Drainage and irrigation

Just when the local authority needs to maximise income from matches, the pitches are under water. Just when the course manager hopes to increase pay-and-play rounds, there is a lake on a fairway and the greens are waterlogged. Just when gardens open to show off daffodils and early-spring flowers, the paths are muddy and the tractor has to pull visitors' cars out of the swamp that used to be the car park - if they turn up in the first place.

It does not stop there. If play does take place, there are the muddy changing rooms and clubhouses with which to contend. After touring the gardens, visitors may proceed to trample dirt into the old, expensive carpets of the historic house.

What happens when the rains eventually stop? What if this spring and summer are dry and sogginess turns into drought? How will players respond to brown, baked-hard ground and visitors to wilting shrubs and poor flower displays? Should that drought then end in sudden downpours, will it mean flooding all over again? As we continue to experience more intense and extreme weather, the role of drainage and irrigation in keeping facilities functional and able to generate income has never been so important.

Since the words "drought" and "hosepipe ban" were mentioned - and in some places enforced - in late spring last year, the UK has seen phenomenal rainfall. More recently, the situation has been compounded by thawing snow. It is not surprising then, despite the economic climate, that contractors are reporting increases in enquiries for sports turf and golf drainage.

Shelton Sportsturf Drainage Solutions designs and builds specialist machinery that can be bought or hired and offers a contracting service. General manager Mick Claxton describes last year as "busy". He adds: "The heavy rain after a drought has highlighted drainage problems and machinery sales and hire have been on the up."

Enquiries are one thing, but drainage work has to cope with the weather and contractors found the wet autumn and winter challenging. "It's certainly a question of dealing with jobs according to the weather," Speedcut Contractors contracts manager Kevin Smith confirms. "The wet weather has played havoc with our work patterns, but we have been meeting the demands of clients by switching between jobs according to the ground conditions."

Speedcut has installed drainage at Chislehurst, Royal Mid Surrey, Old Fold Manor, Barnet and Highgate Golf Clubs. At Hadley Wood in Barnet, north London, Speedcut re-levelled a football pitch and installed drainage for Old Stationers' FC. The appalling weather also led to more requests for treatments using the Gwazae deep-probe aerator to decompact root zones and inject materials to help grass survive.

Drainage does not always have to be done in one go. Waterlooville Golf Club in Hampshire is benefiting from an upgrade of drainage carried out over the past five years by sports turf drainage specialist MJ Abbott. Completed in stages to suit budgetary requirements, the scheme has improved drainage across all parts of the 18-hole parkland course and, importantly, enables to winter play to continue uninterrupted.

Inspection of the existing system showed soil contamination of the gravel above the primary drainage pipes was seriously restricting water flow. Over two years, supplementary piped drainage was installed between the existing laterals, along with an additional main drain on part of the course. Further upgrades were carried out in 2012 accompanied by upgrades to outfalls.

"It's taken time to achieve, but the end result is a golf course that can remain open in virtually all weathers, despite sitting on very clay soil," according to MJ Abbott contracts director Steve Biggs.

Managing director Duncan Ross says: "The answer lay in constructing additional lateral drains at 0.55m deep with 80mm pipes allowing the water to be redirected to the main drainage system. Soil was excavated and removed straight away to avoid any contamination, then we backfilled the 820m of trenches with 6mm stone at 150mm depth from the surface. Then we topped with a sand and soil mix before seeding."

Gravel or sand banding can be a quick and cost-effective way of installing a secondary drainage system - especially for sports fields. It is installed perpendicular to the primary system to help the removal of surface water and allow water to move more speedily to the primary drainage system. Trenches are cut into the turf and simultaneously backfilled with gravel, Lytag or sand before being rolled flat.

AFT Trenchers' Sandbander proved to be the solution at Aspley Guise & Woburn Sands Golf Club, where shared "in" and "out" routes accommodate 600 pairs of feet a day. Incessant rainfall caused problems but the one-man-operated AFT Sandbander coped with the most challenging part of the course, successfully dispersing water on the greens and redirecting it to drains.

Cheaper than installing a new system, mole draining could provide the answer to poorly draining pitches and other waterlogged sites. The technique involves pulling a bullet-shaped steel foot through the soil to create a drainage channel and it has been studied by Cranfield University. It was found to provide similar drainage performance to sand slit but at a much reduced cost.

Mole draining, however, is not a panacea for all sports-surface drainage problems. It is limited to heavy clay soils of a particular type, but it is that very type of soil that has the biggest drainage problems. Technically, there are also important aspects of machinery design and operation that are critical to the success of the mole drainage scheme.