Pitches.

[Smudge]

Is there a growing trend with unfit for purpose pitches this year,yes I know we have had exceptional weather.Could this be more due to local Councils employing outside contractors to maintain them,the reason I ask ,is mainly that in the Woking area alone,Sheerwater,Knaphill,Westfield(new pitch laid last year) have suffered.Can I ask who were the contractors employed to lay the new surface?Who are the contractors who maintain the pitches now,not Serco by any chance?Maybe Westfield who seem to have a similar drainage problem to Guernsey,could claim some recompense for shoddy workmanship.

[The Mayor Of Simpleton]

Serco have the contracts at a few Western League clubs, and not one of them has a good word to say about them.

 

Slimbridge, for one, used to have a pitch that resembled a green carpet - spotless and pristine. Since Serco took over their pitch maintenance, that is sadly no longer the case.

[@BedfontFeltham]

Our pitch has had one game called off and that was under 4" of snow. The grounds man aint bad

 

"QPR groundsman Steve Honey was key to landing Real Madrid midfielder Esteban Granero last week.

Granero was sold on moving to Loftus Road after seeing the pitch for the first time.

"He liked the pitches very much,” revealed Rs boss Mark Hughes. “He reckoned that being able to get the ball down and play like he’s used to in Spain will make a big difference to him now he’s in England.”

 

Think certain grounds men will try and get games on if they really can where as others would just like the pitch to look nice

[YellowBoar]

Pretty sure serco did our pitch at eversley at the start and then we got another company to maintain it which looks like a good choice now. Looked in great shape sat. Goal mouth been returfed as well after recent issues.

[nut250]

Money is in a brown envelope behind the bar for you bf looool

I have said all along any club can ring me or message me on here and I'm more than willing to give advice and helpwhere I can ,

[Windsor_Sec]

Simple question in response - how many clubs spend loads of money on close-season renovation work and then don't irrigate, verti-drain or fertilize at all during the season or even worse just keep rolling it all the time ?

Most council contractors will have got the contract by providing cheap quotes and all they're asked to do is cut and mark - a decent pitch will only stay decent with a programme of ongoing maintenance. You can build the most expensive pitch in the world but it'll soon be crap if it's not looked after properly !

[Smudge]

Maybe Serco should stick to collecting waste,rather than turning pitches into WASTElands.Still no good moaning about them to yourselves,that way nothing will change.Complaints in numbers will turn an Authoritys direction.VALUE FOR MONEY RULES.

 

 

[Ftfc]

Wish we had someone to look after ours, moan about serco we don't even have that

[danielpjn]

Our pitch was originally looked after by kestrel. It's now a private firm that we pay to look after the pitches. Takes a lot of fundraising to cover the cost,but he does a good job.

 

FTFC - is the pitch council owned? If so,do they not have a contractor that looks after the pitch? Assume you pay a fairly large sum to play there if it is council owned (judging by our previous experiences of Hart and Surrey Heath)

[Ftfc]

Daniel - I'm not sure but I think the pitch is privately owned and changing rooms is council owned don't hold me to that though

[danielpjn]

Very expensive to maintain if it's privately owned. We would stand no chance of paying for ours,if we didn't merge with California FC

[Mark-Tommo]

Your changing rooms are owned by Waverley Borough Council FTfc, I service your hot water heaters for the showers! Lol

[Non League Nigel]

Our pitch was layed down and set up by Kestro who did Eversleys pitch i believe

 

Since Serco have taken over the maintenace it's gone downhill. In the summer they didnt start work on the pitch till July despite being handed it in May. The lack of grass in the middle leads to all our postponements. The rest of the pitch is fine and like Windsors would stand up to virtually any period of wet weather.

 

Serco nearly put Westfield out of business about 10 years ago when they laid contaminated soil on the pitch during the summer. Unfortunatley all the wonderful grounds WBC help provide are being let down by blokes who have no idea and most importantly no pride in the work they do.

 

We recentley arranged with the Surrey FA to have a company called Expo Line come and do a demo on marking out the pitch. It saves time and money and looks really good. Serco refused to let them mark out the whole pitch and only did one side.

It's good enough for the Nou Camp but not Woking Park according to them

[nut250]

Nln you got one word in there that is crucial to any successful groundsman PRIDE , most don't care or know anything and Rob a living , depriving clubs in my opinion

[ellers]

Nut 250 this week I delivered a brown envelope to your house after you had very kindly cut and marked out the Virginia Water pitch and may I say you done a fantastic job, however I notice when at your house that the grass in your front garden is over grown and need a dam good cut, surely instead of playing FIFA WITH VARNEY you should cut the grass you lazy sod. ;-)

[nut250]

As I tell the wife ellers I am a groundsman not a gardener ,

And thanks for the envelope , it went on kebabs

[Big J R]

Very expensive to maintain if it's privately owned. We would stand no chance of paying for ours,if we didn't merge with California FC

 

Also very expensive to maintain if Council owned, but you have to do all your own ground-work.

 

HOWEVER, if Meadowbank was an 'egg-chasing' pitch, I have absolutely NO doubt that money would be thrown at us !

[Ftfc]

Your changing rooms are owned by Waverley Borough Council FTfc, I service your hot water heaters for the showers! Lol

Can u not sort the showers out then lol there bad !! Lol

[Smudge]

Can u not sort the showers out then lol there bad !! Lol

 

With the amount of part-time Football Management jobs Mark has,showers are the last of his concerns.CAN'T GET THE STAFF THESE DAYS,comes to mind.

[Ftfc]

I was joking smudge lol!!!