As you may have noticed, things have been pretty static on the pitch over the last couple of weeks. This is because when the old shock pad was taken up there were areas of damage and undulation in the underlying tarmac base. We were originally quoted £30,000 to have this repaired but after much discussion/negotiation, and resulting delay, it was repaired for a tenth of that price. The laying of the shock pad will start this coming Monday and will take about a week, with the carpet taking another 5 to 10 days, so we hope to have it in operation during the last week of September.

The installation of the irrigation equipment is also taking longer than originally promised due to the manufacture to order of the pipework running outside of the originally specified lead time. Installation will start on 26th September, 3 weeks later than originally agreed, and will take 4 to 5 weeks. We can play on the pitch dry but may need to either rely on the wet Manchester weather or bringing in temporary methods of irrigation for higher level league matches in the interim.