Grass Pitch Drainage and Rest Period Questions Checklist

Record the date, what the weather had been doing beforehand, and what the ground was like, for every session that was affected by wet conditions.

Ground behaviour depends entirely on what preceded it, so an undated observation is close to worthless.

Choose a few fixed positions to photograph the pitch from and use the same ones all season, so images can be compared.

Photographs from wandering positions cannot be laid alongside each other, which removes most of their value later.

Keep a simple plan of the pitch and mark on a copy where water stood after each wet spell, rather than describing it in words.

Overlaying several marked plans shows whether the pattern is stable, which is the finding a professional wants.

Note how long each area takes to become playable again after rain, using dated returns rather than an estimate of days.

Relative recovery time across a field needs no equipment and is the single most useful thing an owner can supply.

Note which parts of the field behave differently from the rest under the same rainfall, and mark those boundaries on your plan.

Where behaviour changes across one field is usually more informative than the behaviour of any single area.

Record the dry spells too, including which areas harden first and which stay soft when everything else has firmed up.

Dry weather observations are the ones nobody thinks to write down and the ones that show the contrast.

Mark the worn areas on a plan at intervals through the season rather than only at the end, and date each copy.

When wear appears matters as much as where, and only repeated marking captures that.

Note where use concentrates on the field, including goalmouths, centre areas, entry points, training areas and anywhere teams warm up.

Concentrations are set by how the pitch is used and are frequently movable, which makes them worth recording precisely.

Note where players, spectators and equipment come onto the field, whether everybody uses the same route, and whether that route changes in winter.

Access routes wear out before the playing area does and are the easiest thing on this list to change.

Record where mowers, vehicles and equipment cross the surface, and whether they do so when the ground is soft.

Ground crossed by machinery in wet conditions carries that for the rest of the season.

Compare your wear plan against your wet plan and note where the two overlap, keeping that as an observation rather than a conclusion.

The overlap is what a professional will look at first, and it is clearer on two plans than in anybody's memory.

What the relationship between wet ground and wear means on a particular field is a determination for a qualified turf professional.

Note which worn areas recover on their own each year and which arrive at the start of a season already bare.

An area that no longer recovers has crossed a line, and dating that change is useful evidence.

Keep a record of every use of the surface, not only fixtures, including training, hire, school sessions and informal play.

The unbooked use is frequently the larger half and is invisible in any fixture list.

Note the ground conditions for each use rather than only the date, since the same session does different things in different conditions.

Sessions played on soft ground are the ones that consume the surface, and separating them is the whole point of counting.

Note roughly how many people were on the surface and what kind of session it was, without attempting to weight those against each other.

Collecting the raw detail lets a professional do the weighting; doing it yourself buries the information.

Note which part of the field each session used, particularly where a pitch is moved or a training area is kept separate.

Groups that move their pitch already know more about their field than they realise, and the record makes it usable.

Record every session cancelled or moved because of ground conditions, noting the date, who decided and what the ground was like.

Cancellations are the clearest measure of what the surface is costing the club and are rarely written down.

Decide who keeps this record and where it lives, so it survives the season and a change of committee.

Usage records are kept by one enthusiastic person and lost when that person steps down.

Write out the year and mark every week in which the surface carries no use at all, including hire and informal use.

The exercise regularly shows that the closed season is shorter than anybody thought.

Note where one season's use overlaps the next, including pre-season, summer sport and events held on the same ground.

Overlap is where rest disappears, and it happens by diary rather than by anybody deciding.

Note what happens on the surface during any closed period, including casual play, dog walking, parking, events or work by others.

Open sites get used whether or not the committee has closed them, which is the part the plan forgets.

Note when any renovation work happens each year and how many weeks the surface is genuinely out of use for it.

Work needs its own window, and that window has to come out of the same year as everything else.

Establish who is able to refuse a request to use the surface, and whether that person is the same as whoever books it.

Where booking and protecting sit with different people, the booking side reliably wins.

Write down the rest the surface actually gets and take that to the conversation, rather than the rest it is supposed to get.

An honest number is the most useful thing a group can hand to somebody being asked to advise them.

Gather whatever is known about drainage work previously carried out on the field, including who did it and roughly when.

Existing drainage under a playing field is the commonest thing nobody can find and everybody half remembers.

Ask long-standing members, groundstaff and neighbours what has been done over the years, and write down who said what.

Attributed recollection is a lead a professional can follow; unattributed folklore is not.

Collect records of any renovation, seeding, top dressing or treatment carried out, and what was used where it is known.

What has been done sets what a professional would suggest next, and the gap is filled by guesswork without it.

Note anything that changed around the field, including new buildings, paving, a car park, a fence line or work on neighbouring land.

What arrives on a field changes when its surroundings change, without anything on the field being touched.

Note the condition of any ditch, outfall or edge around the field, whether anybody maintains it, and who that is understood to be.

A field's drainage frequently depends on something at its edge that belongs to somebody else.

Who is responsible for a ditch, outfall or watercourse is a matter for the relevant authority and the landowners involved, and varies by location.

Bring the history together into one document rather than leaving it in several people's memories and a folder of invoices.

The history is the club's own asset, and it is reconstructed from scratch every time somebody new is asked.

Establish whether the playing area was ever constructed or is simply the field as it was found, and write down how you established it.

Committees frequently assume a pitch was built, and whether it was changes what any professional would suggest doing next.

Ask a qualified turf or drainage professional what your season's record suggests is worth investigating first, and record the answer.

Handing over evidence and asking what it shows is a far better opening than describing a problem.

What a playing surface needs is a determination for qualified agronomic and drainage professionals working from the site and its records.

Ask what governs how much use a surface like this can carry, and what the answer depends on, without asking for a number you can plan around.

The shape of the answer is what a committee can act on; a number taken out of context is not.

Ask the relevant governing body what guidance exists for surfaces of this kind and what they would want to see from you.

Governing bodies hold guidance that clubs consistently discover after they have already commissioned something.

What guidance or requirements apply to a playing surface is confirmed with the relevant governing body and the local authority, and varies by sport and location.

Ask what should happen before anything else, since drainage, renovation and use are usually answered in a particular order.

Groups regularly renovate a surface whose behaviour has not been addressed, and then renovate it again.

Ask which of the things the committee has been considering would make no difference here, and record that answer carefully.

Being told what not to spend effort on is frequently the most valuable part of a first conversation.

Ask which improvements are within the group's own control, such as moving access routes, changing use patterns or protecting rest weeks.

Some of the answer is always in the committee's own hands, and that part can start immediately.

Write down what stage each question reached and who was asked, so the next committee continues the conversation rather than opening it again.

Playing surface questions outlast the people holding them, and the restart is why so many clubs never reach an answer.