The furore surrounding Trinity College’s lack of adequate hockey facilities has heightened as the new sporting season commences. The pitches currently in use in Santry have been deemed deeply unsatisfactory and out of sync with the hockey club’s needs. A sense of despair is emerging among Trinity’s hockey circles, as they face another year without sufficient training or match-playing facilities.DU Hockey Club Men’s Captain Craig Moore expressed his dissatisfaction with the current situation to the University Times, saying he is “not happy with it at all”. While he expressed his gratitude to SU President Cónán O Broin for his helpfulness in trying to seek alternative playing and training fields, and in “passing on our angst to the Provost”, he stressed the urgent need for the situation to be rectified.
While the hockey club have an alternative pitch and training ground lined up for this year in Three Rock Rovers in Rathfarnham, this is only a temporary measure, far from ideal, and would not be sustainable at all in the long-term. While they will be able to play all their forseeable matches on these grounds, the hockey teams do not have a guarantee for training times, which means there is the possibility they will be left in limbo from one week to the next. In terms of paying for the alternative pitch and training ground, the Treasurer is being very helpful in helping with the additional funding, but they will also in all likelihood have to fundraise to meet the costs.
Over the last few years, the Trinity College Hockey Club has suffered greatly as a result of its issues with training facilities and coaching. In order to get promoted and develop further, these areas of concern need to be addressed promptly. For a college with such promise and potential, Trinity’s hockey teams find themselves languishing in the second divisions of the university leagues, primarily due to the dearth of facilities.
Two years ago, Trinity had two international-standard hockey players among their legions, but these players were encouraged to discontinue playing for the college club as the state of the Santry pitches could hardly be expected to meet their international requirements. Under the current circumstances, Trinity College has sparse hope of attracting top-flying hockey players in the future. As one senior member of the club put it, “How can we entice students to play with Trinity if our competitors (UCD), who are currently in Division 1, have three hockey pitches, all of which are in better condition than our one pitch in Santry?”
Until recently, the college authorities had been promising the club an entirely new pitch in a more suitable location, but this was operating under the presumption that the Santry property would be sold, something that now seems very unlikely with the onset of the economic downturn and the collapse of the property market.
As the situation stands, the playing facilities in Santry have been highlighted as one of the major factors hindering the growth and development of the club. In a letter to DUCAC, Captain of DUHC First XI for the forthco ing 2009/10 season Brian Cleere highlighted the current lamentable state of affairs with regards Santry and outlined the club’s current problems and needs for the immediate future. In this letter, he described the problems with the maintenance and monitoring of the pitch condition, which pose serious health and safety issues for players and umpires.
Last year, in the final league game of the season, the match was ground to a halt mid-way through, while players from both sides tried to clear broken glass from the field of play. Shards of glass still remain scattered around the pitch, maintaining a huge risk to anyone playing on the grounds. The flood-lighting has also fallen into disrepair. In addition, there are problems related to a lack of security on the grounds, with training sessions and games being heavily disrupted by unwanted visitors in the past, and an incident occuring last year where two lady coaches had eggs thrown at them by local delinquents.
All of these factors are having an adverse effect on Trinity Hockey’s recruitment, as registration of new young players continues to dwindle. “We are not getting the numbers, and a massive factor is due to where we train,” Mr. Moore explained. “The fact of the matter is that Santry’s location is a major reason why people won’t train or join the Club. Over 90% of the Club live on the south side of the City and with this in mind I don’t blame people for not wanting to make the trek out to Santry.”
The Club are pleading for funding from the college sports governing body DUCAC to train one night per week in Alexandra College, an ideal location for the club’s training needs. The fact that it is within ten minutes walk from Trinity Halls, where over 1000 first year students reside, will most definitely result in freshers joining the Club and encourage them to train at least once a week. Its close proximity to the Milltown Luas stop will also entice students who are studying in college to train and reap the benefits of the Club.
For the Hockey Club, obtaining new suitable training grounds is imperative to re-establishing themselves as Ireland’s top Hockey University once again. Proper training facilities will be crucial in order to bid a serious challenge for promotion and bolster the Club’s expansion and development. As it stands, the DU Hockey Club now face an uncertain future, and fears are rife that the club could fall into further decline unless the college authorities respond appropriately to their pressing needs.
