Marple RUFC, near Stockport, is a successful and expanding rugby club with three pitches and a modern clubhouse. Unfortunately, with increasing use, particularly from an expanding junior section, the pitches were becoming increasingly prone to waterlogging.

Following fund-raising efforts at the club and some local council support, the RFU and Rugby Football Foundation stepped in with a major grant funding to enable the club to get new drainage systems in two of their pitches in the summer of 2010.

The club considered proposals from contractors offering conventional plastic pipe drainage systems but the club’s preferred solution was the Turfdry Drainage System with Hydraway Sportsdrain at 3 metre centres. This choice was based on excellent testimonials from other Turfdry clients, and the prospect of minimal disturbance to the existing pitches as a result of much narrower drainage trenches than associated with conventional drainage systems.

Though the Turfdry Drainage System had been approved for many years for Football Foundation funded projects, this was the first Turfdry Drainage System to receive RFU / Rugby Football Foundation funding. Considerable interest was shown in the project by Ted Mitchell, the RFU’s Funding & Facilities Manager (North) who visited the site when the works were undertaken in May 2010 (see gallery photos below), and has monitored the success of the scheme since.

The Turfdry Drainage Systems at Marple RUFC have performed extremely well over the 2010/11 season with no matches lost to waterlogged ground.

The comparative photographs below highlight the difference that the Turfdry Drainage System has made.