Redgra

Redgra, sometimes styled as RedGra, Red-Gra, or generically as redgra, is the brand name of an all-weather surfacing material primarily composed of red clay and fine limestone gravel. It is used on baseball diamonds,[1] running tracks[2] and long jump run-ups, and hard-surface association football, netball, cricket, and field hockey pitches in the United Kingdom.

History

Outdoor field hockey in the United Kingdom during the 1910s and 1920s often relied on heavy clay surfaces that were unplayable after heavy rain or under frost. Teams would fall back to more durable, but harsher, tarmac surfaces.[3]

To address this, tennis court contractors Grimshaw Sports developed Redgra in 1959 by adapting the company's existing mix used for tennis courts. The limestone and clay were sourced from the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. The material was designed for the United Kingdom's first all-weather outdoor field hockey pitches.[4] One of the first academic applications was opened on 4 March 1961 at Dean Close School under the recommendation of Olympic field hockey bronze medalist Denys Carnill for the school's field hockey team.[5] A Redgra area was opened in October 1961 at the site of Harlow Sportcentre, which was completed in 1964.[6] In 1964, the Crystal Palace National Recreation Centre included a Redgra training area and separate football practice pitch.[7]

Redgra also saw use in other pavement applications, such as garden paths[8] and car parks.[9]

Properties

Redgra can be applied similarly to sand, binds itself when wet and compacted, and solidifies after 24 hours.[8] As a sports surface, Redgra allowed for year-round use with minimal maintenance in academic and practice settings, and allowed for multi-sport use as tennis courts. Its natural components were inexpensive and simple to install. A Redgra field hockey pitch installed at Cranleigh School and opened on 1 February 1968 cost £4,500 for materials and lasted until 2005. The resulting surface was porous, allowing for easy drainage, and frost-resistant.[3][10] Pat Ward-Thomas, a writer for The Guardian, noted that contemporary surfaces often failed to provide smooth, precise, and predictable ball movement but praised the Redgra pitch's performance.[10]

While competitive teams still often favored playing on well-maintained grass surfaces, Redgra surfaces sometimes substituted when rain or poor maintenance made grass unsuitable.[11][12][13]

Redgra also saw use in playground football, youth clubs, and some women's[14] and lower-tier men's[15] football clubs into the 1990s. The first training pitch for Chelsea Ladies F.C. in 1992, then comprised mostly of under-18 players, was a Redgra surface at a community college near Feltham.[16]

Drawbacks

Even upon its unveiling, Redgra was considered adequate for training surfaces but questionable as a full-time competitive surface.[17] Redgra has a reputation for causing abrasions and splinters when sliding on it compared to grass,[3][18] and its hardness contributed to injuries when falling on it. When dry, the surface generated considerable amounts of red dust.[19] The surface could become alternately sticky and slippery in frosty conditions,[20] and if improperly drained could become muddy.[8]

Replacement

Since the 1990s, many Redgra installations for field hockey and association football have been supplanted by newer all-weather surfaces, such as artificial turf, that are more similar to natural grass or have impact-cushioning layers.[21][22][23][24][25] However, it remains in use for public recreation tracks.[2]

While an artificial surface, Redgra's natural components don't present the same concerns to landfills upon disposal as rubber or other synthetic surfaces.[26]

