Winter Sports - Football
GR SSCUTTER Extra Terrestrial - come home!
Our anonymous groundsman, Mr AKA Grasscutter, enjoys a bit of terrestrial TV sports coverage and wonders what the future holds for some of our major sporting events
Mrs Grasscutter and I have been enjoying a summer of sport on terrestrial TV. Our favourite is tennis, and we are always spoilt with the coverage of Queens and Wimbledon on the BBC. Auntie does us proud in that respect.
There’s also been the Open Golf - something Mrs G rails against, in truth - the British Grand Prix and the Women’s World Cup to name a few.
In the main, the coverage has been exemplary, not withstanding a bit of ‘dumbing down’ of the Wimbledon highlights show, and I found the Women’s football an enjoyable watch.
Making comparisons with the men’s game, as many in the media do, is somewhat pointless, and the game should be viewed as a contest between two teams with not inconsiderable ability.
In case you hadn’t noticed, women are built differently to us men - our creator did a good job - and, therefore, a woman’s abilities are also ‘different’. That is true in any women’s sport; tennis, golf, cricket, hockey ... so let’s just enjoy the contests and stop the comparisons, please.
One thing that did rankle me was FIFA’s insistence on the use of 3G surfaces in Canada. In one stadium, a perfectly good natural turf pitch was taken up to install a 3G. Where’s the sense in that, or were FIFA simply reverting to type? Perhaps Mr Blatter’s ‘no show’ at the final says it all.
From a visual perspective, 3G just doesn’t do it for me. Not only are the stripes we groundsmen are so adept at putting in missing, but the ball bounces, as U2 once said, in mysterious ways. Then there’s the issues concerning surface temperatures, carcinogens, injuries and so forth.
I can’t help but think that this was a ‘test event’ to see how 3G would be accepted in readiness for its use in Qatar, where growing and maintaining natural grass surfaces will encounter numerous issues. Call me a cynic, but 3G would make more sense in Qatar than in the almost perfect grass growing conditions of much of Canada.
98 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015
Mind you, ongoing investigations into FIFA corruption may well negate that issue anyway!
Back to TV. The BBC has agreed a contract to show Wimbledon up to and including 2017, the same year that they lose the rights to the The Open to Sky Sports. Mr Murdoch’s lot and ITV have lost the Champions League to BT Sport, who promise sixteen matches available ‘free-to-air’, whilst Eurosport has won the rights to the Olympics across Europe from 2022, but have offered the BBC a ‘buy in’ option.
From a layman’s viewpoint, there does appear to be considerable collusion between BT and the BBC, with many presenters, including Clare Balding, Robbie Savage, and now Gary Lineker, appearing on both channels. Some programmes are shown across both stations.
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I can’t help but think that this was a ‘test event’ to see how 3G would be accepted in readiness for its use in Qatar, where growing and maintaining natural grass surfaces will encounter numerous issues
To my mind, this can only be a good thing as more ‘free-to-air’ sport is surely essential if we are to tackle the health issues of the British population. Highlights programmes are all well and good, but there is nothing quite like watching an event live to get the nation ‘engaged’.
Anyway, I’m glad I got that lot off my chest but, as my article remit is supposed to be about the trials and tribulations of a Football League groundsman, I suppose I should give you an update!
The club narrowly missed out on promotion last season, but the management saw the benefits in providing a good surface for the
players, so we were given a decent budget for our end of season renovations. These went well and the grass is now being cut with our rotary mowers. In the next week or so, we’ll get the cylinder mowers on the surface so that the team can push for promotion again.
There’s even been a bit of a tidy up of my office (aka hovel) under the main stand. It was only a splash of paint and a new computer, but it did require me to sort out my desk top ‘filing’ system. It’s amazing what you find!
Keep the faith, and keep cutting the grass. After all, that’s all we do!
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