The melting pot.

Dave Saltmanin Editorial

The response that we received from our members regarding whingeing players was tremendous.

We have received e-mails and letters and some of you left messages on the board, however we want to throw more stories and articles into the melting pot for debate. If you have the raging hump about your employer, your club or anything that has happened to you then drop me a line at editor@pitchcare.com. Here is one letter sent in this week by one of our members.

Never mind the whingeing players how about whingeing chairman. This weekend for example was a classic.

A month ago I was given the all clear to make enquiries regarding purchasing machinery to overall improve the pitch in question. I made the necessary arrangements only for the powers that be; pull out at the last minute. The most basic bit of kit was a spiker. Since then the pitch has been played on regularly with additional kids games now being played to encourage extra revenue for the club. I have on so many occasions explained to the powers that be that the pitch cannot tolerate this type of wear without aeration.
Deaf ears!!!

Bearing in mind that most non-league clubs operate on a part time basis it was impossible for me to prepare the pitch before late last Friday afternoon. As you know the heavy rains began. I could therefore do nothing to the pitch, as the surface would have been damaged further. A decision was made to leave things until Saturday morning. However things went from bad to worse. It absolutely hammered down all through the night with localised flooding. As you can imagine the pitch was in a worse state than the previous day. I went to the ground and wasn't surprised at what I was met with. The grass was "long" but the pitch was very heavy. I took the decision that to cut the pitch would compromise immediate future games. This included the afternoon game with more heavy rain forecasted. I telephoned the powers that be to make them aware of my decision. They were not best pleased. I was told that the manager would moan saying that the grass being long would affect passing play. I explained things from my point of view. I was then told "I thought that you kept a check of the weather forecast on the Internet". This brassed me off totally as you can imagine. I was so tempted to say 'if they had put some of the money that was obtained through the First team progressing in the FA Cup and also the extra kids teams being played, into a simple spiking implement then maybe I could have done things a little differently. The phone was put down on me! However the team went on to win!

The point in closing is that Chairman, think and expect that the surface their players play on should be the best. Generally speaking though, they forget to invest in the very thing that can help bring success to the team.
Investment in the Groundsman and his pitch!

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