It's bollocks though, as nearly all stadiums are built on a vaguely north/south alignment, not to mention most PL grounds have higher stands than ours and that our south stand - ie the one facing the sun at its highest and strongest - is very low by PL standards. There has to be something else at play there.
maybe the underlayer of the pitch is **** maybe theres grass eating bugs in the soil maybe the soil is too acidic or too alkaline do we even have a proper grass scientist? youd think a club that spends tens of thousands on players wages would
That was a great competition but they nearly blew it on the very first times it took place. My mate, Steve Winfield (RIP), better known as Ozzy was asked if he fancied having a go at half time as Simon CawkilL ( commercial man) was a bit short of entries. Ozzy was a minor sponsor at the time, like myself, and known to the club. So he stepped forward. The idea was to put the ball through different sized holes in a banner attached to the goal posts at the South Stand end. The smallest hole, just about the size of a football, won you the first prize, a car, which was parked on the corner of the pitch on this particular occasion. To kick a ball cleanly through that hole was virtually impossible because it was almost exactly the same size as the ball. The other holes of differing sizes won you a trip on the North Sea Ferry down to a signed shirt and so on and you got three kicks. So up stepped Ozzy, milking the jeers from the crowd, placed the ball down on the penatly spot and with his second kick slotted it straight through the car winning hole, he then ran around the pitch waving his shirt above his head, and Ozzy was a big lad, the car had gone on the first day! Or so we all thought. Cawkill was having kittens on the touchline, the car had gone, in the first game of the season, to the second kick of the competition which was supposed to last all season! So they quickly announced a change in the rules, you had to kick the ball through the car winning hole with your first kick to win the car, not any kick as they had first announced and Ozzy was fobbed off with a signed shirt or something. I actually won a trip on the North Sea Ferry for two in this competition a few weeks further on, which was nice. Another time I thought I'd won a car at one of the club's fund raising do's. They presented the competition, some guessing game, to the backdrop poster of a new car with the keys hanging from a hook. it was about £10 a go, and the highlight fund raiser of the night, star prize, and I won it. Big announcement, can the winner please step forward, loads of applause, big presentation, handed me the keys, big speach, and then they 'drove' the car into the hall........... it was brand new but a remote control toy car, the bastards.
What condition is the identical pitch at Cottingham in? If its better then is it the stadium. If its the same, then its either the weather or the groundsmen or both. If its worse, then **** knows!
Why cannot we be happy with the stadium as it is? I've followed City for 50 years and we have never been in such an enviable situation. Boothferry had such a great playing surface - unlike now (sharing). Extend the East to match the West. (We have no right to think that we can get 40 or 50 k supporters weekly). Have we??
Of course we do. Aaron Tong graduated Bishops Burton class of 2013. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-tong-b4a79779/?originalSubdomain=uk According to Aaron "Certainly been my hardest winter I can remember as a Sports Turf Manager."
Tan said at the live event on Friday, that ahead of each season they skim the top off and reseed it, for next season they're going to dig it up completely and start from scratch.
I wonder whether it is that grass bug. One of the local golf courses was apparently plagued by it in the summer... I would have thought though the frost would kill them though. Thinking back, in recent seasons when its been a problem, has it not been more toward the wings there has been a lack of the green stuff...
Remember that happening I think I was in the Well near the south corner. Remember the car parked on the side of the pitch.
Remember a certain poster who claimed every benefit going and when we moved to the KC got parking permission for him and his supposedly disabled son and freebies for away games doing that? He used to turn up in his taxpayer funded vehicle and hobble into the ground with his lad using walking sticks. He put it through, won a North Sea ferries trip and then cartwheeled across the pitch.
So why aren’t other pitches in a similar state? There are football clubs that share pitches with union teams, which causes more damage to a pitch than RL, who have been playing all through the winter months that are in a better condition than the MKM where only football has been played.
Some I’ve seen on TV are but I dont see all and I’ve not checked their regional rainfall but agreed somethings not right . I play at a coursehats been water looked like many other all through winter so that’s pi***ed me off too .