HEAVY RAINFALL CAUSES HEADACHE FOR GROUNDSMAN [12/02/09 17:11:59]
The recent snowfall, hard frosts and rainfall have combined to present huge pre-season problems to groundsman Bob Scott and his motley assortment of part-time ‘fair weather’ helpers. After lower-than-average precipitation during the months of November and December, the first few weeks of 2009 have already left some of the Abberton stalwarts sagely shaking their heads (some more than others) and muttering about the pitch not being ready until well into May.
As most are probably aware, The Brow is one of the highest points in the county of Essex but its heavy clay base often prevents a rapid escape of surface water in even normal circumstances.
The past few weeks have been anything but normal with the rainfall struggling to permeate a top layer of the turf which has been repeatedly frozen.
Low temperatures have compounded the situation further and the frost has stayed in the ground for long periods.
The situation has definitely worsened in recent years and it is clear that the club must make financial investment to ‘verti-drain’ the outfield at the earliest opportunity. Sadly, this opportunity may not present itself until after the 2009 season. Inadequate maintenance of ditching is also serving to trap the surface water in areas previously less affected, most notably the western end of the ground underneath the poplar trees.
To give an indication of the volume of water that we are dealing with, we can consider the somewhat amateur efforts to pump off that water which can be accessed (there are several large ‘pockets’ of water that just do not drain - see above). We have calculated that our pump can handle 720 gallons per hour and on Monday and Tuesday it was running for an incredible 28 hours non-stop. During this period, it is likely that around 20,160 gallons were drained off and, working on the basis that a gallon weights 10lbs (4.54Kg), water equivalent to the weight of 32 Treasurers (see right) is removed each hour! In the 28 hour period, just short of 90 tons of water were taken off the field!
We might think we have it bad but Colchester & East Essex are suffering as well. As the photos below from earlier this week show, the River Colne burst its banks with the result that literally millions of gallons flooded on to the Castle Park outfield.
