peternapper Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 As you will hopefully see next week we have one of the best grass surfaces in the country. Like the team we have one part-time groundsman looking after it he is a greenkeeper at a local golf course & knows his stuff. Think there is a bit more outlay pre-season to get it in good order and we have not had many postponements over the years. Have to say the pitch is not used for other games very often & with us being part time not used for training on. Apart from the wind we sometimes get think most players enjoy our park. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyline Drifter Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 (edited) 2 hours ago, Fae_the_'briggs said: I thought our original artificial pitch which was replaced after about 1 season had been re-laid at KGV, don't know it its the plan to replace it again when Palmerston is renewed. No. KGV has never had a 3G pitch. It's a 2G hockey pitch. The original pitch from Palmerston was taken away by the manufacturers for testing on why parts of it had become flat I think. 1 hour ago, Slipmat said: Interestingly yesterday's match at Palmerston was called off due to the pitch being frozen, so while you would expect a plastic pitch to be "all-weather", having one is no guarantee that matches will not be postponed in the future. Similarly the 3G pitches in the region at Newton Stewart, Kirkcudbright and Lockerbie seem to be susceptible to drainage/freezing issues and games are frequently called off or moved accordingly. All things are relative. In reality nobody made any effort to get yesterday's game on as far as I know. If we'd been due to be at home it would likely have been on. Dalbeattie moved their game to Palmerston when it became obvious Islecroft would be frozen and Palmerston was available but it was a relatively late move. The pitches are good to about -4C or thereabouts in theory but the crumb needs to be brushed if it's frozen to get it moving. If Annan was playable yesterday I imagine Palmerston could have been. We've got it playable in colder weather than Saturday was. We've partly been fortunate with the timing of the coldest weather but I don't think we've lost a first team game to frost completely since it went to 3G i n 2012 (there was one abandoned at half time bizarrely against Dundee United of course). That said, they aren't "all weather' and if it's cold enough or has enough snow on it then the game will be off, as pitches were all over the country a couple of weeks before Xmas (when our home game with Kelty got the go ahead after an inspection). Even much newer pitches like Hamilton were unplayable that day and Palmerston definitely was unplayable the night before. It had been -7C for much of that week though. Edited January 22 by Skyline Drifter 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fae_the_'briggs Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 1 hour ago, Slipmat said: Interestingly yesterday's match at Palmerston was called off due to the pitch being frozen, so while you would expect a plastic pitch to be "all-weather", having one is no guarantee that matches will not be postponed in the future. Similarly the 3G pitches in the region at Newton Stewart, Kirkcudbright and Lockerbie seem to be susceptible to drainage/freezing issues and games are frequently called off or moved accordingly. But... ...there's no way I'd like to see us having a grass surface that ends up similar to the one at Firhill last season which was a victim of overuse and possibly drainage issues due to being sited so close to the basin, so although my heart says grass my head says plastic - provided the plastic is affordably replaced with quality more frequently and not hung onto until the bitter end when it fails "the tests" like the present surface. As FTB says above Heston no longer use the pitch on alternative Saturdays, can anyone enlighten me as to how much community (ie non-QOS) usage the pitch gets these days? Finally, it breaks my heart that the three traditional grass pitches in the town from my youth - Kingholm, The Holm & Jock's - are all now virtually unusable no doubt down to drainage through location in part (but they have always had that issue) but also to a larger extent the council's failure to maintain them - even basics like cutting the grass! Speaking of the past I miss orange balls and pitches which are half bathed in sunshine and half white with frost! In a past life I used to be involved in meetings with the Council's Leisure and Recreation Committee and the local Amateur Leagues. We had a job to get the Council to start even lining pitches never mind spend much on maintenance. Back then Leisure and Recreation was bottom of the pecking order for finance with football lowest of all. The number of "all-weather" pitches at that time in Dumfries was one (KGV), since then more have been built in the area, and with floodlights, which means that more games can be played in a day or night so grass pitches are less likely to be hired. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenacres Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Away from pitches Marvin Bartley and Ally McCoist the pundits on the Hibs v Hearts game today. If Queens play as well as Marvin talks we will do well time will tell . -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_palmy_pie Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 2 hours ago, annan4eva said: A fortune to plough a small area of land sew wait and prepare ? The world is madder than i thought Like I’ve already said players and supporters hate these artificial pitches. Only my opinion but the grass should never have been ripped up in the first place. It’s time we ditched the plastic pitch forever. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louisxiv Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 2 hours ago, Slipmat said:Speaking of the past I miss orange balls and pitches which are half bathed in sunshine and half white with frost! I reckon many of us who are of a certain age recall the orange ball with great fondness. Really added to the atmosphere of winter games. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERSOUTH Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Hopefully we see some transfer activity this week in and out the club.