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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?
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
On balance, whilst the £730,000 Huddersfield have paid for their new pitch seems like a lot of money, the reality seems to me to be that you get what you pay for. The club has been spending money every year on a pitch which does not seem to be capable of withstanding 50 or so football and rugby matches every 10 months. My understanding of the SIS or Desso systems is that they create pitches with far more resilience and the capacity to withstand many more games than our current all-grass pitch seems to be able to withstand.
I think we have a climatic problem which will not be solved easily in that Rochdale is the wettest town in the UK with a population of more than 50,000 people. Certainly the wettest football league ground, we also have over 800 hours less sunshine than they do on the South coast. The consequence of this is that grass has a less predictable growing period either because the May - July period when the pitch is refurbished is too wet or too overcast. We certainly do not get long sunny autumn days that would improve root growth.
Now that the club owns the ground and with Hogan funds arriving, it should be possible to borrow sufficient money over say 5 years to pay the cost of a Desso or SIS pitch which should also save money each year as little annual re-seeding should be required. The theory is that the artificial grass should support the natural grass and overall the pitch is capable of being played on more often. The process clearly involves digging out the existing pitch as far as 3 feet down, and rebuilding a completely new structure, typically it seems about 10 weeks are needed and presumably this would resolve the drainage problems, and would also remove the slope from the pitch (I believe there is about 4 feet drop towards the Sandy Lane end to give a perfect playing surface comparable with the best Premiership surfaces.
On balance, whilst the £730,000 Huddersfield have paid for their new pitch seems like a lot of money, the reality seems to me to be that you get what you pay for. The club has been spending money every year on a pitch which does not seem to be capable of withstanding 50 or so football and rugby matches every 10 months. My understanding of the SIS or Desso systems is that they create pitches with far more resilience and the capacity to withstand many more games than our current all-grass pitch seems to be able to withstand.
I think we have a climatic problem which will not be solved easily in that Rochdale is the wettest town in the UK with a population of more than 50,000 people. Certainly the wettest football league ground, we also have over 800 hours less sunshine than they do on the South coast. The consequence of this is that grass has a less predictable growing period either because the May - July period when the pitch is refurbished is too wet or too overcast. We certainly do not get long sunny autumn days that would improve root growth.
Now that the club owns the ground and with Hogan funds arriving, it should be possible to borrow sufficient money over say 5 years to pay the cost of a Desso or SIS pitch which should also save money each year as little annual re-seeding should be required. The theory is that the artificial grass should support the natural grass and overall the pitch is capable of being played on more often. The process clearly involves digging out the existing pitch as far as 3 feet down, and rebuilding a completely new structure, typically it seems about 10 weeks are needed and presumably this would resolve the drainage problems, and would also remove the slope from the pitch (I believe there is about 4 feet drop towards the Sandy Lane end to give a perfect playing surface comparable with the best Premiership surfaces.
[Post edited 6 Feb 2017 19:38]
Impressive. Maybe if we gift them a free sponsorship of the Sandy AND Pearl Street stands they'll do it for nowt. Maybe Desmond the Dragon could be renamed Desso the Dragon.
On balance, whilst the £730,000 Huddersfield have paid for their new pitch seems like a lot of money, the reality seems to me to be that you get what you pay for. The club has been spending money every year on a pitch which does not seem to be capable of withstanding 50 or so football and rugby matches every 10 months. My understanding of the SIS or Desso systems is that they create pitches with far more resilience and the capacity to withstand many more games than our current all-grass pitch seems to be able to withstand.
I think we have a climatic problem which will not be solved easily in that Rochdale is the wettest town in the UK with a population of more than 50,000 people. Certainly the wettest football league ground, we also have over 800 hours less sunshine than they do on the South coast. The consequence of this is that grass has a less predictable growing period either because the May - July period when the pitch is refurbished is too wet or too overcast. We certainly do not get long sunny autumn days that would improve root growth.
Now that the club owns the ground and with Hogan funds arriving, it should be possible to borrow sufficient money over say 5 years to pay the cost of a Desso or SIS pitch which should also save money each year as little annual re-seeding should be required. The theory is that the artificial grass should support the natural grass and overall the pitch is capable of being played on more often. The process clearly involves digging out the existing pitch as far as 3 feet down, and rebuilding a completely new structure, typically it seems about 10 weeks are needed and presumably this would resolve the drainage problems, and would also remove the slope from the pitch (I believe there is about 4 feet drop towards the Sandy Lane end to give a perfect playing surface comparable with the best Premiership surfaces.
[Post edited 6 Feb 2017 19:38]
I think the only way this would happen would be from the extra money from a season in the Championship.
Its a BRILLIANT goal to cap a BRILLIANT start by Rochdale - Don Goodman 26/08/10
I would have thought the answer to that was obvious. You need to be sure of your footing when you're totally concentrating on taking and giving a pass.
I would have thought the answer to that was obvious. You need to be sure of your footing when you're totally concentrating on taking and giving a pass.
The condition of the surface doesn't seem to have bothered them much in the past.
When I was your age, I used to enjoy the odd game of tennis. Or was it golf?
We still need a decent surface to play our high speed running and handling game on. A shit heap is no good for either code.
Would we still need a decent surface if we had Raff at RB and Bunney at LB whipping crosses in to Steve D and Calvin, with Matty Lund feeding off the scraps?
Would we need a decent surface if we had 7 first team players out, but Conrad hadn't gone all Matt Dickens?
At this time of year I reckon our pitch has been bad 105 times out of the last 110 years!
Hilly wants to keep confidence up, so if it helps to blame the pitch, then I totally get it, but come on, we have had 7 key players injured in s fortnight, added to that the reliable Conrad Logan has had a mare, we have recruited, but of coarse it will take a few games to jell.
Its been a tough few weeks, but we don't need to make excuses, the pitch is the pitch, last Saturday could turn out to be the best point of the season!
Everything thats been, has past. The answers in the looking glass!
I would have thought the answer to that was obvious. You need to be sure of your footing when you're totally concentrating on taking and giving a pass.
I always found the weather a bigger problem with decent handling but there you go...... the pitch is far more of a problem to playing decent football than it is the rugby in its current condition that's for sure
I would have thought the answer to that was obvious. You need to be sure of your footing when you're totally concentrating on taking and giving a pass.
Almost 26 years playing Rugby, both codes, and I never once thought as I gave/took a pass, "I hope my footing is secure".
Must admit ive rarely thought as I took a catch "God I hope my studs are perfectly planted otherwise I'll have to drop this beggar"
Aye. Thoughts are usually along the lines of "I hope I don't get tvatted by 15 stones worth of opposition. A rare occurrence on the cricket field in my experience.
Aye. Thoughts are usually along the lines of "I hope I don't get tvatted by 15 stones worth of opposition. A rare occurrence on the cricket field in my experience.
When someone buys a product, it has to be fit for purpose. If not,the customer is allowed a replacement or a refund. Surely the club have gone down the road of contacting the company concerned to rectify the problem.
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