YORK City have turned to the kind of technology which is more at home on a golf course in a bid to solve their worrying KitKat Crescent pitch problems.

The Minstermen have borrowed a machine from York Golf Club, in Strensall, in a bid to improve the drainage on the pitch ahead of thoday's Conference game against Grays.

City hope it will provide a temporary solution to their ground woes. While the top six inches of City's playing surface drains very well, the same cannot be said for the soil below. With York battered by rain in recent weeks, the soil has become compacted - with the water unable to drain away - and has led to the corners, in particular, becoming clogged-up.

The machine punches holes in the turf, 12 to 18 inches into the pitch, and then blows air into the holes and breaks up the compacted soil. The club will then use kiln-dried sand, which allows the water to drain through, to fill the holes.

Secretary Nick Bassett said the club was indebted to its golfing contemporaries. "We are extremely grateful to the golf club and they have been very helpful and supportive," he said.

"They have not charged us and we hope this technology will make a big difference. Really, what we are doing at the moment is remedial work to get us to the end of the season. There will be more work in the summer which will hopefully result in a long term solution to the problem."

Turf troubles are nothing new at the Crescent and on Monday there will be a three-page feature in our new Yesterday York supplement on the trials and tribulations the club has faced in preparing and protecting their sacred surface.

The supplement is one of a new series of Monday supplements which will see Sports Press revert back to the main body of the Press.

However, the sports pages will still be packed with nine pages of your top local sporting action, including a report, pictures and statistics from today's vital City game.

  • City's North Riding Senior Cup first round clash with Scarborough, postponed earlier this week because of a waterlogged pitch at the McCain Stadium, will now be staged at KitKat Crescent on Monday, February 19 (kick-off 7pm).