Our local soccer ground, where by boys play the majority of their soccer, has spent the summer recovering from the previous football season. The oval has 3 soccer pitches on it and the main pitch has been returfed in the off-season (not for the first time, mind you) and the club has been given special allowance from local water restrictions so that the ground may be watered each day to allow the newly laid truf to take.

The second field was a complete dustbowl by the end of last season, virtually unplayable by the time the semis and finals came around. In other words, for the most important games of the season, the ground was at its absolute worst. Not only that, games were lost or shifted to other grounds because of the state of the pitch. With a month or so until the new season begins the grass covering is only now starting to look suitable for soccer to be played on it.

Experience tells us that the surface of the ground will last until Easter. One whole month of reasonable playing conditions is about all we can expect. It’s around Easter that we get our week-long rain periods and with training and play continuing, not to mention inadequate drainage and poor subsoil quality, the tround rapidly deteriorates.

Sporting field synthetic grass has already been laid on another soccer field in the area and apart from the occasional comment about the heat that can be reflected off the artificial grass surface, the reports have been positive. One thing’s for sure, the ground conditions at the end of the season are jsut as ideal as they are at the start at this pitch covered with synthetic grass.

Most of us know that the cost of the synthetic grass, which seems inordinately high, pays for itself over the years, particularly if you have to otherwise resort to returfing season after season. Plus, watering costs are significantly reduced and far fewer games would be cancelled due to the state of the pitch.

Finally, our semi-finallists and grand-finallists would be able to play on the types of grass surfaces they deserve and that are suitable for these important games.