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Still not a peep out of the Club regarding the latest abandonment nor the merest hint of an apology to the supporters from both Clubs who spent time and money on a water day. Even the Politbureau are obviously having a tough time trying to spin this one.

The owners are on record as refusing to totally replace the very old pitch a few years ago. I think even before the court case but cant be sure on that. Anything else seems immaterial in comparison.

Surely Michael Fish takes some of the blame too.

What a great post.

Yeah not so much a "pitch drainage expert" but my career is in construction, namely civil engineering Drainage is an easy concept though. If the river level on Saturday was not actually stopping the outflow then it is likely drains are blocked. It would be relatively easy and cheap to check this - a CCTV / Jetting crew is usually around 2 - 3thousand per day at most. You could have had them in on Sunday and by tomorrow dinner time you'd have found the blockage and jetted it out. It just seems so shoddy by the Club. I can't believe they haven't fixed the problem. We need to be realistic and understand that they won't invest in the long-term of this club, so the required improvement works will never happen. But to not even address the issue in a temporary state - pumping, jetting or whatever - is just pure negligence. They just don't give a crap. Whatever those rollers were on Saturday were useless. You could see on camera it was just dispersing water back on to the pitch. Think someone posted they cost 1k each and they had 4. For that 4,000 you could have hired a pump for the day and overpumped water out of the system and down the river and it would probably have been enough I suspect we also have a maintenance department that has been stripped of budget and experience.

England played some decent cricket against India last summer, battled hard and got their heads down when they had to against a top team. Then the final Test, a chance to beat India 3-1, England needed about 40 to win with 6 wickets in hand and loads of time to do it. So why did Smith dance down the pitch and try to smash the ball for 4 when England could have to the target easily nudging singles? It’s brainless stupid unthinking cricket to me and I blame McCullum and Stokes for this muddle headed approach that has led to the present debacle

2023 - ‘ I cannot emphasise enough the importance of drainage, especially with the rainfall we experience in Blackburn’ 🤦‍♂️ https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2023/july/28/grounds-manager-delighted-with-ewood-pitch-/

It's all John Ketley's fault.

It needs a good flushing out..along with Venkys,Sufail and the Ego.

Believe it or not pitch drainage is a relatively simple system. Everything relies on gravity and heating. Though the heating element is complex and is additional to aiding pitch drying, the actual framework of drains is simple. Literally just pipes angled at intervals across the pitch. What we don't know is if it all goes one way toward the Riverside or if its 'spidered' and/or arched and joins drains surrounding the pitch to eventually end up in the River Darwen. Suspicion is that they need replacing. As the holes eventually clog up thus creating a plug or they've subsided OR the rain fall genuinely can't cope on the pitch. (More drain lengths, wider drains, mesh footing base needed)

The local paper had Bradford City quoting the cost as a ‘significant six figure sum’

Anywhere but United or Chelsea. I'll be surprised if Real Madrid/Barcelona don't try and entice. He'd be a perfect fit at Bayern too. He'd drastically improve his all round game by playing in another top league

Suddenly? I've always been a pitch drainage expert

There's a lot of pitch drainage experts suddenly on the forum! 🙂 There's been a lot of talk about whether hugely complicated and expensive technological solutions are needed and I don't know the first thing about engineering principles or pitch drainage but as as a lay person Id be hugely surprised if: a) After 30 years of neglect the existing drainage system didnt need a good clean and some maintenance. and b) similarly Id be surprised if the bottom half of the pitch wasn't so compacted due to never being replaced that a huge amount of water never reaches the drains in the first place when it rains. Thirdly, even if it's not just the above, I can't believe that in this day and age there isn't a relatively simple solution available to the problem. The cost is irrelevant, it has to be done in the same way a stand would have to be repaired if it was deemed unsafe. Fourthly even if said remedial work is relatively time consuming and/or can only be carried out in the close season I refuse to believe that temporary measures can't be put in place until it's sorted permanently like covers for the pitch and a pump to remove any excess drain off and/or rent some proper water removal machinery of the sort used by high end golf Clubs or Cricket Clubs. Not a few hand operated fucking mops. Anything else is just excuses.

It would be very interesting/telling to see how much water is coming out of that outlet, when there has been/during a heavy downpour of rain.

No one can stop those. Class finish

Yep. Just to clarify I would always prefer a lower league side at home and a better chance to progress. I think I'm thinking more what would be an interesting tie. If we got most premier league clubs away I'd just think FFS. But Everton do have a local, shiny new stadium that we haven't been to so, like Wrexham away this season, it comes with a lot of novelty value.

I did the 8pm-4am shift handed over to Chaddy bright and early.

Find it quite shameful that you weren't down there at 6.30am checking it. Pfffft call yourself a fan... 😆😆😊😊

Haha I'm no way superior mate not at all and don't claim to be hahah 😆

Palace to sell Wharton at end of season Yesterday Exclusive By Alan Nixon Crystal Palace will sell midfield star Adam Wharton at the end of the season if a multi-million bid comes in. The England hopeful is on the wanted lists at Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City and has foreign interest as well. Palace are now preparing to cash in if those giants come forward with the money - and the funds would help them. A huge bid would give Palace extra to offer striker Jean-Philippe Mateta whose deal is running out. As revealed first here, the player and club are well apart in negotiations. Palace were looking at giving Wharton a new deal with a fixed price in that contract. But that will not stop the likely exit of the young Eagle. Blackburn Rovers will be watching developments as they are due a slice of the profit after selling him for £18 million plus a possible £4 million in extras. Wharton will be open to a move that includes Champions League football as that seems the next step in his meteoric career.

He was described as being “ in imperious form “ in my paper today.

I'm a bit of a cricket novice, I like the ashes and watch the odd test now and then so this might be wide of the mark.... isn't the point of opening batsmen to score slow and steady but ultiamtely stay in? Tire the bowlers out and take the shine off the ball so 4, 5 and 6 can go knock them about and score for fun? Feels like Crawley and Duckett chase a quick 50 in the fewest overs and get out quickly leaving the rest of the top order facing relatively fresh bowlers?

Ewood would then be a fortress, with it's own moat.

James Edmondson with a worldly