| The Pitch 10:44 - Feb 5 with 39640 views | dawlishdale |
I know there are plenty of comments about the pitch, but I think it needs it's own thread.
I'm frankly appalled at how quickly the pitch has gone from being perfectly good to being not fit for purpose.
Yesterday, after arriving at my dad's following a 6 hour journey, he said that he'd like to come to the game with me. He used to assist the groundsmen at both cricket & bowls locally, so he's not a complete novice in pitch maintenance matters.
His immediate comment on entering the ground and seeing the state of the pitch was "it's been laid wrong". On questioning him, he was adamant that from what little he could see the roots of the grass were suffering, there was far too much sand within it's structure and more worryingly, it looks like there are once again big problems with the drainage.
His conclusion was that "it'll have to come up and be re done as soon as possible"
In addition, he didn't think that playing Rugby on it was making it any worse.
I think it's time that the club actually made an official comment about the pitch, as we seem to spend a huge sum of money on it each season, but it hasn't been good enough this year. Have we done anything different to previous years that would contribute to it's poor condition?
What worries me, is that the weather has so far been kind to us, both in terms of temperature and rainfall, so how much worse would it be in a bad spell?
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| The Pitch on 10:52 - Feb 5 with 16614 views | rochdaleriddler |
It does look shocking considering what a mild winter we've had |  |
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| The Pitch on 10:54 - Feb 5 with 16602 views | 442Dale |
Good post. Fans with no professional knowledge were commenting on the pitch in pre-season, particularly the structure (or whatever the term is) that led to it crumbling when there was a slide tackle. It didn't look right then and it's certainly not now.
The manager is clearly becoming affected by it and so are his players. |  |
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| The Pitch on 10:55 - Feb 5 with 16600 views | 442Dale |
| The Pitch on 10:52 - Feb 5 by rochdaleriddler |
It does look shocking considering what a mild winter we've had |
It looked poor a year ago but played much better. What's changed? | |
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| The Pitch on 11:02 - Feb 5 with 16576 views | boromat |
Preseason it cut up like anything and didn't look bed in. I'm no pro on pitches though. Hill comments on the pitch post match and makes a point of saying it isn't down to the rugby the pitch should be capable of 2 matches a week.
The pitch had looked better with worse winters. Hopefully we can put it right next year but unfortunately we re do the pitch every year you'd think we'd have it right by now. | |
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| The Pitch on 11:17 - Feb 5 with 16522 views | Daley_Lama |
| The Pitch on 11:02 - Feb 5 by boromat |
Preseason it cut up like anything and didn't look bed in. I'm no pro on pitches though. Hill comments on the pitch post match and makes a point of saying it isn't down to the rugby the pitch should be capable of 2 matches a week.
The pitch had looked better with worse winters. Hopefully we can put it right next year but unfortunately we re do the pitch every year you'd think we'd have it right by now. |
Club addressing issue with grow lamps, article just up on OS |  |
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| The Pitch on 11:24 - Feb 5 with 16502 views | DareToCalvin |
Good to see the club doing what they can to improve the pitch. |  | | |
| (No subject) (n/t) on 11:50 - Feb 5 with 16407 views | rafc1977 |
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| The Pitch on 11:51 - Feb 5 with 16403 views | rafc1977 |
Is artificial the way forward? Technology of these pitches has moved on from the boundary park/kenilworth rd days of years gone by. For clubs like us the maintenance of pitch, and in particular the initial work every pre season isn't cost effective, especially when these past few seasons it has failed at some point or another. We've had specialists do studies, make recommendations but it's still no better.
There's a reason why all the premiership & I'd guess 90% of the championship have decent pitches..... money! In leagues 1 & 2 it's more the exception than the norm. I heard Alan Pardew in a recent interview when a guest of Sutton v Leeds in the fA cup get asked, it must be an advantage that it's a synthetic pitch and the leveller between the teams? His reply was, not at all. Most premiership/championship clubs have artificial pitches at their training grounds anyway so the difference isn't as much as its made out to be.
Having said all that, don't Dale (in the main) train on artificial surfaces anyway? The current pitch is crap, but I accept isn't the sole reason for our struggles of late, more injuries & loss of form. However Hilly has always made clear his love of us playing football on a good surface, I'm not sure with all our injured back we could produce the flowing footy witnessed before Christmas on the current surface. | | | |
| The Pitch on 13:33 - Feb 5 with 16199 views | sykeboy |
Whilst rugby can't help from a football perspective watching Huddersfield on sky shows a decent surface can be produced when used by both codes | | | |
| The Pitch on 14:04 - Feb 5 with 16130 views | Daleaholic |
The pitch has been knackered from the get go. I remember someone doing a slide tackle in pre-season and a massive piece of turf was ripped up, probably 2 feet long. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure that in pre-season, the pitch should be nigh on finished, all bedded and rooted.
