| Club Statement 23:42 - Mar 12 with 3361 views | mfb_cufc |
Colchester United Chairman Robbie Cowling has issued the following statement.
Following yet another postponement, I would like to provide some information as to why so many games have been postponed this season and what the club are doing to improve the pitch so that we can fulfil our remaining home fixtures.
Before I do so, I would like to apologise for those games where we provided very late notice of the postponement. Our focus was solely on getting those games played and we have now implemented a better process whereby we still do our best to fix the problem, but we do better to manage it too.
I’m no drainage expert but the pitch at our stadium has never been great in terms of the drainage. I’m sure many of you will remember the problems we had in the initial few seasons when we first moved to the stadium and that was when the pitch had been freshly laid and the drainage system was brand new. The pitch I own at Maldon gets nowhere near the same amount of TLC but drains brilliantly. Layer Road was similar.
The pitch at the stadium sits on a bed of clay and our recent investigations show that the clay bed is just some 10 inches below the surface. That shouldn’t be an issue if the pitch has a well designed and installed drainage system which is working optimally, whilst only being subjected to reasonable amounts of rainfall.
In terms of the pitch maintenance, we use one of the best companies available to us to prepare the pitch at the start of every season. We also have an excellent team of ground staff who work tirelessly to maintain our pitches to the highest standard they can. I say pitches because compared to the days when we only had the excellent pitch at Layer Road to maintain, the ground staff currently look after seven pitches in total.
The team is currently four strong and we have an advert out for a fifth staff member. We also ensure one of the staff members is based full-time at the stadium to ensure that the stadium pitch gets the most care despite being the least used. As primary back-up up, we also have staff at Forrester Park golf course who provide their time, expertise, and equipment when it’s needed and as secondary back-up, we have the maintenance staff and ground workers that work for AMG.
And, when we need to get the pitch covers on and off, almost everyone at the club, especially those that work at the stadium, are willing and able to lend a hand.
We do not have an issue with staff levels. Nor do we have an issue with the staffs’ willingness to get stuck in. We are very fortunate to have such excellent people working at the club and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for what they have done to date to support the club with this issue.
Like I said to start with, I’m not a drainage expert but I have spoken to several people who are, and they all assure me that there is nothing wrong with the design of the system that was installed when the stadium was built. However, without digging it all up we can’t determine if it is still working optimally. The fact that the very first game of this season was called off would indicate that it was not working optimally on that day. However, the rainfall on that day just before kick-off was torrential so I can’t say so with any certainty.
In terms of rainfall levels, we are all aware that this winter, these have not just exceeded normal levels but have substantially exceeded all-time levels and Colchester United are not the only club that are postponing games because of it. We currently have the same number of games left to play as a number of other teams in our league. We are working with the EFL to ensure they are aware of the measure we are taking to resolve the current issue which I have every confidence that we will do.
In the very short-term, we remain at the mercy of the weather. A lot of work went into making the pitch playable for tonight’s game, but the timing and extent of today’s rainfall showed us no such mercy. Thanks to considerable effort from the staff again this morning, we were able to get the pitch covered again and the current weather forecast indicates that we will be able to remove the covers tomorrow morning. it is supposed to remain dry for a couple of days which will provide us with some time to work on the pitch before covering it and uncovering it again before Saturday’s scheduled game against Walsall.
The club will continue to work tirelessly for the remainder of the season to ensure we get the games played.
At the end of this season, we already have plans to undertake major works to improve the drainage. The rainfall this winter may have exceeded historic records, but I fear they are the new normal levels, and we will need to cope better with such levels of rainfall in the future.
Up the U’s
Robbie |  |
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| Club Statement on 00:31 - Mar 13 with 3336 views | wessex_exile |
Read it online - very good statement too. |  |
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| Club Statement on 06:43 - Mar 13 with 3285 views | franksic1988 |
Can’t asked for more transparency than that. |  | | |
| Club Statement on 10:13 - Mar 13 with 3213 views | Moor_Pinot |
| Club Statement on 00:31 - Mar 13 by wessex_exile |
Read it online - very good statement too. |
Agreed and nice to see the workforce given the thanks they deserve.
Rain can defeat so many things and nature has a way of circumventing mankind. Twas ever thus and probably always will be.
Time will tell if it has had a negative impact upon our league survival hopes!
