Oxford United (h) - 09/12/25

[...]

16 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

In theory yes, but I suspect it couldn't as you'd have machinery chewing up the remaining turf and although I've no knowledge of being a groundsman, I would imagine the turf wouldn't bond (can't think of a better word) well with the newly laid sections. You'd have to redo the lot but again, it's only backfilling/top soil and reseeding. 

Shouldn't be crazy expensive, not for Billionaire owners anyway.

Landscaping boards for the equipment. Turf can be 'hinged' if you will,  on one side and work carried out

[...]

1 hour ago, lraC said:

 

Summer of 2018

[davulsukur]

4 minutes ago, ... said:

Landscaping boards for the equipment. Turf can be 'hinged' if you will,  on one side and work carried out

Fair enough. I'll bow to your superior knowledge on the landscaping/turf, I have no idea on that.

Edited 2 hours ago by davulsukur

[TheKitGuy]

38 minutes ago, ... said:

Is there anything actually coming out of the outlet?

Could not tell you. I live 200 miles away. 

[rigger]

3 hours ago, ... said:

Off the pitch 🤷‍♂️

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

[...]

33 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Fair enough. I'll bow to your superior knowledge on the landscaping/turf, I have no idea on that.

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

[...]

25 minutes ago, TheKitGuy said:

Could not tell you. I live 200 miles away. 

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

[TheKitGuy]

4 minutes ago, ... said:

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

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

[davulsukur]

1 hour ago, ... said:

Is there anything actually coming out of the outlet?

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.

[RevidgeBlue]

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.

Edited 1 hour ago by RevidgeBlue

[...]

2 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

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 water 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.

Suddenly? I've always been a pitch drainage expert

[wilsdenrover]

1 hour ago, ... said:

Summer of 2018

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

 

Edited 1 hour ago by wilsdenrover

[...]

5 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

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 water 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.

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) 

 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

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

[wilsdenrover]

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-/

[Dreams of 1995]

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.

Edited 57 minutes ago by Dreams of 1995

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

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 the 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.

What a great post.

[roversfan99]

29 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

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.

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.

[RevidgeBlue]

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.

[G Somerset Rover]

5 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

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.

Yep, nothing but a plug to sell tickets for tomorrow's game despite there being a weather warning in place for overnight.

[chaddyrovers]

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

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.

wasn't it Waggott who said that? 

The pitch and the entire drainage structure need improving and we need a new structure in place. We can't afford another game abandoned 

[sharpysharps86]

I didn't think it could get worse, but unless the club actually stumps up the cash to fix the drainage problems, then we're going to be seeing more abandoned games on the regular at Ewood, essentially taking away watching Rovers play from the fans. It is pathetic.

If the game goes ahead then I suspect it'll be a score draw: 1-1. Gudjohnsen for Rovers.

 

Edited 31 minutes ago by sharpysharps86

[RevidgeBlue]

20 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

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.

The owners are not on record per se as refusing it, if I recall, at the time Waggott suggested (maybe to the Fans Forum)  the total cost of a root and branch replacement would be in the order of £2.4m and that he would explore the possibility of sponsorship to defray the cost.

As always under his stewardship nothing actually happened and I think a few bits of the pitch were relaid with modern high tech mesh based turf instead. We dont know if he and / or Pasha ever actually asked the owners to stump up the full amount, but whose fault it was is immaterial, it was never actually done.

Fast forward a few years, and Waggott was still here when the first of the three postponements/abandonments occurred so it was clear the issue was far more pressing. 

We've had anecdotal evidence on here from Mike Graham that Waggott was in favour of some sort of excess storage tank but again nothing was done. At the Club they've all known about the problem for a number of years and done nothing whatsoever about it whether it be a proper replacement or a cheaper alternative.

 

Edited 29 minutes ago by RevidgeBlue

[RevidgeBlue]

11 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

The pitch and the entire drainage structure need improving and we need a new structure in place. We can't afford another game abandoned 

Well said.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

30 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

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.

Still all sat around a table scratching their Heads.

Sufail: look into my Eyes,you'll do as I instruct boys!

Edited 17 minutes ago by SIMON GARNERS 194