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_palmy_pie Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 2 minutes ago, SUPERSOUTH said: Hopefully we see some transfer activity this week in and out the club.... yes hopefully Paul 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qos1990 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 15 hours ago, the_palmy_pie said: Like I’ve already said players and supporters hate these artificial pitches. Only my opinion but the grass should never have been ripped up in the first place. It’s time we ditched the plastic pitch forever. They don’t hate them, they just hate ours. Think it’s only way clubs below premier league can go tbh, renting it out making some money. But these pitches need to be looked after properly 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Blue Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 17 hours ago, peternapper said: As you will hopefully see next week we have one of the best grass surfaces in the country. Like the team we have one part-time groundsman looking after it he is a greenkeeper at a local golf course & knows his stuff. Think there is a bit more outlay pre-season to get it in good order and we have not had many postponements over the years. Have to say the pitch is not used for other games very often & with us being part time not used for training on. Apart from the wind we sometimes get think most players enjoy our park. I've no statistical evidence to support this view (why let facts get in the way) but I worked in Peterhead for a couple of years in the early 80s and I always had the impression that it had a much drier climate than the south west of the country so that might be a contributory factor in the deterioration of grass pitches through the very wet winter months we get in the SW. When that wind whipped in from the North Sea in January, my god it was cold mind. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Blue Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 16 hours ago, Greenacres said: f Queens play as well as Marvin talks we will do well time will tell . ... keep talking Marvin, keep talking lad! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19QOS19 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 37 minutes ago, qos1990 said: They don’t hate them, they just hate ours. Think it’s only way clubs below premier league can go tbh, renting it out making some money. But these pitches need to be looked after properly As I've said - plastic pitches aren't an issue. Shite plastic pitches are. Youngsters will be growing up playing on these pitches in Scotland so they'll be well used to them. A lot of sides will train on them as well. Ours is awful as has been well established but the likes of Falkirk's is a great surface. A lot of revisionism going on about grass pitches here. A good grass pitch can't be beaten but I think there are a few folk forgetting about all the games we've seen QoS play on tattie fields in the past. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peternapper Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 1 hour ago, Otis Blue said: I've no statistical evidence to support this view (why let facts get in the way) but I worked in Peterhead for a couple of years in the early 80s and I always had the impression that it had a much drier climate than the south west of the country so that might be a contributory factor in the deterioration of grass pitches through the very wet winter months we get in the SW. When that wind whipped in from the North Sea in January, my god it was cold mind. Yes you are correct the North East tends to be drier as we have the Cairngorm Mountains between us and the West Coast so rain etc tends to be less on the East Coast. Unfortunately the Gulf Stream which makes the Moray Firth much milder does not quite reach Peterhead. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenacres Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 32 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said: As I've said - plastic pitches aren't an issue. Shite plastic pitches are. Youngsters will be growing up playing on these pitches in Scotland so they'll be well used to them. A lot of sides will train on them as well. Ours is awful as has been well established but the likes of Falkirk's is a great surface. A lot of revisionism going on about grass pitches here. A good grass pitch can't be beaten but I think there are a few folk forgetting about all the games we've seen QoS play on tattie fields in the past. You get what you pay for . Falkirk pitch has been down for years yet right from the start you could see it was a better standard of pitch. This is why a new pitch for us has to be done right with more cushion in it like Falkirk and Raith. They even compared to Killie and Livi look to have better pitches but it will all come down to cost as most things do 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_palmy_pie Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Whether we like it or not it’s being replaced after the season finishes with the best you can get 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomad Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Could be fun in 2027 if the UK follows Europe Union and bans rubber infill from artificial sports surfaces. Back to the old days of KGV and all that sand. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_palmy_pie Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 4 hours ago, nomad said: Could be fun in 2027 if the UK follows Europe Union and bans rubber infill from artificial sports surfaces. Back to the old days of KGV and all that sand. Additional post actions Artificial turf banned: From 2025, Eredivisie clubs are obliged to play on natural grass. Hope everyone else does the same eventually. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qos_75 Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 (edited) On 22/01/2023 at 18:03, louisxiv said: I reckon many of us who are of a certain age recall the orange ball with great fondness. Really added to the atmosphere of winter games. Fondness isn’t a word I particularly associate with the Orange Mitre Multiplex. You knew all about it if you got this in the side of the dish, or your inner thigh. It left you with a red Mitre tattoo for a couple of days after. Mitre balls in the 70s and 80’s were always heavy b*****ds, but the orange ones were like cannon balls. Edited January 23 by qos_75 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florentine_Pogen Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 ^^^^^ The Multiplex was 'luxury'. For serious skin damage you needed it's cheaper cousin, the Mouldmaster. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dougie Mills Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 7 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said: ^^^^^ The Multiplex was 'luxury'. For serious skin damage you needed it's cheaper cousin, the Mouldmaster. As someone who’s been on the receiving end of a mouldmaster I 100% agree with this statement! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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