The Ref Stop

Field conditions - dry weather

JD1

New Member
In sustained dry/hot weather the conditions of the playing surface are no different to that of a frozen field in terms of safety , e.g rock hard

Yet I dont think I've ever heard of a game being postponed due to an overly dry and unsafe field

Is there an expectation that we are more lenient to such conditions, just because its dry?
 
The Ref Stop
In sustained dry/hot weather the conditions of the playing surface are no different to that of a frozen field in terms of safety , e.g rock hard

Yet I dont think I've ever heard of a game being postponed due to an overly dry and unsafe field

Is there an expectation that we are more lenient to such conditions, just because its dry?
The main difference is the nature of the playing surface. Frozen = slippery and therefore dangerous.
 
The main difference is the nature of the playing surface. Frozen = slippery and therefore dangerous.
Ok but with the opposite conditions.and extremity to slippery being no bounce or give in the ground, you could easily tweak a joint after jumping or twisting

Its interesting and something to think about
 
Ok but with the opposite conditions.and extremity to slippery being no bounce or give in the ground, you could easily tweak a joint after jumping or twisting

Its interesting and something to think about
A 3G pitch is also solid but you’d still play on it. A frozen pitch is much more dangerous than a dry pitch.
 
Ok but with the opposite conditions.and extremity to slippery being no bounce or give in the ground, you could easily tweak a joint after jumping or twisting

Its interesting and something to think about
As you could on a standard pavement. That is consistently hard in every season.

Yet more injuries occur from slips and falls when icy than in the dry. It’s about the lack of traction rather than how hard the surface is.
 
As you could on a standard pavement. That is consistently hard in every season.

Yet more injuries occur from slips and falls when icy than in the dry. It’s about the lack of traction rather than how hard the surface is.
Though if the soil is mostly clay based then in very dry/hot weather it is often the case that cracks appear and they can be fairly wide & quite deep, so that certainly would be a consideration to be thought about as it could result in a broken leg/ankle etc
 
Anecdotal: Recently done a tournament during the height of the heatwave over in NA. The conditions were honestly appalling: middle of the day, open field, hard dirt, no shade for anyone, and I'd been running back to back matches for a few days already—so have the players.

For one of the last matches of the day which I was the center, I had three separate head "collision" incidents between players. Pretty much all of them constituted regular mutual collisions exacerbated by both players "rebounding" their heads off the hard ground as they fell (and the collisions themselves probably being a result of heat dizziness). After the third incident in the last minute, I waived stoppage and just called the match as a goalless draw—9 head injuries and no goals, a soccer classic.

Long winded way to say that absolutely, basic logic and the rules of common sense dictate an overly "hard" ground can definitely constitute a safety hazard, but good luck being considered for future games if you need to incident report a cancellation because the pitch was too tough. Maybe extra long hydration breaks and a word to the captains beforehand would suffice for this specific field condition/hazard, because some hazards can't be avoided.
 
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Crewe will be very unpopular with Prescott Cables for such a late postponement & perhaps lacks a bit of professionalism for not sending someone to the ground during the morning or the day before etc (only 50 mins away) if they thought there may be issues. It was the dryness/hardness of the ground that they apparently didn’t like & didn’t want to risk potential injury to their players.
 
In sustained dry/hot weather the conditions of the playing surface are no different to that of a frozen field in terms of safety , e.g rock hard

Yet I dont think I've ever heard of a game being postponed due to an overly dry and unsafe field

Is there an expectation that we are more lenient to such conditions, just because its dry?
Yes, it's mad
I've seen considerably more injuries on the minority of games played on rock hard summer ground (both as a player and referee) than all other games put together. The ground we have at the moment is incomparable in terms of safety to modern artificial surfaces. Frozen ground doesn't merit discussion as we just don't play on that
It's likely to become more of an issue with long, hot, dry summers becoming more common. Something will have to give, as we generally postpone games on wet ground too easily. Most likely, artificial pitches will become the norm and grass football will phase out unfortunately

We're already playing summer games in the UK when the temperatures and humidity are beyond what is deemed safe (28 degrees wet bulb)
 
Genuinely surprised we haven't seen more called-off this July. Bone dry pitches, absolutely rock hard with no give, and over 80°F.

Sure thing Jan, stopping for 2 minutes of lucozade every 25 mins will solve it.
 
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