The condition of the Madejski Stadium pitch has been a much-debated topic amongst Royals supporters in recent weeks, and we readily admit that the state of the surface is not as good as we would like.

The issue is not as straightforward as it might seem, and the current condition of the pitch is due to a number of factors.

Rugby - this is the most obvious factor and the one most readily identified by supporters, and of course staging regular rugby fixtures does have an impact on the quality of the pitch. However, the rugby is not as significant as many people imagine - after all, we've hosted rugby virtually every season since the move to Madejski Stadium and not had similar problems before. Surely if it was just down to the rugby, the pitch would be the same every year?

Weather - it sounds like a cop-out, but the wet start to the winter (according the media reports, the wettest for 30 years) contributed hugely to the current condition of the pitch. In particular, one heavy week at the start of December made a big difference:

Friday 5 December: Reading v Preston (FA Youth Cup)
Tuesday 9 December: Reading v Blackpool
Thursday 11 December: London Irish v Dax
Saturday 13 December: Reading v Norwich City

That's four games in nine days...and it was a very wet nine days too! That week really hurt the pitch, and it's never really had the chance to recover.

Second-season syndrome - we thought that we'd seen the back of that particular phrase, but apparently pitches suffer from second-season syndrome as well! The reasons are quite technical, but essentially it's because the usual clean-up work that's undertaken every summer can't be carried out following the first season of a new pitch; you'd risk dragging out the Desso polyethylene fibres that haven't fully bedded in. And as a new pitch was laid at Madejski Stadium in the summer of 2007, that second-season is...now! As a result, the pitch is carrying an 'organic layer' that can't be removed until the end of the season.

Parasites - ever heard of root-knot nematodes? Or leatherjackets* (crane fly larvae)? Until recently, neither had I. But apparently these nasty little blighters have infected our pitch. Nothing particularly unusual - they get their tiny teeth into quite a number of surfaces up and down the country, and a lot of the time you'd never even notice. But when combined with all the other factors affecting our turf, they are having a significant impact while we get them under control.

So that's it. The pitch is not in the condition we would want, despite the sterling efforts, in trying circumstances, of head groundsman Bruce Elliott and his team. But it's not as straightforward as you might think, and certainly not a case of 'get rid of the rugby and the pitch will be fine'.

The good news is that the recent improvement in weather temperatures has provided some respite for the pitch, and the seeds that have been sown should soon start to yield grass. So we should see an improvement in the next few weeks, although it won't be until next season (once the routine summer work has been carried out) that we'll really start to have the surface we all want.

Ray Booth
Stadium Manager
25th February 2008

*According to Wikipedia: 'In 1935, Lord's cricket ground in London was among the venues affected by leatherjackets: several thousand were collected by ground staff and burned, because they caused bald patches on the wicket and the pitch took unaccustomed spin for much of the season.'