Close season work is well underway on the pitch at the Trade Recruitment Stadium to ensure that it is in the best possible condition for next season.

Stadium Manager Ian Darler presented the Board of Directors with a number of proposals for work on the pitch and he was pleased that they backed his request to do more than just basic maintenance work this summer.

"It was starting to puddle up towards the end of the season and it's not had any serious drainage work done for ten years, so it was in need of some work," he confirmed.

"When you're playing 70 or 80 games a season on it like we are with the first team and CRC, you've got to have a realistic chance of getting the water away when you're playing every Saturday and sometimes in the mid-week too.

"I gave the Board three options, one of which was just minor works, and they went for one of the better ones."

The top 25mm of soil has been removed from the whole pitch and the surface has been reconstructed, while a further eight 80ml drains have been laid from end to end and seven miles of gravel bands have been added to replace the previous gravel bands that had broken up.

The work has already proved a success, as Ian reported: "Having seen the way the water was running through the drains yesterday, I haven't seen it running so quickly since the last lot of drains were installed about ten years ago!

"The water was absolutely gushing off, compared to the usual trickle, so we've had instant results and it was really pleasing to see that."

The pitch was seeded last Tuesday and Ian now has an anxious wait to see how quickly the grass will grow in the limited time until the start of the new season.

"We don't have the luxury of spending £80,000 to have it turfed so I'm having to grow it from seed," he explained.

"Normally you need a minimum of 10-12 weeks, which would take us to the middle of August. Obviously I'm not going to get that long so I'm hoping that the first home friendlies don't come too early because it does need a realistic chance to establish itself.

"Obviously it's a bit of a gamble but if we hadn't done this work the gamble would have continued for the next twelve months because the pitch would have struggled to cope with the heavy rain we've been experiencing in recent years."

A further consideration is the strong wind during the time the pitch was being reseeded, which resulted in some loose dry soil and seed being blown into the South Stand and also settling on the track around the pitch.

"A bigger problem is that some of the seed has ended up being blown around the stadium but I couldn't wait and wait for the wind to drop because every day is precious and I needed to get the seed down," Ian added.

"It means there are some areas on the pitch at the moment where the wind has blown the seed away so I'll leave it another 48 hours and then make a decision about whether I need to re-seed in certain areas."

The current weather of sunshine and showers is perfect for the growing grass and once it has had its first cut in about three weeks' time Ian will try to force it to grow a little faster, but in the meantime keep your fingers crossed for more of the same weather!

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