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Managing all the rain we have had has been difficult as in the winter there is little drying out until we get into March. So, we have taken things in to our own hands!
With a four week gap in play over the Christmas period on our training ground match pitch and a couple of weeks of reasonably dry weather, the hope was to be able to get back on the pitch and do some maintenance work. It was even in need of a cut due to the warm winter and if we were lucky it might be dry enough for the aerator.
As it turned out, the moisture held in the top few inches wasn't going anywhere and the decision was made to dig a drainage pipe in through the wet part. This area was slightly lower than the rest of the pitch so had probably had some run off into it from the areas around it and then had play on it making the situation worse.
Fortunately we had some pipe from a previous project stored and a few bags of pea shingle bought in covered a drain line of about 25 meters. The hand digging kept us warm!
The pipe was laid about 450mm deep and care taken to dig the trench with a slight gradient into the soak away pit at the back of the goal. Les Cotton drainage contractors were very helpful with some advise and soak away crates.
We back filled the trench with the 10mm pea shingle and topped with some sand, although I wonder whether we should have used soil as the sand might migrate into the pea shingle.. Maybe a correction for renovation time if there is some movement.
The area didn't initially dry out and wondered if it had worked, but now a few weeks on, it has definitely dried out a lot and the surface is much firmer.
The main pitch on the first team area is coping with the winter okay and retains a high level of grass coverage. We have only had to cover it a few times so far this winter with frost sheets. If we have a run of frosts, the training takes place on the same pitch so repair time is reduced before we recover and the pitch can start to deteriorate quite quickly. There has been a couple of applications of ICL 4-0-8 invigorater fertiliser in the last 7 weeks, Flow-Smart penetrant wetting agent, Vital Nova Stessbuster, and Cal/Mag.
The stadium pitch continues to hold together so far this winter. As I've said before it is very much in the hands of the weather. Despite three wet games before and over Christmas, we haven't lost too much grass coverage, although it has thinned in places as you'd expect given the environment.
We had initially taken out the base feed Sierrablen this year due to cuts but have managed to add it back into the stadium pitch. This is partly because of all the rain we have had leaching nutrients through and using it as a fail-safe to keep nutrients trickling in and not getting caught out before the next feed.
Half yearly pitch marks have come through and we are above average for the league at 4.05 out of 5. The referee and the away manager give a mark every game and it is averaged out between them.
Fixtures have also been kind to us this January with only two scheduled throughout the month, although 6 in six weeks will see us through into, hopefully, an early spring.
We have had a demonstration of a robot mower from ProPitchUk intellegent Marking at the training ground. I was very impressed with it and it would save a lot of time marking out, especially the initial mark. Once the corners have been found the mower will set off and mark the whole pitch for you including the boxes and circles. The demonstration on the picture has marked in some grids from scratch and took about 10 minutes to mark. Measuring and marking a groundsman would take about an hour.
For £25k it couldn't replace a human employee as the robot, despite being excellent at marking, would be rubbish at pulling frost covers or driving the tractor. Tea breaks would have less banter too!
