The Pitch…..what can be done about it?

No but it is less likely to be waterlogged. Plus there is not only one solution we might need a couple of solutions. We most certainly need an umbrella solution to the amount of rain coming down and we also need a strategy for frost in winter. If it is forecast it will start to freeze as the sun go down. We just cannot destroy the grass for the sake of one match. We either refuse to play on the pitch if we have a frost or we have a heated duvet type solution.

 

need some kind of artificial pitch. There are some that are legal. Needs investigating

 

I may have dreamt this... wouldn't be the first time. But I think Leeds U leant Leeds Rhinos their UV lamps in the winter to grow grass. Wonder if we could beg our big neighbours? Next time we have a week off or so?

With the lower germinating grass it might just be enough time to get a bit more grass back on the pitch. Doesn't solve the drainage issue of course but helps in the short term.

 

How does grass stop a deluges of rain…over many, many days and weeks ? .My local area is grass, grass, forest and more grass. The fields are flooded, the dykes, drains and rivers are full to the brim. It’s the sheer quantity of rain causing the issue as opposed to what it falls on.
Colchester is a really nice pitch……it was waterlogged as a case in point.

I understand totally where you are coming from , however its the sheer amount of rain this winter. Everywhere is just saturated. I tried to cut the lawns yesterday for the first time since November. I wish I hadn’t! It literally feels like walking on a sponge.

 

I'm amazed you even for your mower out.

 

Eh?

 

Not sure about the the LUFC link, but I think someone on here last winter said Leeds RL lent us theirs. There was certainly a lamp gantry still being used at VP a couple of months ago, it was clearly in a picture of the pitch posted on here around Xmas.

 

When you get Premier league money and 100 million for getting relegated you can easily afford things like that.

 

Why did you attempt to cut the lawn when it felt spongey?

Grass will soak up water much better than bare ground. Yes we have an enormous amount of rain this winter. The other half is an expert on all things drainage. All living plants like grass need water, no grass more water for the drainage to drain. He goes off the scale when ppl start digging up trees and bushes, he says it adds to our problem with excess of water.

Firstly if there had been grass on the pitch and it had not been damaged and died that would have helped with the drainage. Plus the earth would not have been rolled as it has been thereby hindering the drainage system. He fully understands why they had to roll it but that doesn’t distract from the simple equation hard impacted earth and sand does not help the drainage system even if we had less rain.

 

Just been on Doncaster's forum to see what they are saying pre-match. And believe it or not they have a Bradford Pitch thread too!! Not a lot of positives on there as well, "tinpot" "should be thrown out of the EFL" for eg.

 

Because it needed topping at 6 inch tall. First cut after winter now it’s 3” , Two days of no rain and I’ll top it again to make it 2 inch. It’s 35m x 30m …. So a lot of grass

 

What an OTT statement. Their players have injured a couple of our players over the last two seasons. So in my view they can suck it up!

 

I personally would leave it until the heavy rain is behind us. Didn’t it drag the grass?

 

Have I logged on to gardeners weekly?

 

We own one if not two . A few seasons ownership from memory.

 

No, set to the highest the mower would go without stalling the engine.. It been raining again all today so far . It’s an old lawn so well rooted. Two days without rain of any sort in the last three weeks. We digress….

 

It cant be beyond the realms of possibility and cost to simply have a set of retractable covers that sits above the ground level like they use to protect cricket pitches. Maybe a number of them that fold in on themselves and can be wheeled out of the ground through the Bradford End ? Or something retractable that is higher at one side than the other and drains rain water down into a drain built between the pitch and the Midland Rd ?