Questions need to be asked though, as the pitch went through severely worse winters and looked in a lot better condition than it does now. |  |
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| The Pitch on 14:09 - Feb 5 with 16111 views | Molly |
| The Pitch on 11:17 - Feb 5 by Daley_Lama |
Club addressing issue with grow lamps, article just up on OS |
have no knowledge of these matters ,but could these heat lamps be used to help thaw a frozen pitch area? | | | |
| The Pitch on 15:13 - Feb 5 with 15958 views | ColDale |
There's a six week period set aside for pitch work this Summer from 8th May to 17th June |  | | |
| The Pitch on 15:42 - Feb 5 with 15872 views | aleanddale |
| The Pitch on 11:51 - Feb 5 by rafc1977 |
Is artificial the way forward? Technology of these pitches has moved on from the boundary park/kenilworth rd days of years gone by. For clubs like us the maintenance of pitch, and in particular the initial work every pre season isn't cost effective, especially when these past few seasons it has failed at some point or another. We've had specialists do studies, make recommendations but it's still no better.
There's a reason why all the premiership & I'd guess 90% of the championship have decent pitches..... money! In leagues 1 & 2 it's more the exception than the norm. I heard Alan Pardew in a recent interview when a guest of Sutton v Leeds in the fA cup get asked, it must be an advantage that it's a synthetic pitch and the leveller between the teams? His reply was, not at all. Most premiership/championship clubs have artificial pitches at their training grounds anyway so the difference isn't as much as its made out to be.
Having said all that, don't Dale (in the main) train on artificial surfaces anyway? The current pitch is crap, but I accept isn't the sole reason for our struggles of late, more injuries & loss of form. However Hilly has always made clear his love of us playing football on a good surface, I'm not sure with all our injured back we could produce the flowing footy witnessed before Christmas on the current surface. |
Artificial ?
A big no from me.. Grass 100% every time. | | | |
| The Pitch on 16:42 - Feb 5 with 15753 views | Bluedart |
| The Pitch on 13:33 - Feb 5 by sykeboy |
Whilst rugby can't help from a football perspective watching Huddersfield on sky shows a decent surface can be produced when used by both codes |
I believe Huddersfield pitch is a desso pitch, which is between £900000 & £1million to install it will be interesting as another team in the northwest IE:-WIGAN had to returf there's last year due there pitch being like ours before and after the rugby started constantly breaking up and degrading | | | |
| The Pitch on 17:06 - Feb 5 with 15677 views | SuddenLad |
Just seen a picture of the pitch following the Hornets match.  Shocking... |  |
| “It is easier to fool people, than to convince them that they have been fooled†|
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| The Pitch on 17:19 - Feb 5 with 15648 views | 442Dale |
| The Pitch on 17:06 - Feb 5 by SuddenLad |
Just seen a picture of the pitch following the Hornets match. Shocking... |
Probably a good job that we moved the Charlton game that was due to be played on Monday. | |
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| The Pitch on 17:28 - Feb 5 with 15615 views | Daley_Lama |
46-0 win, very impressive indeed! | |
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| The Pitch on 17:44 - Feb 5 with 15561 views | Dale23years |
| The Pitch on 17:06 - Feb 5 by SuddenLad |
Just seen a picture of the pitch following the Hornets match. Shocking... |
Were you seen a picture???? | |
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| The Pitch on 17:54 - Feb 5 with 15541 views | Shun |
| The Pitch on 17:44 - Feb 5 by Dale23years |
Were you seen a picture???? |
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| The Pitch on 18:27 - Feb 5 with 15438 views | jimmysbaldhead |
| The Pitch on 17:44 - Feb 5 by Dale23years |
Were you seen a picture???? |
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| The Pitch on 18:53 - Feb 5 with 15363 views | ChaffRAFC |
| The Pitch on 17:06 - Feb 5 by SuddenLad |
Just seen a picture of the pitch following the Hornets match. Shocking... |
I saw a before and after picture from the rugby at Spotland today and the pitch looks no worse after the game than before the game! |  |
| If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor |
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| The Pitch on 19:54 - Feb 5 with 15240 views | mingthemerciless |
A few years ago I was told the drains were badly damaged during the work done on one of the stands. I can't remember which one now. It may be true, may be a complete myth but it does make you wonder. | | | |
| The Pitch on 20:03 - Feb 5 with 15184 views | dingdangblue |
| The Pitch on 19:54 - Feb 5 by mingthemerciless |
A few years ago I was told the drains were badly damaged during the work done on one of the stands. I can't remember which one now. It may be true, may be a complete myth but it does make you wonder. |
I think that's why the drains were re laid last summer. |  |
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| The Pitch on 20:04 - Feb 5 with 15198 views | SuddenLad |
| The Pitch on 19:54 - Feb 5 by mingthemerciless |
A few years ago I was told the drains were badly damaged during the work done on one of the stands. I can't remember which one now. It may be true, may be a complete myth but it does make you wonder. |
And the miracle was, that when they excavated the ground to repair the drains - there weren't any.
They have since been installed..........hence fewer postponements.... | |
| “It is easier to fool people, than to convince them that they have been fooled†|
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