The pitch was plastic but the football wasn’t!

Unless you live in the Gobi Desert or say Brunei (keep reading folks) you will probably be aware thatthere has been rather a lot of rain so far this winter.  There was widespread flooding either side of Christmas and some northern areas such as Carlisle and York have been particularly hard hit bringing misery to many.  As well as impacting upon business life it has also hit sport hard with Carlisle United and Tadcaster Albion’s grounds being flooded.  The sport has rallied around though and both clubs are now back up and running.  Having been to Tadcaster’s ground earlier in the season it was good to see them bounce back, it’s a nice little ground and I can recommend a visit if you are in the area.

Thankfully my home city Hull missed the flooding this time.  There was extensive flooding in 2007 but the media appeared to gloss over this, perhaps because Hull is not as photogenic as some places.  We have had a lot of rain though just how much was brought home to me on Sunday when I was walking home from the KC Lightstream Stadium.  As I walked over the bridge over Holderness Drain I noticed the water level was very high, as high as I can remember.  I must point out that this is a land drain not a sewer; even Hull got rid of open sewers many years ago and the plague cart no longer goes around shouting ‘bring out your dead’.  The carrs of Holderness are very flat and wet but thanks to extensive drainage works carried out in the 18^th Century much of the land is habitable and indeed arable farmland.  All of this water is drained away and is pumped into either the city docks or the River Humber.

The weather has played havoc with local non-league fixtures and on a number of occasions arrangements have been made to attend a game only for it to be called off.  After three such cancellations in eight days I was beginning to wonder when I would next see one.  Hall Road Ranger’s senior county cup game against Hull City was scheduled to take place on Tuesday 16 February when Hull City were playing Brighton, then it was postponed to the following night which meant I could go with Twitter pal Darren ‘Knocker’ Norton.  The rain continued to fall and on the Wednesday the pitch failed another inspection.  Then the emergency plan came into place, with the game being moved to be played on the 3G pitch at Hull City’s Bishop Burton Academy.  Home advantage would be surrendered along with admission and bar income, which are vital to non-league sides, but at least the game would be played and the fixture pile up reduced by one.  Hasty re-arrangement of plans but we had a match to go to!  I had never seen a game on an artificial surface other than on television so was curious to see how it would play out.

Hall Road Rangers 2 (1) Hull City 1 (1)

Wednesday 17 February, Bishop Burton

Attendance 77

Bishop Burton is a lovely picturesque village a few miles from Beverley and there has been an agricultural college based here for many years.  The site has developed somewhat in recent years as the education sector has become liberalised and is now the base for Hull City’s Academy. 

The rain continued to fall throughout the evening and I can confess to being the ‘wally with the brolly’ not that I was on my own amongst the hardy souls on the touchline.  This made the surface very slick and to be fair it seemed a reasonable one to play football on favouring hard, quick passes on the ground.  Yes if the ball was punted up field the bounce may not be what one may expect but would it be any truer on the ‘glue pot’ pitches that we seem happy to play on.  I for one was happily surprised to find myself forgetting about the pitch and concentrating on the game, which was a pretty decent, free flowing one belying the conditions.  Rangers had the better of the first half scoring the opener, a cracker from Darren Rookes.  They then had a chance to double the lead when they were awarded a penalty for handball but Danny Walker’s spot kick was saved by the City keeper.  Then just before the break Tyler Hamilton managed to equalise for City and Rangers were left to wonder what went wrong.

No half time whisky because I was driving but we went indoors for a warm up.  This gave chance for a bit of catching up and non-league gossip.  So much so we missed the restart and the third goal of the game when Danny Walker put Rangers ahead and that’s how it stayed.  The City team was made up of young lads who showed good levels of skill but perhaps it was greater experience and game management that got Rangers home.

So what did I conclude?  Artificial surfaces are here to stay, that there is no doubt and more are being installed.  During the week there were scare stories about the rubber compound causing cancer which is worrying and should clearly be studied and monitored, but I cannot see this having a major impact in the short term.

Having a number 3G pitches to fall back on in the region would clearly be an advantage and allow backlogs of games to be played and save pitches from being destroyed.  Whether there should be widespread digging up of grass pitches for artificial surfaces I am not sure, I think I would want to see more games in differing conditions to be sure even though my view of this game was favourable.