THE SHOCKING PITCH

[Crowthorne Royal]

I know we were poor on Saturday but the awful pitch surely didn't help.
I know we've had bad weather and that never helps but the pitch has been deteriorating for some weeks now.
You can see the Rugby areas of the pitch and these areas are well worn as in previous seasons. However, there are many areas that are just truly pathetic for a club of our stature.
What has gone wrong ? Anyone know ?

Solutions needed quickly, because I've no doubt it's affecting our play and could be the difference between automatic promotion & the dreaded play-offs

Come on Sir John, you can do it....take us to the promised land once more with a gleaming new surface !

[Rex]

Battered by the snow and continual egg chasing. Watching the Spurs / Arsenal game yesterday i was looking mostly at a quality pitch and a dire game.

[SLAMMED]

It takes a while to relay a pitch. There isnt any big enough time gaps between now and the end of the season to relay it.

[Rex]

We don't wan't the farce of Birmingham's newly laid pitch which cut up huge lumps when we played them. A new pitch has to 'take' first.

[Sun Tzu]

You can see the Rugby areas of the pitch !

I wasn't aware that quite so much of a rugby match was played in that section just behind the posts - really messes up our 6 yard box.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

The pitch is definately affecting the game, but are you sure its to our disadvantage?

2 years ago the pitch cut up badly around the turn of the year and we won 5 on the spin at home i think, including a 6-0.

Since the pitch cut up this season (late Nov early Dec?) i make it we've won 5 out of 7 with 2 draws.

it might be making for a bad spectacle but it certainly isnt working against us in terms of results.

[Rex]

Where's snowballs stats on blades of grass per square inch V performance. I need to know before i go to bed

[rg6royal]

May as well wait until the end of the season now...

[hughsies no.1]

2 words:

LONDON IRISH!

[BanffshireRoyal]

2 words:

LONDON IRISH!

And we've signed them up for years ahead. Money winning again!

[Doyler]

2 words:

LONDON IRISH!

The pitch is strong enough to cope with the rugby and has done for ages, the weather is more to blame.

[rob the royal]

also i saw a donkey on the pitch the other day...

[SLAMMED]

also i saw a donkey on the pitch the other day...

Oh, you never told me how your pitch invaion went.

[higher]

LONDON IRISH!

Newly imported groundstaff spotted relaying the madhouse paddy field.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

The pitch is in a poor state with not much grass in the middle with our groudstaff continuing to reseed and trying to establish new growth.

The groudstaff are doing a great job to keep it flat so that it plays better than it looks not that we play the ball on the deck.

[Y25]

Egg Chasers

[All sorts]

I don't think you can blame the egg chasing (although very unlikely to help!), Swansea play rugby on their pitch (Ospreys?) and they have a near perfect surface so I think we should blame the groundstaff!

[Rex]

Also isn't it about the fact that natural light fails to reach all the pitch during the course of the winter months. Air circulation also has something to do with it. as grass is slower to repair over winter this will take its toll.

[West Stand Man]

If it was the rugy then the main damage would be down the centre spine from goalmouth to goalmouth with the odd seriously bare patch near the try lines (due to well contested scrums in the area). The worst damage is in the goalmouth (as for any football pitch) and then a general bareness elsewhere. That strikes me as being more indicative of either;

a poor pitch in the first place; or
poor maintenance by the ground staff.

Given the choice I'd vote for the first one.


Having said that, it also fairly clear that although there is not much grass on the pitch it is still as flat as ever and is playing pretty well in the circumstances.

[Hoop Blah]

Having said that, it also fairly clear that although there is not much grass on the pitch it is still as flat as ever and is playing pretty well in the circumstances.

You've not noticed the ball bobbling about quite a bit over the last few matches then?