Torquay United v Chelmsford City - PP 2/4/19

[culmstockgull]

While I agree with some of the comments as to whether certain previous matches should have gone ahead it still remains an inescapable fact that there is something fundamentally wrong with the pitch, the drainage certainly doesn't work properly although we allegedly invested a small fortune in it last summer, the design of Bristows bench is suggested to be a contributory factor, well from where I sit in the family stand when its sunny that's the side of the pitch that is bathed in sunlight,the roof slopes backwards away from the pitch so it cannot be rain coming of the roof onto the pitch. so before the club digs up the turf again this summer we probably need to bring in someone with an expertise in the subject.

[SuperNickyWroe]

The playing surface was destroyed during the match v Welling. The highlights of the match are still available, view it and see the state of the pitch before kick-off . . .

The heavy rain downpour 25mins before ko contributed to the messy[highlight=yellow]*[/highlight] playing surface at the final whistle.

[highlight=yellow]* f****d up[/highlight]

I do love those technical terms Troj.....

[tomogull]

I know games are called off early for all sorts of reasons mainly due to away teams,fans travelling issues but think this postponement is slightly early as, at least here in Exeter the rain stopped lunchtime today and the strong wind has already started to dry my back garden out quite nicely?

Maybe I'm being unfair, but I can't help thinking that if an experienced groundsman had been appointed to replace Chris Relph, the pitch would be in better shape than it is now. We have not had excessive rain this week and as DWB points out, the wind this afternoon is drying out the ground quite nicely. There is little rain forecast between this evening and kick off time and the wind is supposed to be dropping. Heavier rain arriving tomorrow evening, after 5pm, apparently.

[Lloyder5]

A little bit unfair, you only have to look at the fields in South Devon to see the amount of water that's come to ground.

[Midlandgull]

When we know it will hammer it down why don't we use something similar to what they use at Wimbledon for the tennis?

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/HXDNJF/rain-c ... HXDNJF.jpg

[Richinns]

When we know it will hammer it down why don't we use something similar to what they use at Wimbledon for the tennis?

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/HXDNJF/rain-c ... HXDNJF.jpg

A number of reasons (a few of which are listed below!)

1 - a tennis court is significantly smaller than a football pitch!
2 - It would probably cost more than one of Mr Osbourne's houses.
3 - It would be massively susceptible to the wind and therefore extremely dangerous.
4 - If the water table under the turf is higher than ground level it would have zero effect anyway!

Don't recall Wimbledon being played in February...

[portugull]

Weston- Super- Mare Home Match now off due to waterlogged pitch plus one game in National League North.

I must admit I have thought all week our game would fall victim to the weather. Remember how wet the pitch was v Oxford City and we have had a lot more rain since.

I think we have a small advantage playing Home games on a Tuesday night because the away team travels on the day. Remember Maidenhead last season. We were 4-0 up at Half Time because they arrived late.

However Tuesday gates are lower but Liam Davis loves to play under the lights!

[Midlandgull]

A number of reasons (a few of which are listed below!)

1 - a tennis court is significantly smaller than a football pitch!
2 - It would probably cost more than one of Mr Osbourne's houses.
3 - It would be massively susceptible to the wind and therefore extremely dangerous.
4 - If the water table under the turf is higher than ground level it would have zero effect anyway!

Don't recall Wimbledon being played in February...

1 - Thanks for pointing out to me a tennis court is smaller than a football pitch. Perhaps you missed where I said something "similar" rather than exactly the same.
2 - I've no idea how much these things cost but you have to spend money (within reason of course) to ensure top quality product and thats what we should strive for, no less.
3 - Hmm ... I think some people like to convince themselves that certain things are not possible. My thinking is to find another way if that was the case, so perhaps have smaller ones like 4 covering the pitch. It works at tennis court size anyway.
4 - If the water went to all sides of the pitch then the next step is to work out how to get it out of the ground.

We should look at what bigger clubs do anyway and why not suggest some ideas. Easy to knock ideas and be a naysayer.

[SuperNickyWroe]

1 - Thanks for pointing out to me a tennis court is smaller than a football pitch. Perhaps you missed where I said something "similar" rather than exactly the same.
2 - I've no idea how much these things cost but you have to spend money (within reason of course) to ensure top quality product and thats what we should strive for, no less.
3 - Hmm ... I think some people like to convince themselves that certain things are not possible. My thinking is to find another way if that was the case, so perhaps have smaller ones like 4 covering the pitch. It works at tennis court size anyway.
4 - If the water went to all sides of the pitch then the next step is to work out how to get it out of the ground.

We should look at what bigger clubs do anyway and why not suggest some ideas. Easy to knock ideas and be a naysayer.

OK, dry your eyes.

[Midlandgull]

OK, dry your eyes.

Thanks for your contribution.

[Dave]

I don't think we can look at the current groundsman and point any fingers there, don't know the man, or anything about him, but what I do know is the problems with the pitch started on Chris Ralph's watch, and his assistant prepares and looks after the pitch in the same way that Chris Ralph did.


You simply can not compare, back gardens, common land, park lands, tennis courts, or even one football ground 5 miles from another 'they're all different' Torquay united spent small fortune on pitch game off, Buckland Athletic spent an absolute kings ransom on drainage and upgrades to their pitch a couple of seasons ago, game off, Newton Abbot rec, a pitch with some of the best natural drainage around this area, the one local pitch that often beats the weather, game there called off yesterday, yet Ipplepen Athletic got their reserve game on yesterday.


