WINTER SPORTS GROUNDS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24614, 10 July 1945, Page 3

WINTER SPORTS GROUNDS

SURFACES IN BAD STATE APPEAL MADE TO CLUBS As most playing fields in the city are in a very sodden state and have cut up badly with football play, the reserves committee of the City Council has asked winter sports clubs to make more use of the drier parks such as Spreydon Domain and Burwood Park, at the latter there being five grounds not in use which would be playable even in the wettest weather. Some few grounds still have surface water lying on them, the committee reported to the council last evening. In normal circumstances with a view to preserving the playing suaface it has been the policy of the department to declare sodden grounds unfit for play. As a general rule such a restriction would be applied only on one or two Saturdays during the whole season, but such were the conditions this season that to close the grounds on every occasion when they were considered too wet would mean that there would be little, if any, play allowed. Such being the case, except in exceptional circumstances, football and hockey clubs had been allowed to proceed with their fixtures. It must necessarily follow that at the end of the season the ground will indeed be in a bad state and considerable time and expense would be involved in reseeding and reconditioning the playing fields. Should it so happen that during the spring and early summer months the weather became dry with parching winds for even a week’s duration, one must expect a crop of complaints from cricketers because of the uneven and bumpy nature of the outfieid.. ______________