As an aside I go to every Liskeard home game at step 6 (Wivenhoe Town level) as it's a 120m walk. They've been unable to play at home since mid November. I'm beginning to forget what a live game here looks like. It's currently raining. |  |
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| Club Statement on 10:38 - Mar 13 with 3201 views | burnsieespana |
Beginning to get worried about start of the cricket season in less than a month. |  | | |
| Club Statement on 15:52 - Mar 13 with 3129 views | SparkfilmsTV |
This is just about the longest statement l have ever seen from Robbie Cowling.
I too am no expert on land and drainage but having visited the Jobserve Stadium several times in the past fortnight l am wondering if all the extensive development that runs very close to the eastern boundary may be affecting the land settlement.
The surrounding landscape has gone through quite a dramatic change recently.
Having said that l am in central Colchester and my garden has virtually turned to mud recently.
Hoping for a dry spell. | | | |
| Club Statement on 14:52 - May 24 with 2664 views | RSCOSWORTH |
Work has started on the pitch and is ongoing. Lots of activity and machinery at the stadium today. |  |
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| Club Statement on 10:10 - Jun 11 with 2355 views | RSCOSWORTH |
Work on the pitch continues at pace. Plenty of people and machinery there yesterday and today. The small trenches that were dug across the pitch every few yards now have pipes sticking out of them and there are piles of sand and top soil dotted around the outside of the stadium. | |
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| Club Statement on 10:43 - Jun 11 with 2344 views | burnsieespana |
| Club Statement on 10:10 - Jun 11 by RSCOSWORTH |
Work on the pitch continues at pace. Plenty of people and machinery there yesterday and today. The small trenches that were dug across the pitch every few yards now have pipes sticking out of them and there are piles of sand and top soil dotted around the outside of the stadium. |
Thanks for the update. | | | |
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| Club Statement on 09:10 - Jun 21 with 2116 views | RSCOSWORTH |
Still a fair bit of work happening on the pitch. You can still see pipes protruding from the pitch but the trenches are mostly filled in now. All the topsoil has gone but there's still masses of sand to go on it seems. | |
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| Club Statement on 09:32 - Jun 21 with 2100 views | TheOldOakTree |
| Club Statement on 09:10 - Jun 21 by RSCOSWORTH |
Still a fair bit of work happening on the pitch. You can still see pipes protruding from the pitch but the trenches are mostly filled in now. All the topsoil has gone but there's still masses of sand to go on it seems. |
If there is tonnes of sand laying around at the stadium, it's probably because the pipes laid across the pitch are too wide apart to drain the pitch on their own, so it is normal to cut narrow grooves transversely to the pipes and fill them with sand. The grooves are not far apart, therefore any surface water can drain down into the sand filled grooves which then drain to the nearest pipe. Page 24 of the following shows an example.
https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/202 | | | |
| Club Statement on 15:42 - Jul 23 with 1802 views | BLACKCAT |
I've just read the article in your local paper regarding the pitch for the coming season. One of the comments attached reads "Unique being the rippled effect caused by the newly installed French drains being put in on the cheap and not properly levelled after meaning they have all now sunk as they settled". Does anyone on here know if this is true or whether it's just someone having a sarcastic dig (no pun intended) at the club? | | | |
| Club Statement on 16:39 - Jul 23 with 1770 views | RSCOSWORTH |
| Club Statement on 15:42 - Jul 23 by BLACKCAT |
I've just read the article in your local paper regarding the pitch for the coming season. One of the comments attached reads "Unique being the rippled effect caused by the newly installed French drains being put in on the cheap and not properly levelled after meaning they have all now sunk as they settled". Does anyone on here know if this is true or whether it's just someone having a sarcastic dig (no pun intended) at the club? |
The trenches that were dug to fit the drains look very prominent at the moment. It's difficult to tell whether they are at a lower level than the rest of the pitch but visually they don't look great. In fact the whole picth looks less than impressive with bald patches outside the playing surface and the pitch looking grassy in some places and a bit bare in others. Will be interesting to see how it looks and holds up on Saturday. | |
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| Club Statement on 16:58 - Jul 23 with 1761 views | BLACKCAT |
| Club Statement on 16:39 - Jul 23 by RSCOSWORTH |
The trenches that were dug to fit the drains look very prominent at the moment. It's difficult to tell whether they are at a lower level than the rest of the pitch but visually they don't look great. In fact the whole picth looks less than impressive with bald patches outside the playing surface and the pitch looking grassy in some places and a bit bare in others. Will be interesting to see how it looks and holds up on Saturday. |
