The Anti-Eddie Rabbitt

So the recent record month of rain in Brisbane has put a few Ultimate players out. We guess its worth revisiting how we manage field closures on League nights - to reprint a post from back in March:

For those pondering a year of rain, generally what happens with regards League
night cancellations is:
- Annerley and Oakman let us know as early as they can, but by 4pm at the latest.
- Griffith generally have a groundskeeper inspect the fields by 2pm, and then let us know.
- Generally, Ulti admin people will wait until they get info from the field owners, and then email closer info out to everyone (at the latest, soon after 4pm). Hassling field owners early generally just encourages them to default towards closing the fields, rather than waiting to see if they will dry out through a day.
- The fields may well get closed after 4pm, or when we arrive at the fields, we might
cancel the night ourselves (rule of thumb is if it is currently pouring, or there is surface water visible on the field, then we don't play).

Rain is an inexact science, remember kids.

Use your common sense - if its been raining a lot, anticipate that the fields may be
closed or open. Then keep your eyes out for an email after 4pm.

People might moan about missing a night of Ultimate, but its better to have
good fields all-year around.

For those who want a bit more detail on these things, read on!

Few things frustrate Ultimate players more than being told they can’t play Ultimate tonight. It’s a little bit like a junkie not being able to get their fix, except maybe without the hallucinations (except in Tomsteve’s case, I guess).

But for Brisbane-ites its likely to be a fact of life this Summer, with weather forecasters tipping the wettest in many many years, particularly after the wettest September on record. BUML had three disruptions over the last five weeks, which was probably getting close to as many we’ve had per year over the last decade.

So its worth sharing a bit more knowledge and going through the processes for field closures.

In particular, there’s plenty of angst about “what’s the cutoff point for closing a field, and when is the decision made?” The key thing to remember when answering this is that the weather is a law unto itself, and no matter what processes you’ve got in place, it may make the decision for you (or make it very hard to make a decision!)

The fields used for BUML on Mondays and BPL on Thursdays are managed by a group of volunteers who make up the Annerley Recreation Club. The agreement Ultimate has with them is that if they want to close the fields, they will let us know by 4pm at the latest on the day. They may let us know earlier. They don’t let us know if the fields are open – no news is good news for Ultimate players. Emailing a League Director and asking if the fields are open will get you an answer of "well, they aren't closed".

If its not very obvious based on the general weather, then a volunteer from the ARC will go and look at the fields in the afternoon and make a decision – generally this is someone who lives nearby who will go for a look, maybe after picking their kids up from school. Remember, this is a volunteer group after all.

Like Ultimate, the ARC wants the fields to be open – any time we are there, there is usually also some of their soccer teams wanting to train, and of course if we don’t play then they lose out on income.

But that said, they are slightly more willing to miss out on training to keep their fields in good condition for weekend matches and as ‘owners’ they think more long term and about the cost of rehabilitation than the average sportsperson.

ARC have been flexible in the past when its been a bit 50/50 about closing the fields and we’ve had Finals on and they’ve agreed that its important that play goes ahead. They’re also nowadays more aware that we play fixtures and competitions on weeknights, which are more important to go ahead than training sessions.

If there is rain after 4pm then the responsibility shifts to League Directors. Generally, before putting the lights on, the League Directors will examine the fields. If there is surface water visible (ie puddles), then they’ll cancel play.

So this week, there was a fair bit of rain over the weekend, but Monday was sunny and would’ve dried the surface of the fields out a bit and Annerley were ok with us to play (there’s a bit less sensitivity with soccer fixtures being done and maintenance coming up). But the big dump of rain after 6pm on the already damp fields meant the water stayed on the surface and Chris and Adilia realised play couldn’t go ahead.

The Griffith fields are managed professionally by Griffith University. The University has a group of grounds staff who manage the campus, and they generally examine the fields during the morning rounds, and make the decision about closure on return to their office. This is passed on to office staff who then contact us (meaning there’s no chance to argue).

This usually happens by lunchtime. Generally for BUML, Ultimate admin types will hold back on passing that info on until we’ve got an idea about what’s happening at Annerley, as multiple emails or changes through the day would lead to confusing.

Yesterday I think people thought they were being a bit rough in closing the fields – we had a beautiful sunny day ahead to dry them out. We had a similar situation in early September where the fields would’ve been lovely. But then last night’s the late storm made the difference.

In comparison to volunteer-based field providers, Griffith do give certainty and early information. But there’s no room to negotiate with them, and as more purer ‘groundskeepers’ rather than ‘players’, they’re more inclined to close fields than keep them open. There's a stereotype that groundskeepers would like nothing more than pesky sportpeople to stay off their fields altogether! ;)

Much like Annerley, the operators of Oakman Park are volunteers, although being an AFL club they’re a bit more tolerant of a rough surface than folks whose balls roll on the ground. They also have a smaller venue and there’s less people put out by changes. As a result, their volunteers are more willing to make a call based on general weather conditions and forecast rather than waiting until someone can inspect the field itself, so we generally get an email from them at some point during a day. Equally, League Directors will made a decision on arrival at the field, if its apparent that there's plenty of surface water on the pitch.

Rain disruptions are also a reason why League Directors sometimes seek to keep the draw somewhat to themselves. If the draw hasn't been published, then they have a bit of room to move in rejigging the competition. But as the Leagues in Brisbane become bigger and better organised, the benefit of retaining such flexibility shrinks against the need to give more people clarity about what's happening when.