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Oh.

Well these things happen when you have mock exams all week

i have been told the reason our pitch gets so bad is because it is built on a high water table so when it rains the ground under neath is always water logged. Does any one know if this is the case

Well, if you look at the local topography, the playing fields at Newtown (behind Police station) are on a downward slope at the far end and continues towards the canal. The canal itself is cut into the bottom of a slight valley (hence the river next to it geographically flowing along the lowest route).

Wigan is in a bowl, as i say, downhill from Aspull, stadnish, haigh etc... so yes the water does drain down towards the JJB but it shouldnt be too much of a problem considering underneath the pitch isnt earth/soil as such?

The Robin Park playing field were amongst the best is not the best anywhere in the Borough

The problem seems to be that the drainage system takes water from the pitch to the River Douglas. The River Douglas though is frequently in flood and is actually back filling the drains. This is happening at times of the year when grass grows little or all. It is exacerbated by the poor surface that the grass was laid/grown upon.

There's a reason why the nearby estate is called MARSH Green! All round that area has always been prone to flooding - in fact I noticed two weeks ago (walking down for the Cas game) that the sandbags are still in place around Beresford St. from the recent floods.

We used to play our school games on the old pitches that were there in the fifties/sixties, and they were always mudbaths!

Without giving all the details the site of the JJb is built on a marsh area added to the fact that it was also used for dumping screenings from the Pemberton screens sewage plant which was sited between the river and the Canal. When you cross the new bridge you can still see the old outlets from the works. Part of the east stand was built over a storm storage tank and hence when the stadium first opened part of that stand was not used until the new deep tank was ready and the old one filled in. The whole area is the the natural flood plain area of the Douglas and hence when in times of flood the marsh area accommodated all the flood water when the river was high. The whole area has a history of flooding ,Beresford St,Gormley St Miry Lane etc. Unless something in that area is in effect built isolated and contained within a flood barrier it will always be subject flooding. I only hope that the designers of the JJB had the sense to do that and thus it should not be influenced by the river level unless the pumps fail.

So Mr Whelan needs to give some thought to engineering the River Douglas

On a tangent; my father used to claim that at Central Park once upon time the groundsman could completely flood the pitch as and when required with the perimeter wall containing the water. I could never envisage it myself as when I started watching the perimeter had gates etc that water would escape through and so on.

Oooo, hard engineering!

It might be s**t to all of you but it was bread and butter for me !!!!!!!!