Tonight was an important match to play - The Apprentice Groundsman

 Every match at the moment seems to have its own story and difficulties to overcome.

When we arrived at the ground this morning and having checked on the condition of the  pitch we found another problem that needed to be resolved.

We found there was a significant amount of water sitting on the pitch following the heavy overnight rain. Below is an example of how many parts of the pitch looked. Mostly along the sides and in the goal areas.

It was a match we wanted to go ahead for Luke Chadwick and his team. We have seen them most weeks around the ground. It would also be nice following the past month to go through the whole season without a postponement taking place.

It certainly is challenging both Mick and Ian's know how and expertise - scroll down to read more

Left photo -  shows the squeezey tool used to remove the water. The method is  to push the sitting water off of pitch. as displayed below. The water was pushed onto the track and also behind the South Stand goal area off the pitch. The quicker you clear some more reappears

It is done repeatedly until the surface water has been removed. To much pushing and you are damaging the top surface.

The area is then forked to open up the ground for the water to drain away.  There are instances while doing this  where the water comes back through the holes created yesterday. You leave for a short period and  then revisit the new areas or existing ones to reapeat.

What also helped make the change was nature itself and the elements changed with the  rain stopping and this afternoon a light wind started to blow

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