FOOTBALL - Worst playing surfaces in the entire bloody league!

North Force boss Chas Flower has fired a broadside at the Whangarei District Council ahead of their home semifinal on Sunday, saying that the $2.5 million it has committed to upgrading Okara Park, might be better spent improving the districts' playing surfaces.
Frustrated from a record number of park closures this winter, the North Force chairman and Kamo Soccer Club president said the last straw was an official complaint from East Coast Bays, about the condition of the playing surface at Tikipunga Park earlier this month.
"US1 have directed us to play the semifinal at Kamo [because of the complaint], of course they don't realise that our ground at Kamo is just as bad as the surface at Tikipunga," Flower said.
The search is now on for the best available surface to play the semifinal, with the venue to be decided later in the week.
Council technical officer Aubrey Gifford said that from the beginning of April to August 17, the fields have been closed by the council for 36 weekdays and four Saturdays. Some cancellations had been imposed by individual sports codes, not simply because the fields were closed.
Gifford said the rainfall has been spread evenly throughout the winter period with none of the normal significant dry periods.
``We have had rain almost every day, and if not then every other day. Most of our sportsfields are soil based, and therefore we rely on that soil's ability for water to percolate through. Sports teams playing on the field often compromise this ability by sealing the soil in the top 25mm or so.
"The council does regular maintenance work to alleviate this by completing physical treatments, which open the surface up again, this work is mainly done during drier periods with no rain but we haven't had those periods this year and it would have done more damage trying to undertake this work when the fields were wet," he said.
Flower said blaming the condition of the parks on a wet winter was all very well, but that was all the more reason to invest extra money in maintaining and upgrading council grounds.
North Force play home games at two grounds, the Kamo Rec and Tikipunga Park, but will consider any surface for Sunday's match.
"North Force are playing in probably the top club league in New Zealand and we have the worst playing surfaces in the entire bloody league," Flower said.
"All these top clubs have absolutely magnificent grounds provided by their councils but ours only does half the job."
He said in the Kamo ground's case, the council had sand-carpeted the ground but had failed to put in sub-soil drainage.
He said player safety concerns have failed to move the council.
"We've been at it for years and we keep on getting fobbed off and now it's come to crisis point and we'd like something done.
"The council needs to put more money into these paddocks, not only are North Force playing at a higher level now but the kids have been cancelled too often, what is it ... five times this year, because they can't get the job done," Flower said.