By Duncan Wood
July 30 2002

The sand has gone! After the delay caused by the audacity of the Bristol Shoguns to qualify for the playoff semis, the newly relaid was ready to use for the first time yesterday evening when Rovers took on West Brom.

Rovers took on newly promoted West Brom in a preseason friendly last night at the Memorial Stadium and achieved an unlikely 3-2 win.

Rovers were actually pleasantly surprised to be able to play the game at the Memorial Stadium and had Clevedon's Hand Stadium as a back up. Rovers had played all their preseason friendlies at Clevedon before last night.

The issue, as ever, was the state of the pitch. Remedial work this summer was delayed by Bristol Shoguns reaching the semi finals of the Zurich Premiership Playoff and securing a home time against Northampton.

The Memorial Stadium Company had clearly not expected Bristol to beat Leicester and had already started work on the pitch judging by the state of it by the time the semi final was played.

The delay caused by the semi final has disrupted their attempts to get the pitch ready for the new season and they weren't expecting to be able to play against West Brom last night but were pleasantly surprised by the state of the pitch when they removed the covers.

I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised because when I was at the ground a few weeks ago, it looked a distinctly patchwork affair! It's obviously come on a long way since then.

The problem is the sheer number of games played on the surface. As well as Bristol Rovers and Bristol Shoguns first team games, Rovers reserves and Ladies matches are also played there. It's simply too much sport.

The football fans will point their fingers at the rugby club but we don't play anything like the number of games that they do. 11 league games, 3 European matches, a Tetleys Bitter cup tie and the Playoff semi. That's the lot. How many football games I wonder?

They don't seem to have the same issues at the other rugby/ soccer groundshare stadiums like Vicarage Road and the Madejski. Why is the Mem so different?

Time will tell as to how the pitch will last this season. Let's hope that we're not playing on a beach again like we were a couple of months ago!