The law of sod meant that April was the driest and warmest in years!
pitchcare COMMENT
THE cancellation of the first One Day International against the West Indies at Headingley ‘due to a waterlogged pitch’ was unfortunate. Of course, it is easy to sit in the stands, or in TV and radio commentary positions, especially in bright sunshine, and pontificate about what has gone wrong with the new drainage system, with everyone expecting the same results as achieved at Lord’s. At Headingley this was never going to happen - not this year anyway. The cost of the Lord’s drainage system was, at the time, £1.2m. That figure would be closer to £2m now. Headingley’s new drainage cost £650,000 and the work was carried out during one of the worst winters in recent memory.
The Brit Oval
wouldn’t have been a problem,” James continues “but we had no option but to work in the closed season, and last autumn and winter gave us the worst possible conditions.”
Headingley Carnegie has a very heavy clay loam topsoil sitting on almost pure clay. The contractors managed to get the topsoil back on but then, over Christmas and New Year, it was extremely wet followed by a freezing cold spell through January.
Head Groundsman, Andy Foggarty, knew that starting the project at that time of year could mean they would run out of time before the first practice matches at the beginning of April and the first fixture against Sussex on the 26th. “We knew that we wanted a reinforced turf, 40mm thick because it would need to be played on almost as soon as it went down,” he says. “James chose Lindum Lokturf knowing that it was grown on a free-draining rootzone which met ECB requirements and, being
fibre reinforced, would provide an instant stable surface that would not break up.” By March the topsoil was ameliorated with the Loksand to a depth of 60mm so that the rootzone material was compatible with Lokturf. Talbot Landscapes, under contract to Lindum, laid 14,429 square metres of turf, which had been harvested in ‘Big Rolls’ 1.1 metre wide. The new surface was finished by the 8th April. “The turf saved us,” says Andy. “At one point it looked as if the new outfield wasn’t going to get finished in time. Since then it’s stood up really well. Before the first match we kept the grass quite long at 25mm and, in the area where the new grass butts up against the existing cricket square, we thought we might have a few problems. We put seed down and topdressed to knit the two swards together and it all came through.” Andy and his team rolled the outfield in various directions to get rid of any bumps and, by the run up to the first
Stronger rooting for surer footing
Lindum sports turf technology
www.turf.co.uk telephone:
01904 448675 email:
lindum@turf.co.uk 21
In addition, where a new sand based topsoil could have been used to assist drainage, the existing topsoil was put back, with all its inherent porosity issues, to cut costs. Couple that with exceptionally heavy overnight rain and a further torrential downpour in the morning, and no ground, with the possible exception of Lord’s, could have coped with that amount of water. Even then, it was only one small area of the outfield that was deemed unplayable at the time of the last umpire’s inspection at 3.10pm. We understand that there have been no quality issues with the work carried out by the various contractors or the turf supplied. Indeed, the ECB signed everything off in readiness for the new season.
Of course, the scenario was unfortunate for the 17,000 expectant spectators, and their mood was not helped by the knowledgeless comments of the media. Further statements in the following day’s press, many of which were wholly inaccurate, misquoted and, to an extent, fuelled by events at Wembley, were also unhelpful.
Once the new system has had a chance to bed in, all parties are confident that it will perform as intended.
One could certainly not fault the efforts of
Andy Foggarty and his team in trying to rectify the situation.
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