Over the last few weeks while watching the goals from the lower leagues have you noticed the state of some of the pitches Darlow being one of the worst so hats off to Dave Brown our groundsman for sterling work.

id second that but then again thats why he is in the running for groundsman of the year.

i know what you are saying though a lot of the pitches are sagged with the high majoritty of goal mouths paggered

Mr Brown

never mind the lower leagues the pitch equals and surpasses
some champ and prem pitches
well done mr brown and team

It should also be noted that this isn't recent, this bloke has been providing billiard table quality pitches for Pools for well over five years.

He only gets robbed of the big prize because he isn't groundsman at somewhere like Old Trafford.

But what else is new?

Davey Brown would sort that shambles of a pitch out at Wigan in no time!

Hats off to the ground staff. It's by far one of the best, if not the best, pitches in the country

Hats off to IOR too because they spend a lot of money on that pitch every year!

Here Here. Facilities have much improved in their tenure

and Billingham Town

Its just a pity that we spent the first 2/3 of the season booting the ball in the air and failing to take advantage of the playing surface.

I agree with you but why pick on IOR?

Well done

i think he should get some sort of award for constantly being in the running for the groundsman of the year award

A testimonial perhaps against other keen gardeners?

well it has been five year

Don't ever play pontoon Grave/Tree, you'd be shite at it you moaning, miserable get. Always twisting, even on 21. FFS

They used to think that the way to get a good playing surface was to run a road roller over the pitch to make it nice and flat.

Can you remember those bad pitches that followed Brian Clough around cos he used to try to tell the groundsman his job and told him to roll the pitch flat. Whilst he knew his way around a bottle of scotch his knowledge of pitch maintenance was sadly lacking and everyone remembers the result.

Professional footballers knock the shit out of pitches cos they cover so much ground and the true heroes are the the groundsmen. It's all about relieving compaction and letting the rain drain through.

You misunderstood, I was not picking on IOR, merely saying that it is a pity that the money they spent on the pitch was 'wasted' in the first 2/3 of the season. I applaud IOR for their investments in the pitch.