Sloping RL pitches - cost to fix?

[bobbruce]

6 hours ago, David Shepherd said:

Not completely disagreeing. If Fev or Batley were selecting a plot of land to play on now, it would be engineered to be a flat surface. But we are where we are. Professional Rugby has been played at Post Office Road for 101 years, Mount Pleasant for longer and the sky has never fallen in during that time.

It does make me giggle how these two gentle slopes live rent free in the heads of a lot of RL fans.  It's not as though players are expected to run up a sheer cliff face and both sets of players get 40 mins up and 40 mins down, so there's no advantage to either side.

Also worth pointing out that the premier Test Cricket venue in the UK (maybe the world?) has quite a pronounced slope to it. That's a sport with riches we can only dream of.  I've never seen a clamour among cricket fans for Lords to be levelled. In fact it's often celebrated as a feature that gives the ground and matches there character. 

Cricket also played WC games a few years ago at a ground with a tree in the outfield. I seem to remember if you hit the tree on the bounce it was a 4 and on the full a 6. 

[Blind side johnny]

Do any of you folk remember Chorley's ground?

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

30 minutes ago, bobbruce said:

Cricket also played WC games a few years ago at a ground with a tree in the outfield. I seem to remember if you hit the tree on the bounce it was a 4 and on the full a 6. 

When there was a tree within the outfield at Canterbury the ball hitting the tree scored '4' whether on the full (even if the ball then continued over the boundary without hitting the ground) or not. You also couldn't be given out caught if the ball hit the tree first.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Les Tonks Sidestep

[sweaty craiq]

38 minutes ago, roversspud said:

Simple question. Why? (BTW I get the full size bit but why not have a minimum size and a maximum size as in football where it doesn't appear to cause many problems.)

 

 

Thought soccer had standardised it’s pitches to 100m x 64m for all the pro leagues, and stipulated they must be flat

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

27 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Thought soccer had standardised it’s pitches to 100m x 64m for all the pro leagues, and stipulated they must be flat

Nope, as long as they fall into the size range allowed by the Laws of the Game they are fine* although the rules of the PL don't allow the size to be changed during the season.

eg for the 22-23 season The City Ground pitch is 105.2x71.3m whereas at Craven Cottage it is 100x65m

*not sure about having to be flat but I can't find a stipulation 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Les Tonks Sidestep

[roversspud]

27 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Thought soccer had standardised it’s pitches to 100m x 64m for all the pro leagues, and stipulated they must be flat

No, they can be between 90M and 120m long and between 45m and 90 m wide. There is no stipulation that they must be flat. Wakefield AFC , who are in the football pyramid, play at Post Office Road, and it's only in recent years that Yeovil moved to a new ground with a flat pitch after playing on a very sloped pitch for years.

[Griff]

37 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Thought soccer had standardised it’s pitches to 100m x 64m for all the pro leagues, and stipulated they must be flat

Who told you that?

[Taffy Tiger]

1 hour ago, bobbruce said:

Cricket also played WC games a few years ago at a ground with a tree in the outfield. I seem to remember if you hit the tree on the bounce it was a 4 and on the full a 6. 

was a four even if it hit on the full

 

[Taffy Tiger]

1 hour ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

When there was a tree within the outfield at Canterbury the ball hitting the tree scored '4' whether on the full (even if the ball then continued over the boundary without hitting the ground) or not. You also couldn't be given out caught if the ball hit the tree first.

posted mine then saw this , sorry

[Taffy Tiger]

46 minutes ago, roversspud said:

No, they can be between 90M and 120m long and between 45m and 90 m wide. There is no stipulation that they must be flat. Wakefield AFC , who are in the football pyramid, play at Post Office Road, and it's only in recent years that Yeovil moved to a new ground with a flat pitch after playing on a very sloped pitch for years.

90m-120m and 50m to100m , but have to be longer than they are wider ie can't have 90m long and 90 or more wide

[daz39]

7 hours ago, David Shepherd said:

Not completely disagreeing. If Fev or Batley were selecting a plot of land to play on now, it would be engineered to be a flat surface. But we are where we are. Professional Rugby has been played at Post Office Road for 101 years, Mount Pleasant for longer and the sky has never fallen in during that time.

It does make me giggle how these two gentle slopes live rent free in the heads of a lot of RL fans.  It's not as though players are expected to run up a sheer cliff face and both sets of players get 40 mins up and 40 mins down, so there's no advantage to either side.

Also worth pointing out that the premier Test Cricket venue in the UK (maybe the world?) has quite a pronounced slope to it. That's a sport with riches we can only dream of.  I've never seen a clamour among cricket fans for Lords to be levelled. In fact it's often celebrated as a feature that gives the ground and matches there character. 

GENTLE????????

are you usually upside down when you go to Batley

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

27 minutes ago, Taffy Tiger said:

posted mine then saw this , sorry

Do it myself all the time 

[Agbrigg]

I have not been to Odsal for a while, do they still have curled up corners made of loose bits of turf that looks like it was found in a garden centre skip.