Thank you for the reply. It will be disappointing if there isn't a great improvement after the effort and expense the club have gone to this close-season. Let's hope appearances have been deceptive. | | | |
| Club Statement on 18:34 - Jul 23 with 1731 views | wessex_exile |
| Club Statement on 16:58 - Jul 23 by BLACKCAT |
Thank you for the reply. It will be disappointing if there isn't a great improvement after the effort and expense the club have gone to this close-season. Let's hope appearances have been deceptive. |
I'm no expert on drainage, but I have backfilled probably more trenches than I've had hot dinners (and that's not necessarily an exaggeration). It's always tricky, because the bigger the trench the more the backfill will 'fluff' up in volume. If they are backfilled level, inevitably that backfill will eventually settle and the surface drop slightly. For a very narrow french drain, I wouldn't expect it to be a significant effect, but for a professional playing surface certainly noticeable, though it mat be just a visual effect because the grass above the trench is developing later than the pitch itself.? I would imagine if they need to they have plans to add material (likely a sand soil mix) to compensate, allowing the grass to grow through the aggregate - which shouldn't take very long this time of year. | |
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| Club Statement on 06:10 - Jul 24 with 1636 views | noah4x4 |
When the cricket club in Castle Park invested in underground pipe drainage the lattice of drainage runs featuring on the surface looked terrible for at least a year. There is no escaping from the grass taking time to properly recover. Eventually it faded and ultimately all evidence of the works vanished.
Come down and take a look at how magnificent it now looks. Beer Festival starts today! . |  | | |
| Club Statement on 15:08 - Aug 13 with 1143 views | RSCOSWORTH |
Whisper it quietly but the pitch looks pretty good from ground level. Let's see how it looks and plays tonight. | |
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| Club Statement on 07:58 - Aug 14 with 946 views | thrillseeker |
Pitch looked flat but very discoloured. Hoping with the nice weather forecast the pitch can be improved ready for the harsh winter
I was surprised the pitch still looked reasonably big despite the evident shrinkage from last season | | | |
| Club Statement on 08:21 - Aug 14 with 929 views | bwildered |
New sprinkler system fitted and pitch looks higher than before. With a new drainage system fitted the pitched looked dry, but no doubt it was soft underfoot.
Just needs a good feed to establish the rooting system and darken the colour overtime. |  |
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| Club Statement on 08:26 - Aug 14 with 927 views | noah4x4 |
| Club Statement on 15:08 - Aug 13 by RSCOSWORTH |
Whisper it quietly but the pitch looks pretty good from ground level. Let's see how it looks and plays tonight. |
The new drainage channels will be conspicuous for some time as the grass must thicken . But the pitch played fine, with the U’s confidently employing tricks and ball skills, and Reading scoring a candidate for goal of the season. Overall entertainment value was 5/5.
The only downsides, a disorganised “wall” permitting the visitors equaliser, plus the comedy of the sprinklers coming on mid-match and catering prices that have soared. Hollywood Bowl, Slim Chickens, Wendy’s etc are going to be attractive alternatives to the over cooked pie having a crust like a tortoise shell plus chemically enhanced Greene King offering for a £tenner I endured in the stadium.
I counted seven cars ticketed for parking on the Stadium Way clearway, and with three huge HGVs evidently parked overnight in the loading bays, and folk trying to drive into the stadium to pick people up it was chaos leaving the car park post-match. Needs double yellows to remove the uncertainty as current clearway signage is failing. Pre-match, I politely warned somebody in the process of parking that he was certain of getting a ticket . I got a torrent of abuse that I was wrong. I so enjoyed later seeing the yellow ticket on his windscreen. Why are some folk such *****? | | | |
| Club Statement on 22:15 - Aug 14 with 822 views | durham_exile |
I was pleased to see the pitch back to it's previous size and location.
I thought it played very well . The surround by the West stand looks in poor condition but otherwise all was well.
I hope the sprinkler heads haven't been damaged by the ref stamping on them after the impromptu water show.
I think we are going to have a good season.
Plenty of positives from both games.
Two more players before the window closes would be good. Striker and midfield.
And one question, how bad is Taylor's calf injury I would be seriously disappointed if we are not going to see him any time soon because he will be a handful for opposition defences
Up the new U's |  |
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