Winter Sports
The Sixfields pitch after the Aldershot match
would perform if the rain eased up. He understood that the worst of the rain would be gone by midday and that the holes already there would then do their job”
“I kept the ref fully informed of how the forecast looked and how I felt the pitch
Goalmouths being dried with sand
forks and the Bowdry. In this scenario, you are always under pressure from the management, match officials etc. to be seen doing something, but also conscious that there are already millions of holes in the pitch, and walking all over the sodden surface closing holes doesn’t make the water go any faster! The referee arrived and we walked the pitch with Avril. We had a laptop on standby with the latest forecast and satellite pictures. I kept the referee fully informed of how the forecast looked and how I felt the pitch would perform if the rain eased up. He inspected the pitch again at 11.00am. We used the Bowdry on two areas that were causing concern. The referee understood that the worst of the rain would be gone by midday and that the holes already there would then do their job.
By now, the radio was informing us that plenty of other League 1 and 2 games were falling foul of the weather. We had a real push over the next hour and, thankfully, the rain subsided enough for the existing water to drain through sufficiently for the referee to pass the pitch fit for play at 12.30pm. Obviously, I was delighted, but I already knew, at this stage, that the pitch would be a muddy mess come full time.
The game kicked off at 3.00pm, and the players made all of the combined effort worthwhile and won 2-0. I’m eternally grateful to Dave, and I am in no doubt that, without the quick support received, the Aldershot game wouldn’t have gone ahead. This would have resulted in a dent in club cash flow and no points on the board for the team.
The Bowdry earned its keep 62 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013
So, all in all, everyone was happy; the pitch paid the price as you can see from the pictures, but we had a gap until New Year’s Day when the club were due at home next against Dagenham. We continued to endure heavy rain the week after the Aldershot game, which meant I couldn’t physically get on the pitch to do any repairs and
prepare it until Friday 28th. The good thing was that the pitch got the rest it needed (no training either) and the rain washed the mud off the leaf, so it looked better than it had done straight after Aldershot. To be fair, the pitch was still very wet even then but, with more rain forecast, we could only divot and dry the goalmouths with sand. I decided the pitch was too wet for the Allett cylinder mower, believing that it would just smear the top, so I opted to cut with a much smaller and lighter Honda rotary. This gave me presentation without too much damage, but sacrificed firming the ground. Stability would be an issue for the Dagenham game, but that was the compromise I had to make at this stage.
In the end, the pitch played well for the Dagenham match and The Cobblers won 3-1 so, again, everyone was happy. Thankfully, the next few days
remained dry and I was able to stabilise the pitch with the Allett mower for the visit of Fleetwood three days later on the 5th January. Yet again, the pitch performed really well, as did Northampton, who recorded an excellent 3-1 in probably their best performance of the season. Home form had suddenly come good, and our grounds team were pleased with how we had negotiated a tricky period and managed to get the pitch back to an acceptable condition for January.
As the following week commenced on 7th January, I remember thinking that we may get away with a second mild winter in succession - well I was wrong!
By midweek, the forecast suggested that, finally, a cold snap would arrive by Friday. In this situation I always err on the side of caution. Our next home game versus Burton was still over a week away on 19th January. Not one to take chances and risk frost getting in to the pitch, I got the mower out and rolled the pitch on the Thursday (10th January) and sheeted up the whole surface with our frost covers.
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