If, like me, you grew up watching football on the television during the sixties, seventies and eighties you'll do doubt remember - perhaps fondly? - football league and FA Cup matches being slugged out on football pitches that were more bare soil and mud patches, than grass?
I've embedded a YouTube clip of Ronnie Radford scoring the equaliser for Hereford with an amazing 30 yard strike against Newcastle in the FA Cup.
There are two things that have always stood out for me in the clip. One, it's an amazing goal and one any player would be proud of if scored on a perfect pitch and the other is the muddy surface.
I really did get it when it was decided by the football league (pre-premier league) to allow clubs to install artificial pitches. Pitches became unplayable and games were postponed after poor weather. Something had to give because revenues were being lost, so artificial surfaces did appear to be a solution.
What I didn't get was how inconsistent the process became.
Two pioneering clubs who experimented with synthetic surfaces were Queens Park Rangers and Luton Town. I remember how high the ball bounced on their nylon pitches; it was nothing at all like grass.
I was invited to Queens Park Rangers versus Norwich in 1981 by a friend of one of QPR's directors, when Terry Venebles was their manager.
It was a fast an furious match; more like a five-a-side indoor game than the one I was used to playing and watching on grass.
Why now?
The experiment with fake grass lasted a decade but all clubs eventually reverted back to real grass.
Since then sports turf science and technology has come on leaps and bounds and it's not often one sees a poor premiership or championship football pitch now.
That's why I'm rather surprised to hear that artificial pitches may make a comeback.
I'm a bit of an old romantic when it comes to grass and personally I'd like to see it remain as the preferred playing surface for all outdoor sports that currently use it.
Domestic gardens
However, synthetic turf technology is nothing like it was back in the eighties and now with development of longer fibres and sand-filled surfaces a ball bounces and spins in a similar way to a real grass experience .
I guess time will tell whether we'll see artificial grass in British football grounds again but what I do know is that artificial domestic lawns are now becoming very popular.
Whilst I'm a traditionalist when it comes to a traditional grass lawn and I'd opt for it 99% of the time in my own garden, I can think of many gardens where I'd worked over the years where synthetic grass would work well.
Synthetic lawns will allow children to play all year round and are a low maintenance solution. Whilst it costs a lot more per metre to install, an artificial surface will pay dividends after a couple of years: there's no need to feed, kill weeds, aerate or mow.
At the moment most synthetic lawn suppliers rely on the internet and magazine advertising to sell their products but I can really see synthetic products booming if artificial football pitches do return to our football grounds.
Would you rip out your grass and install and artificial lawn?
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