References
  1. Carroll, Patrick (23 September 2011). "A Diamond on a Hilltop". Notes of a Footnote. Retrieved 28 April 2023. The areas denuded of grass were then covered with several inches of RedGra. This material, for those unacquainted with it, is a mixture of sand and fine gravel. The nearest thing I could locate to proper clay was pulverized brick dust, which was quoted to me at over £1,000 per tonne. RedGra was good enough, although one needed to be pretty Pete Rose-style gung-ho to slide on it.
  2. "Improved facilities on track at Birchall". Leek Morelands Echo. 10 November 2022. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  3. "HALF A CENTURY OF ALL-WEATHER HOCKEY". Old Cranleighan Hockey Club. 31 January 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  4. "Celebrating Decades of Construction" (Press release). Grimshaw Construction. 1 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  5. "Denys Carnill". The Flecker. No. 2. Dean Close School (published 17 August 2016). Summer 2016. p. 44. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  6. Carver, Gerry; Fisher, David. "Chapter 2: The first wave of centres". The Sports Leisure Legacy Project. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  7. Jones, Emlyn (May 1964). "Crystal Palace Almost Ready" (PDF). A.A.A. Club Newsletter. No. 13. p. 15. The Redgra warm-up area for athletics and a practise pitch (100 yds. x 50 yds.) in the same material add yet another vivid splash of colour to the scheme.
  8. Don, Monty (8 October 2000). "Up the garden path". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2023. Our final paths, in the Jewel garden, are topped with a material called Redgra. This is a kind of pink sand with an element of clay that binds it solid when laid. You prepare the path with hardcore and a layer of scalpings, then spread a thin layer of this binding surface which you bang in with a whacker plate. It goes on almost as sand, but after 24 hours it is pretty solid. It is much cheaper and easier to lay than paving or brick, but if it doesn't have really sharp drainage it can get almost muddy in very wet weather and has less integral character.
  9. Hardy, Simon (20 June 2011). "Row over Wellington New College car park plans". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  10. Ward-Thomas, Pat (2 February 1968). "New pitch should produce fine players". The Guardian. p. 20. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  11. "Surrey take the lead". The Guardian. 29 December 1979. p. 20. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  12. "Shorn pitch angers West Indies". The Guardian. 19 December 1978. p. 17.
  13. "125+ YEARS OF HISTORY". PHC Chiswick. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  14. "Vital Victory for Crawley". Crawley News. 20 November 1991. p. 76. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  15. "Telford 4th XI vs. Litchfield 4th XI". Lichfield Mercury. 21 January 1993. p. 72. Retrieved 28 April 2023. LICHFIELD 4th XI travelled to Telford and despite a difficult game on a redgra pitch managed to find the winning way again.
  16. Twomey, Liam (10 May 2020). "Making Chelsea Women: spotting superstars, stellar signings and ruthless Hayes". The Athletic. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  17. McFarland, Peter (24 January 1959). "Give me turf any time!". Sports Argus. p. 5. Retrieved 28 April 2023. People are now suggesting that League clubs should play on Red-gra all-weather pitches, such as the one we have been using at Lilleshall. But I don't relish the thought. Make no mistake, these pitches in fact are ideal for training, but not, I fancy, for League warfare.
  18. Moorhouse, Ben (7 April 2014). "Hockey club focus: Berkhamsted parents catch playing bug as Olympics sees girls' numbers increase". The Daily Telegraph. I started on grass pitches and then played the old shale/Redgra pitches until I was 18. I've still got all the scars on my fingers and knees which I carry with pride.
  19. "LADIES ON TOP FORM". Coleshill Chronicle. 4 July 1975. p. 13. Retrieved 28 April 2023. Two of the Temworth players had falls on the extremely dry and dusty Woodhouse redgra pitch. Sue Chappell, who scored a brilliant goal in an earlier game, fell heavily in her last match and was taken off.
  20. "Bretforton best to beat Dursley". Stratford-upon-Avon Herald. 28 November 1996. p. 30. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  21. "AN INVITATIONAL XI TAKE ON CRANLEIGH SCORPIANS IN THE OPENING MATCH ON FEBRUARY 1, 1968". Old Cranleighan Hockey Club. 31 January 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  22. "A momentous year for Eastcote hockey". Harefield Gazette. 18 June 1997. p. 66. Retrieved 28 April 2023. The Redgra pitch was laid some 25 years ago and at the time was the very latest, state-of-the-art, playing surface. Now it has been replaced by the Astro, which is expected to last ten years.
  23. Nash, Tim (4 April 2011). "Leisure trust wins new local authority contract". Health Club Management. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  24. Corrigan, Phil (23 September 2022). "This Stoke-on-Trent school wants six floodlights for new pitch". Stoke-on-Trent Live. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  25. "Project pitches for Millennium". The Westmoreland Gazette. 5 December 1998. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  26. 3.2.2 Dealing with the Existing Surface (PDF). The SAPCA Code of Practice for the Construction and Maintenance of Synthetic Turf Sports Pitches (Report). Sports and Play Construction Association. January 2009. p. 49. ISBN 9781907391019.
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