days a week, and school sides are starting to train on school tennis courts because they cannot get on the turf.
Association chairman Don McCullum says sports need a co-ordinated policy as mooted by Mayor Michael Laws, "mainly in Springvale. In the longer term we would be very much in favour of relocating to that area. We would take our office there, not have to run the present hall ? it would be much better to centralise our administration with other sports.
"If you have all; the sports that are there now, plus softball, hockey and netball, you could go there any time of the day and there would be a coffee bar, food, a social and administration side ? it just makes sense. "And if we got a bit of an uplift in numbers ? and it's happening at the kids' level ? we could use two turfs. This one at Gonville is used as much as it can be."
He says the area's 1700 hockey players face an uncertain future if the money cannot be found. Before the turf was laid, hockey was played on nine grass fields. Hockey has basically not cost the council a cent since then. Without a turf, the sport would struggle.
"Here we can play seven days a week, and at night. Everything had to be on a Saturday before ? that's the difference that this (the turf) does to this sport.
"This turf was put down in 1990 (approximate cost $120,000), and the recommended life when we did it was seven years. Some of these turfs have got through to 10, but not many have got through to 15."
At the same time Manawatu put two sand-based turfs down ? one was changed to a water turf three years ago, and the second one is being done now.
"Now we're looking at a water turf capable of taking top hockey. If we got it, we would have internationals here, because that's Hockey New Zealand's pattern ? they bring a team out and play the four or five tests in one area, such as Horowhenua and Wellington last time.
"New Zealand is good at involving all the provinces. "So we're basically looking for $660,000, of which we can find $300,000 or so. That is what we've got in kitty plus what we can borrow against the next six years' income," McCullum said. "But the next $300,000?"
A major requirement for the association is to gain council agreement to underwrite a loan of around $200,000 ? "unless they do that, we're nowhere, because they own the land, and we can't borrow off anyone else without them underwriting it. We have no assets to borrow against other than the pavilion and the turf ? which are useless to anyone other than hockey.
McCullum says the present turf is the best he's seen for its 15-year age.
"But my personal judgement is that two years will see it badly worn to the dangerous stage. So it's become pretty urgent."
He says advances for assistance to all available trusts had netted just one positive reply at this stage.