New hockey turf put on hold

The opening of the new water-based hockey turf at Clareville has been put on hold.
It was to be held this coming Saturday but has been delayed in order to allow the laying of the $1.6m turf to be completed.
Wairarapa Sports Artificial Surface Trust spokesman Bruce Perry said the indifferent weather experienced in Wairarapa over the past fortnight had slowed the installation process.
"Everything else has pretty much gone according to plan but you can't account for the weather, you just have to accept what you get in that respect," he said.
Perry is hopeful, however, the opening ceremony will take place within the next two to three weeks.
Statistics clearly indicate how popular the new turf will be. Wairarapa currently has the highest player numbers per head of population in the country. Almost 1 in 23 people living in the Wairarapa play hockey compared with the national average of about 1 in 89.
And right now the 1539 registered hockey players here have access to one turf compared with the average national ratio of 731 players per turf.
Hockey Wairarapa president Lindsay Annear is not only delighted with the prospect of his organisation having two turfs to operate but also with the progress being made on the construction of a new pavilion, the budgeted cost of which is about $400,000.
The first stage of this development, the laying of the foundations and the blockwork, is due to get under way next week, and the funding for it is already at hand.
A completion date for the pavilion, the work on which is being overseen on a voluntary basis by Andy Holmes, of Holmes Construction, has not been set but Annear is optimistic it will be in place by the start of next season at the very latest.