scientifically and by the professional sportsmen and women who play and train on them,” says managing director Bryn Lee.
It was the advent of 3G surfaces that sparked a frenzy of R & D within the industry, says Roger Weedon, managing director of McArdle Sport-tec Ltd, the sole suppliers in the UK of Astroturf, a byword for synthetic grass in the USA then worldwide after American football clubs laid the carpet in their home stadia.
”Before 3G, very little R & D was being conducted but its arrival changed all that. Since then, there’s been more thought gone into how we can produce a better surface by delivering ones with higher quality fibres and infill. 3G made people think.”
The outcome is a swatch of surface alternatives matched to everything from multi-use, multi-sport to specialised applications for individual sports. From the early days of sand-filled synthetic grass – a surface that served its purpose well as a good, all- rounded product (and still does, Weedon stresses) has emerged the need for more specialist surfaces to cater for the demands of individual sports.
Although segmenting the industry this way might seem to run contrary to the cost considerations of multi-use surfaces, particularly among local authorities, the benefits can be quickly identified, believes Simon Hall. “One of the factors that determine the life of a pitch, other than the quality of the surface and the installation and correct maintenance, is the amount of use it gets. Originally, a local authority may have specified one pitch to serve a big catchment. Today, there are more pitches in that given area and the authority can specify a particular surface for particular sports, say football and rugby for one surface and hockey and tennis for another.”
This splitting of the market is something that Gilly Milne, marketing manager of Blakedown Sport and Play, thinks is benefiting football and rugby but might prove detrimental to hockey. “Football and rugby clubs form joint ventures to specify 3G pitches and funding is
available for these initiatives. Hockey cannot be played on a 3G surface and the funding that used to be available for sand-filled pitches – a surface suitable for the game – has dwindled. The game appears to be in a downward spiral.”
But the level of R & D undertaken in recent years she feels has done much to address concerns over injuries sustained on artificial surfaces as well as to improve performance characteristics.
“There are surfaces that offer a good compromise and others that are more sport specific, so I believe the industry is meeting demand for a range of products.”
Commercial pressures
But how does the industry reconcile the need for specialist sports surfaces with the intense commercial pressure on operators to provide a versatile, multi-use facility, a factor that still steers end-user demand? “The industry in the UK is driven by multi-sport requirements due to Sport England’s campaign for adaptable facilities,” says Bryn Lee. “In most other countries, and in the top level in the UK, people want surfaces dedicated to one sport. This seems to produce better players. “In Spain for example, clubs just below La Liga play their matches on TigerTurf surfaces tested to FIFA’s stringent levels. Yet in England we still have a negative reaction to artificial turf within the professional game.” “The industry has to develop products for dual sport products (he cites TigerTurf Challenger as a case in point), with more emphasis on one sport, rather than a compromise, as in the past, with several sports.”
Have today’s 3G surfaces, on which rugby and football seem to happily co-exist, done away with the worry? “For rugby and soccer, the new 65mm 3G products offer a perfect dual sport solution,” Lee explains. “But to play rugby and meet IRB, the system needs a shockpad and the pile length must be at least 65mm. “Already we have seen an Australian product try and jump into our market with a lower pile height product, blatantly flouting the IRB and RFU requirements.
www.sweepfast.com
Artificial Turf Maintenance Specialist Artificial Turf Maintenance
U.K. importers & Manufacturers of the Triple Greensweep
U.K. importers of the Cleansweep
Artificial Turf Restoration
Before Restoration
After Restoration Moss Control also available
For friendly advice or a site visit ring 01675 470770
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