Sack the groundsman

[Dodbroon]

As far as rangers are concerned " shows our game in a bad light "......they have been doing that for a century and a half.

Yip. Hit it on the head. They are the embarrassment.

[BP33]

As far as rangers are concerned " shows our game in a bad light "......they have been doing that for a century and a half.

Agreed, ****ing mutants.

[AnythingForAQuietLife]

As far as rangers are concerned " shows our game in a bad light "......they have been doing that for a century and a half.

Aint that the bloody truth. I hope the whiney b****rds ran oot o petrol on the wheh haem.

[Deeranged]

Is it unprecedented?

My home backs onto the dighty.

Luckily my bank over 30 foot high.

But it's only burst it's banks twice ( the lower bank about 8 foot ) this year.......that's about average and a lot less than the worst years

Granted this year was the highest id seen it by aboot 2 foot on my side.

But the weather lies for me is tied in with climate bull......and it seems to me that the stats are being manipulated to suit the narrative.

Just meh opinion.

Your opinion seems correct

[islaydarkblue]

You know I agree with nearly all you are saying about the ridiculous state of our pitch, self inflicted/imposed as it is. The main thing, most unfortunately, is that we, or more to the point Nelms, have/has f*cked up big time and he may or may not accept or realise that but there will be no bettering the situation until the close season. If he doesn't sort out things then it won't be just mismanagement it'll be criminal neglect.

Turning to the weather. You could probably call me a nerd about weather matters and it is a hobby/interest of mine. I don't record rainfall myself but read the stats and despair about the accuracy of the forecasting. I won't resort to writing FACT after every sentence I write like that tube over on Dayglo' Mad but I am pretty sure of the stuff I print on this subject. With a perfect pitch or even reasonably serviceable pitch we wouldn't be having this 'conversation' but timing in our current situation is paramount. There is no doubt the pitch was perfectly playable on Saturday and will likely be so tomorrow maybe even tonight. Weather has become increasingly volatile and subject to extremes especially when it comes to rainfall. A period of about two months during the winter there produced an amount equal to our 'normal' historical annual figure and whilst the number of rainy days is indeed greatly increased it is the amount of rain that has been falling in fairly narrow periods of time that has shown an even greater upturn and that has been part of the problem. In other words the severe downpours are only slightly more frequent but hugely heavier in terms of the amount of water falling. An inch of rain in a short period used to be uncommon in this area, historically the driest part of the country, but now much more common. With a bit of luck regarding the timing of these downpours and we wouldn't again be having said 'conversation' and our sub standard pitch would have ' got away with it' as would Nelms but the stats show that we have indeed been unfortunate in weather timings this season.

So to sum up its our fault and the the weather is not an excuse but actually a reason for the call offs in conjunction with a pitch with knackered drains.

We were fortunate that the home game against Celtic was played on Boxing Day. If it had been the following day at the same kickoff time it would have been postponed as it was raining all day in Dundee. That is probably one of the reasons why the St Johnstone game was postponed on 2nd January 2024. Nelmsy should get Fenton to switch on the undersoil heating which will help dry out the pitch.

[islaydarkblue]

So the rain is unprecedented enough to get other parks off.

Nelmsy new of these problems for seasons, not just this season, just like he knew about lake outside the Cox for 10 years that's been sorted with about 5 hours of work.

I hear it's a **** fest behind the scenes at Dens but most ( not you ) seem not to want to know as the shiny new stadium being promised.

I also hear we were fairly close to being bombed out of Gardyne.

I thought that we had a lease for 3 years at Gardyne with the option of an extra year. We moved into Gardyne in June 2022.

[islaydarkblue]

You are right in all of that. During my 60+ years of attending football in Dundee our pitch has been superior to Tannadice for the vast majority of the time but not now and that is unforgivable. You misunderstand my points regarding the weather. I am not making the weather an excuse for having games off. We all know where the fault lies. I only bring the weather into to it because it is most definitely a factor taking into account the poor state of the pitch. Rainfall is definitely much higher than ‘normal’ and I fully accept that most good pitches would cope, ours doesn’t and it is then and only then that luck in the timing of the bad weather comes into it. The only luck we have had in this regard is bad.

I also study the weather as a hobby and since the middle of January 2024 there has not been a lot of heavy rainfall. There has been a complete lack of snow. If the pitch is unable to cope with a few hours of steady rainfall (not heavy rainfall) why were the pop up sprinklers in use before last Wednesday night’s game against Aberdeen.

[Deeranged]

I also study the weather as a hobby and since the middle of January 2024 there has not been a lot of heavy rainfall. There has been a complete lack of snow. If the pitch is unable to cope with a few hours of steady rainfall (not heavy rainfall) why were the pop up sprinklers in use before last Wednesday night’s game against Aberdeen.

The weather isn't the root cause although it is a huge contributory factor.

When the amount of rainfall is low enough to allow the drainage to work it'll be perfectly effective and the pitch will dry out fairly quickly when it stops. The amount of water put out by the sprinklers will be fairly low and only really enough to make the surface slick without actually saturating it.

The rain overnight Saturday was heavy and incessant, I know because I drove from the west on Saturday and it was hellish at times, it also woke me a few times overnight. All other Scottish games had completed before the worst of it. I'm not excusing the condition of the pitch, or the ineffectiveness of the drainage which is the fault of one man, but it really doesn't help to have that kind of rain the night before a game - and we've been unlucky that way four times this season. If our fixtures had been reversed, i.e. away when we were home and home when away, we likely wouldn't be having this conversation.

Worth noting that on at least one of the four postponement dates the weather was so bad that many other games in Scotland were also flooded off suggesting that, whilst we're the worst, we're not the only club in Scotland to fall foul of the unusually high rainfall stats this season.

[Dodbroon]

We were fortunate that the home game against Celtic was played on Boxing Day. If it had been the following day at the same kickoff time it would have been postponed as it was raining all day in Dundee. That is probably one of the reasons why the St Johnstone game was postponed on 2nd January 2024. Nelmsy should get Fenton to switch on the undersoil heating which will help dry out the pitch.

That is the case re the Celtic game. Our problem is the length of time taken to dry out due to the unfit for purpose drainage system. That is why in our current situation, until they do something about it in the close season (they surely have to), is that the pitch is vulnerable to heavy downpours in the 24 hour run up to games. In the longer term undersoil heating dries out the subsoil and is actually a detriment to drainage due to compacting of said soil. I can't see the undersoil heating being much help in the short term run up to a match, could well be wrong though. We would likely just end up with slightly warmer water lying on the pitch.

[Dodbroon]

The weather isn't the root cause although it is a huge contributory factor.

When the amount of rainfall is low enough to allow the drainage to work it'll be perfectly effective and the pitch will dry out fairly quickly when it stops. The amount of water put out by the sprinklers will be fairly low and only really enough to make the surface slick without actually saturating it.

The rain overnight Saturday was heavy and incessant, I know because I drove from the west on Saturday and it was hellish at times, it also woke me a few times overnight. All other Scottish games had completed before the worst of it. I'm not excusing the condition of the pitch, or the ineffectiveness of the drainage which is the fault of one man, but it really doesn't help to have that kind of rain the night before a game - and we've been unlucky that way four times this season. If our fixtures had been reversed, i.e. away when we were home and home when away, we likely wouldn't be having this conversation.

Worth noting that on at least one of the four postponement dates the weather was so bad that many other games in Scotland were also flooded off suggesting that, whilst we're the worst, we're not the only club in Scotland to fall foul of the unusually high rainfall stats this season.

Agree with all of that. Sums it up well.