[Oxford]

1 minute ago, Agbrigg said:

I have not been to Odsal for a while, do they still have curled up corners made of loose bits of turf that looks like it was found in a garden centre skip.

I've not been for a while either but I really hope so as I was convinced as a 10 year old that it was part of a sinister plot and nothing to do with Speedway at all.

 

[Griff]

3 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

Do any of you folk remember Chorley's ground?

The one at Horwich ?

Anybody remember Crown Flatt ?   Far from flat.........

[David Shepherd]

26 minutes ago, Agbrigg said:

I have not been to Odsal for a while, do they still have curled up corners made of loose bits of turf that looks like it was found in a garden centre skip.

No, they've made the pitch fit inside the speedway track by the looks of it.

It's now so small that games really should be 11 a side a Odsal.

[David Shepherd]

1 hour ago, daz39 said:

GENTLE????????

are you usually upside down when you go to Batley

I mean I do usually make it one of the away days where beer and lots of it is consumed, so who knows?

[Oxford]

6 minutes ago, Griff said:

Anybody remember Crown Flatt ? 

Magic, a piece of history, legacy and a nightmare to play at!

[Big Picture]

9 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

What is this weird obsession with the cloying blandness of homogeneity?

Maybe we should boot the Cumbrian teams out too because the pitches sometimes get very boggy up there in early season?

And how about getting rid of Catalans and Toulouse, because the average temperature in summer is much hotter there than in Northern England? Not to mention the fact that the SL Grand Final is often played in totally different conditions to those seen throughout the regular season.

Different conditions and scenarios present different challenges and that's one of the beauties of RL, as with other sports. The Derby is run on a wildly undulating track and that extreme test is generally believed to be a major factor in its enduring appeal. Golf courses are celebrated for their individual challenges, and there's no call to level and standardise them all.

Let's celebrate the diversity of our RL grounds, not wring our hands about them.

So you think that Old Trafford, Anfield, the Camp Nou, the Maracanã, Soldier Field and a great many others all having a level field makes them bland?  Seriously???

4 hours ago, roversspud said:

Simple question. Why? (BTW I get the full size bit but why not have a minimum size and a maximum size as in football where it doesn't appear to cause many problems.)

Size variance isn't nearly as much of an issue in soccer because it has different rules.

In RL, kickoffs and drop-outs all have to go 10 metres, so we need lines showing how far 10 metres is from the place where the ball is kicked.  Thus we need the 10, 30 and 30 metre lines in addition to the 20 and 50 metre lines.  And if even third-world PNG can provide full size fields of play which correct field markings, then nothing less will do in any first-world country.

[Big Picture]

3 hours ago, sweaty craiq said:

Thought soccer had standardised it’s pitches to 100m x 64m for all the pro leagues, and stipulated they must be flat

FIFA stipulated a standard length of 105 metres for all top-level matches.  They might have grandfathered older stadiums which have a field shorter than that, but I don't know.

[Agbrigg]

1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

So you think that Old Trafford, Anfield, the Camp Nou, the Maracanã, Soldier Field and a great many others all having a level field makes them bland?  Seriously???

Size variance isn't nearly as much of an issue in soccer because it has different rules.

In RL, kickoffs and drop-outs all have to go 10 metres, so we need lines showing how far 10 metres is from the place where the ball is kicked.  Thus we need the 10, 30 and 30 metre lines in addition to the 20 and 50 metre lines.  And if even third-world PNG can provide full size fields of play which correct field markings, then nothing less will do in any first-world country.

Correct  and should be a non negotiable stipulation in obtaining a grade A licence

There are plenty  on here who rightly push the the sport to move forward and market itself and yet seem happy to play on Micky mouse pitches and present ourselves as a sport still living in the Eddie Waring era.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Agbrigg

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

10 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

What is this weird obsession with the cloying blandness of homogeneity?

 

Who's obsessed by it Phantom? 

[Oxford]

1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

So you think that Old Trafford, Anfield, the Camp Nou, the Maracanã, Soldier Field and a great many others all having a level field makes them bland? 

No, but it make a contribution toward football being boring but not as boring as football bores and far behind kick & clap on the boredomometer!

[Tippytoe]

On 29/12/2022 at 19:30, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Presumably nowadays you could ask Michael Gove's department for a grant.  He's the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, isn't he?

Bradford got that one in the bag

[roversspud]

2 hours ago, Big Picture said:

FIFA stipulated a standard length of 105 metres for all top-level matches.  They might have grandfathered older stadiums which have a field shorter than that, but I don't know.

As far as I am aware that is only a recommendation and not a stipulation. The FA is quite clear about the size of pitches and the ranges that can be used as has been previously highlighted by several people. As the FA is in charge of all games in England I'll go with that.