Will hockey stay at ‘Crystal Maze’ Palace? Time will tell

Crystal Palace’s hockey pitch was once an ‘impossibly’ slick surface as the advent of astro came to fruition. According to players at the time, lower division players found it hard to weight passes while goalkeepers wore little more than cricket pads. Yet, the midweek floodlight leagues attracted London’s top sides while it became an attractive property indoors and on TV.

Spool forward two decades and Usain Bolt and athletics stars once used the sandy pitch as a warm-up track.