The ability to host international ball hockey competitions in Bermuda has resulted in the refurbishment of the rink at Pembroke Community Club.

Renovations carried out by the Bermuda Ball Hockey Association include new lights being installed, while the flooring was also changed and new tiles fitted.

Hart Freedman, the BBHA president, revealed that there was huge interest in hosting global events on island but the previous deplorable state of the rink prevented the opportunity.

“We are being approached by international tournaments here on a monthly basis,’’ Freedman told The Royal Gazette.

“Whenever somebody approaches us, they always ask about the number of teams they can bring over.

“There’s all sorts of interest in our facility but it needed an upgrade. It was falling apart, there were cracks in the tiles and people were tripping, so this makes a big difference.”

Freedman also expects the upgrade to result in less matches being disrupted by the rain.

“The Bermuda Ball Hockey Association replaced the floor, tiles and we upgraded the lights to be more environmental friendly,’’ Freedman said.

“We also adjusted the lights so that there’s less light pollution to other areas at night. At our own expense, we cleaned up the area around us. First we did the lights, then we took off the old tiles and we fixed the surface below.

“We also cleaned the playing boards, we upgraded our nets, then we laid down the regular tiles.

“We expect it to hold up in the rain, it won’t be perfect in the rain but it will be better, we should have fewer rainouts and it looks a lot nicer.

The renovations were certainly a team effort with plenty of people chipping in to modernise the facility.

“There were certain people who played a big role in upgrading this facility,” Freedman said.

“We had a lot of help from Ronnie Dzurus at North Point Contracting and Shawn McKee spearheaded the installation of the tiles.

“We also have Mark Heintzman, who was instrumental in managing the project overall and Andrew Leavy from Solterra Landscape & Design Ltd. Once we received the tiles, the installation probably took two to three weeks.”

Freedman has appealed to the local community members not to abuse the facility, which is not only used for ball hockey.

“The rink is a public facility,” Freedman said. “It’s not privately owned, but it is privately funded. We put a lot of work into this facility and it used by a lot of people in the neighbourhood. Whenever it’s not being used by us at night, it’s being used during the weekend.”

Action in the ball hockey league reached the halfway stage last week, opening up the chance for teams to make additions to their squads.

Hamilton Princess, the side at the bottom of the standings, were given first priority to choose from the available players and they signed Andrew Markus, a goalkeeper who has come out of retirement.

Doug Lynch, a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played for the Edmonton Oilers in the National Hockey League, has been snapped up by Applied Computer Technologies. Samuel Drotar and Randy Elgersma went to Spine and Sport.

Positive Image Dental have two new signings in David Campbell and Dustin Luck, while Nathan Ische and Craig Rowat are new players for CG Insurance. League leaders Frontier added Stefan Chamberland to their squad.

In last week’s matches, 16 goals were scored when Princess faced Positive Image Dental, with the latter prevailing 11-5. Defending champions Appleby, who are second in the league, won 4-2 against ACT.

Two days later ACT hammered Frontier 7-3 in the first match on Friday night, while CG CG defeated Hamilton Princess 3-2 in the second fixture.