Gosh, its moved on a bit from Jack Ranshaws time as groundsman with just a wheelbarrow and shovel to spread a bit of sand!
Ah, the good old days when they called a spade a spade.Gosh, its moved on a bit from Jack Ranshaws time as groundsman with just a wheelbarrow and shovel to spread a bit of sand!
Shouldn’t the sand go on top of the grass ?
From memory a traditional winter pitch has sand in the goal mouths and a strip down the middle, with the centre circle completely sand. However, the wings must be fully grassed.
There is a often a problem in spring though when you can get grass growing through the sand. Which I imagine is why we are spending so much to stop this issue.
A traditional winter pitch surely has the sand mixed in with mud giving it the consistency of a melted chocolate caramel ice cream with sprinkles. As you say though all of that is in a wide strip down the middle with the wings pristine green still showing the stripes from the mower.
Looking at the photo's are we replacing the advertising hoardings or are they being moved slightly to increase pitch size or something?
In the olden days there used to be a bit of a mound at the south park stand goalmouth. It got flattened in the late 70's or so.As you move down the leagues there is also the ever deepening depression under both penalty spots and the centre spot. At North Hykeham it was so bad that as an eleven year-old I had to take a penalty out of a puddle because the Ref insisted on the ball being placed in the correct position. The ball didn't quite float, but needless to say, I missed the penalty; the ball barely reaching the goal line.
The other Sunday League speciality is to replace the white lines with creosote so the grass dies and over time the pitch is marked out by rain eroded trenches, rather than the traditional white lines. This reduces the need for painting them during the season and is an ideal place to store sharp objects like broken glass, bottle tops, stones and assorted bits of metal.
They rolled Percy over it?In the olden days there used to be a bit of a mound at the south park stand goalmouth. It got flattened in the late 70's or so.
As you move down the leagues there is also the ever deepening depression under both penalty spots and the centre spot. At North Hykeham it was so bad that as an eleven year-old I had to take a penalty out of a puddle because the Ref insisted on the ball being placed in the correct position. The ball didn't quite float, but needless to say, I missed the penalty; the ball barely reaching the goal line.
The other Sunday League speciality is to replace the white lines with creosote so the grass dies and over time the pitch is marked out by rain eroded trenches, rather than the traditional white lines. This reduces the need for painting them during the season and is an ideal place to store sharp objects like broken glass, bottle tops, stones and assorted bits of metal.
Hopefully our groundskeeper is on contract with sell on clauses.
A very interesting read.