primarily with majority sports like football and rugby in
mind, is not entirely
suitable for hockey.
While it looks like
natural grass, enjoys similar playing characteristics, is non-abrasive, can be used with moulded or studded boots, while running, stopping and tackling are all possible, with a reduced risk of risk of injury, that’s not really what hockey requires. So, the challenge facing
hockey’s supremos is that the very product that revolutionised the game now poses a considerable threat at grass roots level. Naturally, companies like Notts Sport are keen to develop a solution which gives players of all sports access to the benefits of artificial playing surfaces. Says Andy Carter: “It is important for us to continue to develop multi-sports surfaces because these give owners the opportunity to generate maximum use from a wide selection of sports. But, what’s equally exciting is the challenge of developing the ‘surface on a surface’ system.” “We have been involved in the new practice facility at Firwood Bootle Cricket Club in Liverpool, which combines a special permanent surface in the clubhouse extension for functions and events, which is then covered with our portable rollout cricket mats for batting and bowling practice. This dual-use system is working very well and has enabled the club to start training much earlier in the
14 season.”
Continuous improvement is not something new to those in synthetic sports surfacing, which is now in its fifth decade of development. During the 1960s, the Ford Foundation in America was studying ways to improve the physical fitness of young people, while at the same time, the Chemstrand Company, a subsidiary of Monsanto Industries, was developing new synthetic fibres for use as super- resilient carpeting. The company was encouraged to try to make the perfect urban sports surface for schools and, in 1964, its synthetic turf - called Chemgrass - was installed for the first time at the Moses Brown School in Providence Rhode Island. A year later, Judge Roy Hofheinz built the AstroDome in Houston and, in 1966, the Houston Astros’ baseball season began on a Chemgrass surface, now renamed Astroturf. The doors in professional sport had well and truly been opened to artificial turf and, the next year, Indiana State University Stadium became the first outdoor stadium in the world to be installed with Astroturf. Europe took time to catch up, with London leading the way, when Islington council installed first generation synthetic football and hockey
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