Worst Pitch you every played on

[4-p]

Played Hove wreck on a Sunday morning, someone on another pitch did a slide tackle and a bit of pipe under the turf went into his leg under the knee. No more games were played on it.

The Hollingbury hawks pitch up in hollingdean nr Hartford school, was pretty horrid in the winter. one of the highest points in Brightin, fog, wind & rain, our goalie walked off at half time cos he was too cold i stupidly volunteered, just froze to the spot, let in 3 goals, only saw one of them as the ball flew it if the mist and over my shoulder.

Saltdean fc, being at the bottom of a hill all of the rain would wash down the hill so they'd put tons of sand down, especially in the far corner near the clubhouse.I remeber Dean Cooper pulling a giant slide tackle and taking a 10cm sqr chunk of skin off.

whitehawk in the summer, the pitch was sloped over to one side, you have to wear studs on one foot & moulds on the other to straighten you up ;-) in the summer it got so dry the ball would just roll down the hill whenever you played it forward on the floor. Nice for trying to shoot from a corner tho. That was about 96, Dunno what's like now tho

 

[elbowpatches]

Sussex - Fairfield Rec in Burgess Hill was terrible in my day as a youngster. Awful changing rooms and a pitch that had more waves than Fristral beach. Still scored a hatrick on senior debut there and the flukiest ever cross/shot goal to boot.
Cambridgeshire - anywhere in Wisbech, worst one was just south of Wisbech and the field may as well have been growing potatoes like the ones either side of the actual 'pitch'. Miserable weather, racist comments from one of the opposition who we later complained about and a 6-0 thrashing. Not good times.
South Wales - some awful pitches. The home pitch for Pontypool was very uneven but not a bad surface but the strangest was on the side of a mountain (near Blaenavon I think). There was a 20 foot high net to catch the balls (or players) when they went out of play on the far side

 

[Stevie Boy]

Does anyone remember the Uckfield pitch that used to run up the other side of the high street..if you wernt 5-0 up at half time you would lose 6-5 it was that steep.

Also there was a pitch in front of east court house in East grinstead called the Cup and saucer, if you know were I mean you cant believe anyone put a pitch there. In fact we were asked to play a semi final there in the late 80s and both teams refused!!

I used to train on that pitch in Uckfield, when playing for one of the wealden youth teams, i am not too sure if it is still used these days, but was a horrid hill

 

[Drebin]

Here's an NSCer complete with Albion hat playing in goal on a pitch that was on the edge of Copenhagen docks in February or March a few years back. The sea was partly frozen and if you fell in then you'd probably last seconds.

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I've played on a few pitches like that up here in winter. I went in for a sliding tackle once and went in so quick on the ice I slid past the ball but managed to block the players out swung foot with my chest. I got severely winded, a cracked rib, and a yellow card for my troubles.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

Forde Open Prison against the prisoners. It was a friendly but...

 

[Jesus Gul]

ditchlin road the pitches just by the entrance to the golf course....on a slope and hell in teh winter

yep another vote for Holly Dolly. Slope factor. Council saw sense and decommissioned them years ago

 

[Dave the OAP]

Hove rec was our home ground. From the clubhouse looking north west was our pitch...the nor facing south was on a hell of a slope and the showers were so hot you couldn't actually stand under them.

I played for amer athletic in div 12/13 and that was good fun at times, but we were rubbish and I was a great disappointment to my dad as he played for Huddersfield town boys and hoped I had a modicum of talent......he was sadly deluded.

 

[timbha]

thankfully these are no longer pitches:

Wright's Farm - top of Wilson Avenue, like playing on the moon (I imagine), flints, exposed to the elements and ball rolling down the hill

Top of Hove Park - enormous slope

Bottom of Race Hill (Whitehawk) - usually had to play around a burnt out car and had to keep one eye on your valuables!

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

St Francis Mental Hospital - Haywards Heath - early eighties, while probably not the worst pitch was the most surreal game with all the 'inmates' walking about like a scene from the latest zombie film. I remember the changing rooms had several baths sitting in the middle of the room with the pipes coming out of the ceiling.( I am a plumber!) In no way am I making a joke about this but thats what it was like.

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

Hove rec was our home ground. From the clubhouse looking north west was our pitch...the nor facing south was on a hell of a slope and the showers were so hot you couldn't actually stand under them.

I played for amer athletic in div 12/13 and that was good fun at times, but we were rubbish and I was a great disappointment to my dad as he played for Huddersfield town boys and hoped I had a modicum of talent......he was sadly deluded.

