Playing Surface

Quoted from HertsGTFC

That’s really informative, thank you. Another example of where the club didn’t think this season would ever start.

Quoted from WayneBurnettsJockstrap

Ill fill you in. As a member of the groundstaff when I worked there 20+ years ago, Mike Phillips had a strict regime every May after the last home game. I presume he still does.

Within days he would get a machine in which I believe was called a corer. It would be pulled behind a tractor, slowly, using mechanics it would punch holes into the playing surface and pull out a plug of soil. This could take a couple of days. The cores would then have to be removed from the surface, usually with a snow shovel by a team of lackies, of which I was one, alongside Nobby! This could take a day with 6 people doing it. Very heavy work. Several tonnes of soil would have to be removed. Leaving the pitch to 'breathe' with all the newly opened holes, this aided drainage from the previously compacted surface. Normally about a week later, there would be a delivery of many, many tonnes of sand, which had to be barrowed onto the pitch, dumped in equidistant piles all across the whole playing surface, and then all the sand had to be swept, using a brush, to fill all of the holes to the top. Very laborious and time consuming. From start to finish it could take over 3 weeks to complete.

Because Mike Phillips was furloughed, and Johnny Useless was going in and ONLY cutting the grass, none of the above got done during the out of season, so thats why the pitch is getting chewed up every single match. There was no tender loving, award winning TLC on the pitch, which means that the playing surface now has 18 months of compacted soil one it, not allowing surface water to drain away as easily. Daily rain for a week could easily turn the once upon a time award winning pitch into a quagmire, and also if there is plenty of water lying below the surface, where there is a naturally high water table, the pitch could quite easily freeze up, something which rarely happened in the past while MP has been in charge.

In a normal season, if Town was playing away from home two or three times on the trot, the Groundstaff would have time to aerate the pitch and do everything they could to make the pitch as good as it could be. Mike deserved all the accolades he received for his care of the pitch and it was a pleasure working with him.

Hope this helps and explains the workings of the playing surface, and the reason it is how it is now.

Quoted from moosey_club

ahhhh yes, but he had a system...a masterplan.....

Quoted from HertsGTFC

That’s really informative, thank you. Another example of where the club didn’t think this season would ever start.