The only direct experience I've had of artificial football pitches was the knee-grazing terror that is the Leisure Village's patch of rock-hard, sand-laden, green sandpaper.
Bedworth's pitch was a million miles better than the Thurston Drive horror. I looked out for how the monstrous 3G pitch was going to rape, pillage and set fire to the very soul of our national game, as some seem to believe. Sorry. Just didn't see it. Instead I saw a game of football played at a good pace, with players wearing normal boots and no-one losing layers of dermis every time they touched the floor.
Was there any of the much heralded excessive bounce? Sure, the ball bounced. Perhaps slightly more than on grass, but frankly nothing to cause the over-the-top reactions against the surface. Nothing to justify some of the over-the-top comments about never watching us again if we played on anything but bobbly mud and grass.
I have seen balls on grass pitches bounce high. And low. And skip on. And deviate off bumps. And get stuck in mud. I'm sure I've seen single passes at Latimer Park do ALL of the above! I've also seen dozens of games called off on grass pitches because they were underwater. And what's the betting we won't be turning out at Burton again until February due to the constant downpour. Maybe March. And with Global Warming buggering the planet up we are likely to get a lot more weather like this.
Had we the small matter of stacks of money and a ground of our own I would have absolutely no problem with going the 3G route. It's a new development to be sure. Perhaps a step too far for some of the oldsters. Just like, in their day, goalposts, crossbars, floodlights, substitutes and heavily-tattooed players were all seen as unwelcome developments, but are now part and parcel of the game.
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Should it really be a case of "Grass or Nothing?" |
I see from that picture that LP has dried out a bit then since christmas
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