The Pitch

[Martin Lawrence]

The opposition seems to be able to play on it okay, sadly

Yep, we just dont seem able to at the minute. I am sure it is a confidence.

 

[SEA Grecian]

The opposition seems to be able to play on it okay, sadly

I think that's a bit of a simplistic argument. It's noticeable that by far our worst two performances of the season have come at home on Tuesday nights after we've also played at home the previous Saturday. Now that might just be co-incidence or it might that there is something particularly tiring about our pitch that makes it hard to play two games in quick succession on it.

 

[John William]

The pitch held up surprisingly well last night. It cannot be blamed for the fiasco that was our team's performance.

 

[Snoop Fog]

The pitch is shocking and a Desso pitch needs to be prioritised ahead of any other investment relating to the clubs infrastructure.

 

[Boyo]

The pitch is shocking and a Desso pitch needs to be prioritised ahead of any other investment relating to the clubs infrastructure.

A quick Goggle suggests a Desso pitch would cost between £0.5 and £1m as an initial outlay and be good for about 10 years.

 

[John William]

The pitch is shocking and a Desso pitch needs to be prioritised ahead of any other investment relating to the clubs infrastructure.

A quick Goggle suggests a Desso pitch would cost between £0.5 and £1m as an initial outlay and be good for about 10 years.

Nearer the £1M than half that as we would I understand need to do a lot of drainage work rather than just laying a Desso surface in place of the current grass.

So in principle, a Desso pitch would be good, but will the whole of the playing surface need to be dug up to depth and completely new drainage installed for expenditure of close on £1m on the pitch to be worthwhile? And can that all be done in one close season?

And IMO it was not the pitch that led to the defeat last night; we could have been playing on a bowling green and would still have been awful. Morecambe were playing on the same pitch as us and ought presumably have been less prepared than us.

 

[grecianstew]

I have banged on about this so many times so this will be the last! A Desso pitch will not be a simple automatic solution as some like to think (ask Newport). We have 2 historic and geographical problems. One, the pitch was constructed using a technique similar to rice farmers in SE Asia, a technique designed to hold water. Second we are sitting on red clay, which obstructs the passage of water through it (and quickly clogs any infrastructure designed to take water away)
The result of this will be to make ours much more expensive in the first place, require significant annual upkeep costs, and may only have a marginal benefit.
my last word on the subject

 

[Boyo]

I have banged on about this so many times so this will be the last! A Desso pitch will not be a simple automatic solution as some like to think (ask Newport). We have 2 historic and geographical problems. One, the pitch was constructed using a technique similar to rice farmers in SE Asia, a technique designed to hold water. Second we are sitting on red clay, which obstructs the passage of water through it (and quickly clogs any infrastructure designed to take water away)
The result of this will be to make ours much more expensive in the first place, require significant annual upkeep costs, and may only have a marginal benefit.
my last word on the subject

Fair enough. Is there anything that would work?

 

[DawlishBouy]

I have banged on about this so many times so this will be the last! A Desso pitch will not be a simple automatic solution as some like to think (ask Newport). We have 2 historic and geographical problems. One, the pitch was constructed using a technique similar to rice farmers in SE Asia, a technique designed to hold water. Second we are sitting on red clay, which obstructs the passage of water through it (and quickly clogs any infrastructure designed to take water away)
The result of this will be to make ours much more expensive in the first place, require significant annual upkeep costs, and may only have a marginal benefit.
my last word on the subject

Swansea City Liberty Stadium:
2005 New stadium
SISGrass hybrid pitch installed Summer 2019 at a cost of £550,000.
Just been ripped up and replaced Jan 2021.

Newport County Rodney Parade
Summers of 2013 and 2014 new drainage and irrigation systems installed.
Problems with drainage continued.
Irrigation and drainage systems repared and replaced and hybrid desso grass pitch installed summer 2017. At a cost of £750,000 I believe.
Stadium manager Mark Williams quoted “Flooding will be a thing of the past”
Pitch already needed digging up by end of last season but work delayed by covid.

 

[Andy_H]

I have banged on about this so many times so this will be the last! A Desso pitch will not be a simple automatic solution as some like to think (ask Newport). We have 2 historic and geographical problems. One, the pitch was constructed using a technique similar to rice farmers in SE Asia, a technique designed to hold water. Second we are sitting on red clay, which obstructs the passage of water through it (and quickly clogs any infrastructure designed to take water away)
The result of this will be to make ours much more expensive in the first place, require significant annual upkeep costs, and may only have a marginal benefit.
my last word on the subject

At which point this whole thread needs to be wound up. Let's just leave the ground staff to do the very best they can, and the club can afford, doing whatever remedial work is possible during the close season and hope for warmer, drier weather to be with us shortly. Then we can all complain about how dry everything is!!