We've had a lot more rainfall this winter than last, haven't looked at any statistics, but as someone works outside would be shocked if stats didn't prove this. We all know that during prolonged wet periods grass can go threadbare but will recover, however any grass land, particularly football pitch's need recovery time, our pitch this season has had game from Saturday to Saturday, and at times Saturday- Tuesday- Saturday no recovery time.

There are solutions, but your talking serious money, who's going to invest it, I still don't know why the club aren't looking at a set of partial waterproof pitch covers to protect the flank down by Bristow's bench, they have pitch covers but there frost covers, don't work with heavy prolonged rainfall.

[Midlandgull]

I don't think we can look at the current groundsman and point any fingers there, don't know the man, or anything about him, but what I do know is the problems with the pitch started on Chris Ralph's watch, and his assistant prepares and looks after the pitch in the same way that Chris Ralph did.


You simply can not compare, back gardens, common land, park lands, tennis courts, or even one football ground 5 miles from another 'they're all different' Torquay united spent small fortune on pitch game off, Buckland Athletic spent an absolute kings ransom on drainage and upgrades to their pitch a couple of seasons ago, game off, Newton Abbot rec, a pitch with some of the best natural drainage around this area, the one local pitch that often beats the weather, game there called off yesterday, yet Ipplepen Athletic got their reserve game on yesterday.


We've had a lot more rainfall this winter than last, haven't looked at any statistics, but as someone works outside would be shocked if stats didn't prove this. We all know that during prolonged wet periods grass can go threadbare but will recover, however any grass land, particularly football pitch's need recovery time, our pitch this season has had game from Saturday to Saturday, and at times Saturday- Tuesday- Saturday no recovery time.

There are solutions, but your talking serious money, who's going to invest it, I still don't know why the club aren't looking at a set of partial waterproof pitch covers to protect the flank down by Bristow's bench, they have pitch covers but there frost covers, don't work with heavy prolonged rainfall.

good points. The first step for me is identifying what the actual solutions are and what they would cost - I'm not clever enough to know about this stuff but someone out there could present various solutions and costs. Then, there are grants out there that can be tapped into - European ones (even after whatever happens with Brexit), Premier League fund, Lottery funds etc, that could (emphasis on could) support a project put forward.

Then, perhaps we could even crowd fund it, or use a loan. There could be an argument that there is a loss of revenue from a Saturday fixture vs a Tuesday night fixture, maybe 10-20% each time it happens which would make for an amount that probably goes beyond £10k a season. So the longer this goes on, the more it may actually cost us - again we need the actual figures of course.

If we can sort out our model though and have more revenue as mentioned before (more fans, more merch, more hospitality matchday/non-matchday, academy players being sold) it is of course far easier to re-invest. Of course not knowing the full details of Osbourne's intentions is a major issue for us.

[culmstockgull]

While any long term solution will not be cheap and as we all know we are not a cash rich club, so how about the TUST stepping up, they are, and have been for some considerable time been sitting on the best part of £30,000 of our supporters money, doing no practical good with it, awaiting that day, which may never come when United might need their help, although with that amount it ain't going to buy you a club or even a small part of one, it is not doing any good siting in the bank, any even if its an interest free loan at least they are doing some good and furthering the interests of the club.

[Midlandgull]

While any long term solution will not be cheap and as we all know we are not a cash rich club, so how about the TUST stepping up, they are, and have been for some considerable time been sitting on the best part of £30,000 of our supporters money, doing no practical good with it, awaiting that day, which may never come when United might need their help, although with that amount it ain't going to buy you a club or even a small part of one, it is not doing any good siting in the bank, any even if its an interest free loan at least they are doing some good and furthering the interests of the club.

I emailed TUST after their recent newsletter about what is the plan with the cash. There is £37,052.06 in there and my question was:

"What are the plans with the funds in the bank there? My concern is if they just sit there it is actually shrinking in value each year with inflation vs what you will get in any interest, making the power of the funds less and less."

Here is the response:

"Thank you for your message of support. It is much appreciated.

Your point about TUST's funds is a good one and topical. We are currently reviewing our strategy generally and there are decisions to be made between retaining these reserves as a contingency to be used in a worst case scenario or spending some of the money on projects to benefit the supporters in the short term. Clearly the current funds would not be sufficient to make an offer to acquire the club but they could finance the cost of consultancy and the advice we would need if we were required to take on the club or resurrect it as a phoenix project. In the meantime, one of our active members is a financial advisor and will ensure funds are invested to balance interest against access to the cash if needed.

I hope that this gives you the reassurance you seek and thanks again for raising the matter."

[Dave]

It's frustrating having games called off, especially when your teams in a good run and you want to keep momentum going. The problem is £30k, not sure even if £100k would scratch the surface in terms of fixing the problem, we can cry over split milk, however no end of, oh why wasn't this done when the Bristow's bench was built is going solve it. What's done is done.

The one thing we can't control is weather, the pitch is clay based as we all know, prone to compaction as we all know, one way to relieve that is earth quaking, put simply a tractor pulling a spiked roller to break up any compaction on the surface, but can't be done on a waterlogged pitch, the pitch over the years has had sand dressings, and vertical drainage holes, all the very basic things to relieve the problem have been done, not sure if the level the pitch has been raised though.


Can see the benefits of a 4G pitch, personally not in favour of them, what the other solutions are I don't know. In the last round of the F.A Cup saw a few of the lower league grounds, all had worn pitch's, and it will always go back to money, the top clubs spend more on their pitch's than most clubs from League 1 down do and can afford to spend on their entire operations.