This can be quite a common situation for many grassroots football clubs. Consider the following:

• Minimise use on the pitch, especially for training sessions.

• Keep machinery off the pitch and ensure machinery traffic routes do not go over the pitch, for example, by taking shortcuts.

• Avoid mechanical work that can easily damage the grass leaves and base of the grass. This means no scarification, verticutting or grooming as this will all unnecessarily stress the grass plant and thin the sward.

• If you need to cut the pitch, keep the height of cut as high as reasonably practicable. This will most likely be needed to control flowering stalks of some grasses and to keep any weed growth down to a suitable height.

• Avoid aerating the pitch. The soil and surface will be hard so tine penetration will be difficult.

• Avoid applying fertilisers, pesticides or plant growth regulators. For optimum effectiveness the grass will need a good supply of water in the soil, but as drought conditions exist then adequate water will not be present. Scorching and death of the grass plant can very easily result from misapplication in drought conditions.

• If cracks appear on the pitch, then try and apply a localised top-dressing into and over the cracks aiming to maintain a good surface evenness. Consider doing this by hand: have a tractor and trailer at the side of the pitch and wheelbarrow the top-dressing to the required area.

• If you do have a limited amount of water, then it is probably not worth trying to put any onto the pitch. Applying just a small amount of water won’t penetrate into the soil, will just wet the top and then will be rapidly lost due to the heat, so being a waste of a valuable resource.

So, basically you will mostly be keeping off the pitch during times of drought.