Hard Porous Pitch Maintenance: 13. Irrigation

Irrigation was carried out to maintain a stable surface and to reduce the loss of material by wind blow.

Moisture needed to be present in the profile and this was especially important where rainfall was inadequate to achieve this outcome.

Summertime was typically the time when frequent additional irrigation was needed, with it typically being applied on alternate days.

Self-travelling sprinklers, moving from one end of an area to another took about 3-hours on a full-size surface of 105m x 65m, covering one-half of the pitch in one run and then the other half of the pitch one the next run. This would allow a full-sized area to have been irrigated in a working day.

Where the profile wasn’t moist enough then irrigation would be applied to help ensure the subsequent use of the roller was able to firm the surface adequately. After irrigation the surface would also be typically lightly brushed.