Hard Porous Pitch Maintenance: 16. Frost

Frost and very cold weather could freeze the moisture in the profile, with water expanding and forcing apart the hard porous particles, causing varying degrees of surface disruption.

Play could take place when the surface was fully frozen, although it would have been hard to play on and the surface slightly bumpy, so the playing experience would not have been ideal.

When the surface, especially the top 25mm started to thaw then this is when all play should have cancelled. The lower profile would still have been frozen whilst the surface layer would have been wet and unable to drain.

Playing on the surface in these conditions would typically have resulted in a layer which could shear away from the underlying layer, causing significant surface disturbance, and with the finer particles in the top layer creating a muddy, ponded, surface.

Once a proper thaw throughout the profile had occurred and excess water had drained away then maintenance work could recommence, helping to get the surface ready again for play.