Felixton College in Felixton in the sugarcane rich area of North-Eastern Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, is the latest to take ownership of a Poligras Paris GT zero dry turf for hockey. The playing surface makes the most of the region’s varied weather conditions. Coincidentally, it has a “connection” with the sugarcane that can be found in abundance in the surrounding hills.
By: Trompie Sport
Even to South African standards, with approximately 1,000 inhabitants, Felixton is a relatively small village. Yet, the presence of the biggest sugar mill sugar refinery Tongaat Hulett has in the country connects the village to almost every South African household. The sugar they consume in their morning tea or coffee is the first sweet taste many will experience for the day. And following the upgrade to the first commercial sugar mill in the world to produce white sugar directly from cane juice, this claim even applies to many more households beyond the South African border.
The school itself is a thriving hub of activity that draws learners from as far as the port community of Richards Bay, the regional commercial stronghold Empangeni, and Hluhluwe, best known for the country’s oldest nature reserve. These communities either saw the light or, until this day, have experienced growth and development through the presence of Felixton and Felixton College. “We cater for Grade RRRR, which are the 18-month olds, to matric, when learners move on to university or join society as young adults,” Head of College, Wayne Rademan explains.
To facilitate its sporting ambitions, the school asked installing company Trompie Sport to install a Poligras Paris GT zero surface from Polytan for its hockey curriculum. “The school has approximately 16 teams that use the surface for training purposes every day of the week as well as for fixtures on Friday and Saturday. However, as our latest addition has also got the community of Felixton excited, talks have been established about the creation of a local hockey club that will play games on Sunday and train in the evenings,” he adds, to explain the sudden rush in interest the game is suddenly experiencing in the area.
Honour the environment
To explain its reasoning for the selection of the Polytans Poligras Paris GT zero surface, Rademan points to the school’s code of honour. “Our fourth code of honour reads: Honour the environment. This surface doesn’t require water to still deliver a top-hockey experience. Our climate is incredibly hot and humid, and the availability of water is an issue, which is why we said we don’t want a water-based pitch. As this surface was used for the 2024 Paris Olympics we were intrigued by it and decided to explore it as a possible option.” Felixton has a humid subtropical climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. Around 70–75% of its annual rainfall occurs during the October to May period. “The surface has a 60% water retention capability, which is why it still holds water by the time we enter the dryer part of the year. As such, it continues delivering a game experience that mirrors playing on a watered surface. The morning or late evening dew is enough to maintain sufficient water in the system during the dry seasons.” The water retention capability also delivers evaporation over a longer period, thus helping to manage the ambient temperature at the premises.
Designed for top hockey
Ashley Appleby of manufacturer Polytan points out that the surface was developed in close collaboration with the International Hockey Federation (FIH). “The FIH has aligned itself with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is to reduce the reliance on water to irrigate hockey pitches which is not sustainable on a global scale for sport. In 2018, it challenged the synthetic turf industry to develop hockey surfaces that deliver a similar game experience as watered surfaces but without water,” he says, to explain how this new type of hockey surface came to fruition. “For countries with a hockey constituency but also challenges in terms of access to water, dry turf hockey surfaces could herald a growth in the sport, both in terms of number of players as well as the level of the game. As dry turf has lifted the constraints that historically hampered the investment in elite-level hockey infrastructure, there is nothing that can stop any society any longer becoming a hockey powerhouse.”
“For countries with a hockey constituency but also challenges in terms of access to water, dry turf hockey surfaces could herald a growth in the sport, both in terms of number of players as well as the level of the game"
Dry turf is the first modern synthetic turf surface that responds to the preferences of the players. “Prior and during the Tokyo Olympics, FIH interviewed hundreds of players to identify important game events where the characteristics of a water-based pitch are deemed to be important. The list included the ball speed, oblique ball bounce, stick-surface friction and the performing of 3D skills like lifts, jinks, or pops. Our design team took that information and closely collaborated with an international testing institute FIH had commissioned, to evolve our surfaces for hockey. The Poligras Paris GT zero is our latest result.” This year marks the 13th anniversary of Polytan being the official pitch supplier to FIH.
Sustainable on all fronts
The “zero” in Poligras Paris GT zero refers to much more than just zero water. “It is Polytan’s flagship hockey turf for sustainability and is marketed as the world’s first climate-neutral synthetic hockey turf,” Appleby points out. “Approximately 80% of the polyethylene fibre is made from sugarcane, specifically, a by-product of sugar production rather than sugar intended for consumption.” During growth, sugarcane absorbs CO₂ from the atmosphere, helping to reduce the product’s overall carbon footprint. “The fact that the facility where we produce our hockey carpets, uses only renewable electricity further helps us in limiting our carbon footprint.” As the carpet uses a polyurethane (PU) backing, the environmental impact of the system is even further reduced.
“A polyurethane finish doesn’t require water for its application, making the production process not as water- and energy-intensive compared to the production of synthetic turf carpets with a latex finishing that must be dried before it can move on to the next stage of production.” Rademan nods, while listening to the long list of sustainability benefits. “It all fits perfectly with our drive in mind to protect and look after the environment for generations to come,” he says. The significance sugarcane plays as a raw material for this new dry hockey turf is a massive development in moving away from using fossil fuel raw materials in the manufacture of synthetic turf.
Growing recognition
The dry turf hockey field at Felixton College is already the sixth that is being built by Trompie Sport following installations at schools and clubs in Bloemfontein, Vanderbijlpark, Potchefstroom, Rustenburg and Namibia. The sports fields builder from Potchefstroom is the partner of Polytan in Southern Africa. “The Poligras Paris GT zero field we built in Bloemfontein was the first dry turf hockey surface that was built in an arid area around the world,” company director Nico Tromp Snr. points out. “The pitch in Felixton was built on an e-layer for which we used a biobased binder. However, the field is also FIH-certified on prefabricated shock pads, including one that is made of residual foams from other industries that would otherwise have been incinerated or ended up in landfills,” he adds while pointing out that the sustainability benefits of Polytan’s hockey surfaces are not limited to the carpet itself. “All is validated and certified by independent institutions.”
It is the unique way in which Polytan deliver’s the game-performance without the need for water that makes the Polytan product stand out, Appleby continues. “This dry turf surface is unique, as Polytan is the only carpet manufacturer that has added Turf Glide Technology to its master batch compound.” By adding this proprietary friction-reduction technology to the master batch, and, as such, fusing it into the yarn, the friction coefficient between the player and the turf, the ball and the turf, and the stick and the turf remains as per the design over time. “Together with the fibre geometry and fibre material, as well as the way the surface was compiled and manufactured, the Turf Glide Technology will deliver a playing surface that performs at a high standard meeting the FIH DRY innovation standard without irrigation.”
While it is too soon to claim a contribution by the Polytan surface to the improvement of the sport in the country, the sterling performance South Africa recently delivered in the FIH Nations Cup final against France can be considered as a platform that the hockey community of the country will build on, particularly as the upcoming Super El Nino that is predicted, could herald more water restrictions for late 2026 onwards.
Such restrictions will not affect the hockey community at Felixton College, making Rademan confident that hockey at the school will go from strength to strength from here on. “In cricket player Kyle John Abbott, we already had one of our former learners making it into a national squad. As some of our pupils already play hockey at provincial level, it could very well be possible that all training sessions and fixtures on our Poligras Paris GT zero could also deliver players to our future national hockey squad.”
Share this article
Stay tuned
and receive all updates directly in your inbox