In the spring of 1977, when the Ford Fiesta was first launched, and Fleetwood Mac’s album Rumours hit the charts, Bill and Dick Laslett purchased an overgrown orchard at Polo Farm, Canterbury, Kent, igniting a sporting dream which turned into a flourishing reality. Today, their facilities have expanded to become a premier sporting venue and centre of excellence and are regularly used by the local community including; Canterbury Hockey, Tennis, Cricket and Croquet Clubs, together with Canterbury Christ Church University, and a host of local schools, local businesses and members of the public.
Their vision of a long-term facility sharing partnership has also enabled them to build a brand new multi-sport indoor centre with thriving junior sections in all their sports, with numbers almost reaching 1000 children. They currently have almost 2000 members across their 6 clubs. The age range of members is spread between 3 and 90. In truth, there’s something for everyone.
Ensuring that the club would have a sports surface that could provide both performance and versatility for a host of activities would be top of their agenda. They would also require a sports surface that could provide both bright colours and wood effects, whilst also delivering a future proof solution. This stringent set of, ‘only the best will do’ specifications would ultimately lead the Polo Farm Sports Club to choose Taraflex® Sport M Performance from international flooring specialist Gerflor.
Jayne Scott-Kilvert, Manager, Polo Farm Sports Club commented, “we built our new sports hall back in September 2015 which has rough floor dimensions of 50m x 40m”. She went on to add, “this was in conjunction with Canterbury Christ Church University who under the terms of the agreement use many of the facilities here during the weekdays”.
Jayne Scott-Kilvert went on to further say, “our primary aim when specifying the floor was to provide a world class surface for both indoor hockey and cricket. The Taraflex Sport M Performance floor has now been down for over 2 years and we are extremely pleased with it. It runs very true for hockey, enabling a very high calibre of match to be played. Our cricketers have been amazed with the surface with both England and Kent players commenting on the perfect bounce.”. She added, “also, not having to put down mats is a huge bonus for them.”
Taraflex® vinyl sports flooring has been used in many international and local sporting events and is available in 17 colours and three wood-effect designs.
The Sport M Performance product offers a P2 category shock absorbency 35% to 45%. Taraflex® is recognised for providing durability, safety and comfort without impairing performance. The range also offers greater than 45% force reduction, making it unrivalled in the marketplace in terms of offering comfort for users. Taraflex® meets the EN Standard of 22196 for anti- bacterial activity (E. coli - S. aureus - MRSA) (3) returning >99% levels of growth inhibition. The product is also treated with Protecsol®, which renders polish redundant and is triple action meaning no polish is ever required, it contributes to easy maintenance and is anti-friction burn and slide/grip. Taraflex® has a double density foam backing and with another bonus, it’s environmentally friendly
Taraflex® Sport M Performance from Gerflor also meets the EN 14904 Standard for indoor sports surfaces… and very importantly for the Polo Farm Sports Club due to the important cricketing element of their facility, Taraflex® Sport M Performance is also English Cricket Board (ECB) compliant. The Taraflex® ‘point elastic’ flooring has a higher comfort factor than ‘area elastic’ floors and reduces the risk and severity of injuries. Taraflex® is also available with the Dry-Tex™ System which is perfect for new construction or refurbishment projects with damp subfloors.
Jayne Scott-Kilvert ended by saying, “the Gerflor Taraflex flooring also provides a perfect surface for the numerous other sports that are played there including netball, futsal, handball and football. This is the first time we have used Gerflor flooring and we would certainly recommend it to other sports clubs”.
