Unofficial Halesowen Town FC Forum

Let's hope for some dry weather this week.

http://www.sheffieldfc.com/news/bedworth-game

Rain for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday in Sheffield.

http://behindtheflag.boards.net/index.c ... &thread=63

They don't seem to think a lot of their pitch. I've also had someone tweet me to say the pitch surface resembles a cross between tissue paper and ready brek.

Could this be the solution ? http://www.tencate.com/emea/grass/default.aspx ?

I don't agree with artificial pitches at all. It's bad enough we've had to play Romulus & Sutton on that astro turf!

I accept this is non-league and finances are restricted at best, but I don't see why more money / time hasn't been invested in looking after the pitches.

Something as simple as a plastic cover when it's torrential raining would work well and see a lot less games postponed.

I do also accept that the grass would get damaged due to lack of sun light etc, but surely something as simple as a sheet when we expect heavy rain would be beneficial.

RaidenYeltz wrote:I don't agree with artificial pitches at all. It's bad enough we've had to play Romulus & Sutton on that astro turf!

I accept this is non-league and finances are restricted at best, but I don't see why more money / time hasn't been invested in looking after the pitches.

Something as simple as a plastic cover when it's torrential raining would work well and see a lot less games postponed.

I do also accept that the grass would get damaged due to lack of sun light etc, but surely something as simple as a sheet when we expect heavy rain would be beneficial.

get a quote for one..but spending money to get a game on has to be balanced against the loss from that game (not including Stokes` taxi and 3 trains!) and the game will be played at a later date

I have no idea as to costs, no. So I accept my view is slightly ignorant.

But a plastic sheet is a one off cost which could save a number of postponements over the course of a few seasons.

Surely it'd be like the Grove Bar scenario. Initial cost of the bar would be a lot but over the years will it more than pay for its self. A bit of an extreme example but you get the point.

From Market Drayton's point a view I reckon there would have some 80 Halesowen fans there Saturday. Now there isn't a free Saturday so the fixture will need to be played on a Tuesday. There is no way we're going to take that many on a Tuesday night, we'd struggle to get above 20 fans there?

That's a lot of money they've lost out on due to the postponement.

Sorry Raiden, but I do not think your idea (I could not help but use the pun), holds water because the water that falls as rain has to run off to somewhere.

My simple calculation of a inch of rain on a 50m by 100m pitch says that 127m3 of water has to be disposed of. A simple sheet will not achieve this without added drainage piping to dispose of the waste water and a frame to support the sheet (its needs to be sloped to for the rain water to flow to the edge)

...if only problems were so easy to solve as a plastic sheet, I think it would be a common practice

Noggin wrote:Sorry Raiden, but I do not think your idea (I could not help but use the pun), holds water because the water that falls as rain has to run off to somewhere.

My simple calculation of a inch of rain on a 50m by 100m pitch says that 127m3 of water has to be disposed of. A simple sheet will not achieve this without added drainage piping to dispose of the waste water and a frame to support the sheet (its needs to be sloped to for the rain water to flow to the edge)

...if only problems were so easy to solve as a plastic sheet, I think it would be a common practice

Very fair points.

This is a subject I know nothing about, I was just a little surprised nothing has been done to help prevent postponements. Obviously doesn't carry too much of a financial penalty to clubs when games are called off!

As I think some else hinted at previously, the game has to be played regardless so there is no direct financial loss.
However there is potentially a financial penalty in the sense that if a Saturday game (or a Bank Holiday game such as the Chasetown fixture) is re-scheduled for a week night, then there is likely to be a lower crowd for the new date.