Mud vs sand

Sunday I was reminded of the advantages of astroturf.  My eldest son is, alas, a footballer rather than a hockey player.  His last 2 games have been cancelled because of the state of his pitch, but his manager was determined that if at all possible they would play their twice postponed cup match.

Saturday night it rained heavily again, and was still raining when I left for junior training at Newlands.  By the time I arrived, the skies had started to clear, and although the car park was still full of puddles, the pitch was looking fine.  By midday when I umpired an U14 Boys Development match it was a beautiful crisp sunny day.  Unfortunately our boys lost in a good match to a stronger Reading side, but our senior U14 joint side with GX did very well to draw 3-3 with Surbiton, a very strong club.  A quick stomp of the feet to shake off any sand, and we were off home, expecting to find my eldest on Facebook with another cancelled match, but no, he wasn't there and they were playing.  Although surprised, as I don't get to see him play much these days, I thought I'd nip down and see the end of their match.

Fortunately, the two teams' shirts were white and dark, because otherwise you'd have had a hard time telling them apart.  Jamie had been got out of bed by his Grandad just after I had left for hockey to go and fork over the pitch to help it drain, but it didn't seem to have made much difference, because what I saw looked like the battle of the Somme.  The centre of the pitch was a mud-bath: exhausted boys covered in mud to their waists and higher, slipping all over the place, as they frantically dug the ball out of the sticky clay mud, trying to find a bit of grass they could get the ball onto to kick it properly.  3-3 and extra time; boys with cramp lying on the ground, one boy sick with the effort put in, and still they played on to penalties with the sun sinking behind the Chiltern hills, with several boys so tired they just lay on the ground in the mud.  Finally it was over, and Jamie had lost 5-4 on penalties.  I borrowed a dog rug to put over my car seat to take him home.

Those of you old enough will remember playing hockey on grass pitches in the winter: the Saturday morning weather inspection to see if we'd be playing that day, the ball skipping up off a hillock of muddy grass, carefully putting the divots back after the match, the boot bag full of mud.  I know on occasions it gets a bit wet and windy and cold at Newlands, but aren't you glad now that we play on astro?