Newquay Pitch Campaign

Newquay Hockey Club’s run of pitch bad luck seems to continue into 2026. The club and its members are wondering will it ever end?? 

After years of being one of the growing number of hockey clubs with no home pitch in their own town, disaster struck yet again a few weeks ago when the storm Goretti caused damage to the pitch Newquay reluctantly currently call their home (in Truro). This deemed it unplayable for matches and training sessions for the foreseeable.

Some will already know the history of NHC. For those who don’t, they were made homeless over 20 years ago when their pitch at Newquay’s Tretherras School was relaid as a ‘football / rugby only’ rubber crumb Astroturf. NHC’s concerns at the time that they would be left with no home pitch and the school could no longer offer a decent level of hockey to their students, fell on deaf ears. Adding insult to injury NHC were involved in helping to secure the funding which helped pay for the original multisport pitch to be installed. This didn’t seem to matter either.  

Since then, Newquay players have travelled far and wide to be able to continue to train and play their sport. For a while they continued to train at Tretherras on the rubber crumb as players did not want the hour round trip for a training session at the next closest pitch available. The club soon realised after relegation that the nature of the pitch was not helping players improve and compete, so then moved to the next closest, but much smaller multisport pitch at St Mawgan’s RAF base. After continuing to struggle with performance on match days, NHC finally decided the travelling was going to have to be a must in order to survive. They managed to secure a slot at Penair school in Truro and have trained and played matches there pretty much ever since.

Over recent years and due to varying disasters along the way, match days have seen NHC also hiring pitches in St Austell (sadly also now a rubber crumb), Pool, Bodmin and even Penzance.

When NHC were informed 3/4 weeks ago that Penair would be out of action indefinitely, the committee and mainly their amazing  fixture Secretary Mel ‘Dave’ Golding spent endless hours trying to re-arrange fixtures, swap home matches to away and find the few free slots left on match days at the limited hockey friendly pitches left in Cornwall to accomodate their teams fixtures. Over the 2 weekends after Goretti hit, this meant Newquay ladies and men’s teams had to play what should have been their ‘home’ matches in Plymouth, Pool and Bodmin. And a junior tournament which Newquay organise at Penair, also got cancelled.

In addition to this, the small MUGA pitch NHC use at St Newlyn East for their younger junior sessions (which saves parents and younger players (from year 1 up to year 5/6) the hour round trip to Truro so their children can play hockey) has also been out of action more often than not for months. Since October half term there has only been 1 week when our juniors have been able to attend their Tuesday evening training session. The ‘all weather’ pitch is constantly waterlogged. 

On the bright side, St Newlyn East and Penair are having works done to remedy the current problems, hopefully meaning NHC can resume some kind of ‘normality’ by the beginning of February.

Much as this is good news, Newquay Hockey Club are a NEWQUAY club, their players want to train and play and recruit players, young and old from NEWQUAY.

There is land in Newquay where NHC would be able to site a new pitch, but to make this a reality they need the help of the council, investors, other funding opportunities and anyone else who wants to help create an amazing facility not just for hockey, but for the Newquay community and other local sports clubs to take advantage of. 

Despite setback after setback, NHC are still going strong. Now with 3 ladies teams, 1 men’s team and a large number of junior teams across a wide range of age groups.  

As a strong and growing club, they are determined to continue with the fight to bring Newquay Hockey home. 

If you think you can offer help / support / funding opportunities or want to know more about Newquay Hockey Club, becoming a member / player / umpire / coach / fundraiser please get in touch.

Lets give a big ‘well done’ to the NHC committee and members, for their endless commitment to keeping Newquay Hockey Club up and running, and keeping the dream alive that hockey will one day return to Newquay PROPERLY.