Hockey pitch resurfacing update

As you are all aware, last season we hosted a superbly successful Let’s Dance Loreto fundraiser, raising almost €40,000 towards the resurfacing of our pitch. We are now looking forward to further fundraising work.

We are planning a fundraising event for both the Senior and Junior club, which we’ll be unveiling in the New Year, and are in the process of preparing an application for a Sports Capital Programme.

To give you some background, our current pitch was replaced in the summer of 2007 and paid for on a 50/50 basis between Beaufort & the hockey club. The cost of this pitch was greatly reduced to both Club and School as a result of us getting a Sports Capital Grant of €100k in 2006.

Not surprisingly, Loreto’s Inez Cooper was one of the main drivers behind this very successful project. Under the rules of the Sports Capital Programme we were not allowed to apply for another grant for the hockey pitch for ten years.

Despite the ongoing pitch maintenance programme, we estimate that based on likely levels of use, and the current height of the pitch pile, the club and the school will most likely have to jointly resurface the hockey pitch in the summer of 2018.

We estimate the cost to replace the current sand dressed pitch is likely to be approx 220-250k. A water-based pitch will cost more; we are currently working to fine-tune these likely costs.

All the current indications suggest that sometime early in 2017, there is likely to be another opportunity via the Sports Capital Programme to apply for a grant towards the cost of the required replacement hockey pitch.

With this in mind, since early November, the Loreto Order (Sr Ita & Sr Maria Barry), Loreto Beaufort (Margaret O’Donoghue & Francis Palmer) and a Hockey Club Sub-Committee (Nuala Naughton, Paula Cunniffe, Bronnie, Paula O’Donoghue and Cara Brophy) have all been working hard behind the scenes to position ourselves to deliver a first class and very professional Sports Capital Programme Application, seeking a significant grant to part fund the replacement of our hockey pitch.

We will continue to update you on this Sports Capital Grant project as things develop over the next few months. At a later stage, after our application has been submitted, we will require all the current senior club players, past players and parents of our junior club players to get involved in supporting our grant application – more details regarding this to follow in due course.

Regards,
Bronnie