I must have played against you loads of times - Co-oP-Station Hotel & half a dozen other pubs!--I started out in DIV 12/13----22years later I made it to DIV 3 - then my body gave up!! My Granddad & Dad played for Brighton Boys and had trials so yes I too was a bit of a dissapointment!

 

[timbha]

St Francis Mental Hospital - Haywards Heath - early eighties, while probably not the worst pitch was the most surreal game with all the 'inmates' walking about like a scene from the latest zombie film. I remember the changing rooms had several baths sitting in the middle of the room with the pipes coming out of the ceiling.( I am a plumber!) In no way am I making a joke about this but thats what it was like.

I remember playing cricket on that pitch in the 80's and the inmates used to stand at the top of the bank (was there a pool nearby?). Every now and then an inmate would charge across the pitch (blue shirt hanging out pretending to be an aeroplane, train, motor bike, cowboy on horse, you name it) to be followed by a couple of burly male nurses. Others would fire imaginary guns at us. Funny now but scary at the time.

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

I remember playing cricket on that pitch in the 80's and the inmates used to stand at the top of the bank (was there a pool nearby?). Every now and then an inmate would charge across the pitch (blue shirt hanging out pretending to be an aeroplane, train, motor bike, cowboy on horse, you name it) to be followed by a couple of burly male nurses. Others would fire imaginary guns at us. Funny now but scary at the time.

Every thing you said but I was afraid to say! Wait for

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

thankfully these are no longer pitches:

Wright's Farm - top of Wilson Avenue, like playing on the moon (I imagine), flints, exposed to the elements and ball rolling down the hill

Top of Hove Park - enormous slope

Bottom of Race Hill (Whitehawk) - usually had to play around a burnt out car and had to keep one eye on your valuables!

When they covered over the old council dump just down from Wrights Farm we played several games on the new 'pitch'.Smoke billowed out from various holes due to fires deep underground. Still we never had a game called off due to frost!

 

[Dave the OAP]

I remember playing cricket on that pitch in the 80's and the inmates used to stand at the top of the bank (was there a pool nearby?). Every now and then an inmate would charge across the pitch (blue shirt hanging out pretending to be an aeroplane, train, motor bike, cowboy on horse, you name it) to be followed by a couple of burly male nurses. Others would fire imaginary guns at us. Funny now but scary at the time.

That is exactly as I remember it...they also used to have some bloody good Indians who were doctors I think playing for them, one spinner turned it sideways.

 

[T soprano]

St Francis Mental Hospital - Haywards Heath - early eighties, while probably not the worst pitch was the most surreal game with all the 'inmates' walking about like a scene from the latest zombie film. I remember the changing rooms had several baths sitting in the middle of the room with the pipes coming out of the ceiling.( I am a plumber!) In no way am I making a joke about this but thats what it was like.

Played there for Adur Athletic as a kid we were shit scared walking through the changing rooms as you said the baths in the middle of the room the whole place was very eerie & inmates walking like zombies everywhere
Don't think they would ever let a bunch of 13 year olds anywhere near a place like that now
The funny thing was I ended up working there when they renovated it into living apartments stripping the padded cells & walking into the morgue the whole place gave me the creeps as much then as it did when I was a kid

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

Played there for Adur Athletic as a kid we were shit scared walking through the changing rooms as you said the baths in the middle of the room the whole place was very eerie & inmates walking like zombies everywhere
Don't think they would ever let a bunch of 13 year olds anywhere near a place like that now
The funny thing was I ended up working there when they renovated it into living apartments stripping the padded cells & walking into the morgue the whole place gave me the creeps as much then as it did when I was a kid

I should write a book about my 22years in the Sunday League:
Some Low Lights:
Playing at Wild Park and having all our clothes/money nicked!
Playing at Wild Park - A car drove across the pitch!
Shooing sheep off the pitch at Ansty!
Playing at Waterhall in a force ten gale with the keepers kicks disappearing back over his shoulder for a corner kick.
Having no refs and having to 'appoint' one of your own (fight)
Accidently kicking a player on his broken toe! Yes I wondered why as well. And having him throttle me - then the Ref saying play on!
Playing against Azzurie with their 'Italian Stallions' kicking us off the pitch for a ten nil win!
Giving Teddy Maybank offside several times at Corals when he was about a yard on!

Thats just a handfull of games to be going on with.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Anyone every played on these the one at Danehill in the dip or Withyham still had gas lighting !!