Day 24 Thursday 31 May - Laying the mat

View from the main grandstand.

38 2m wide rolls of mat, approximately 100m long, have been stored in the corner of the main carpark. The view shows some of the rolls covered in protective plastic.

Boards are used to protect the surface of the sand whilst the mat is laid and sewn.

Laying out the mat upside down on the previous layer.

Careful driving is required to align the edge of the new layer with the previous layer.

The sewing machine on a mobile jig which sews the two layers together.

A closeup showing the two layers being sewn together.

Sewing the two layers continues along the whole length of the mat.

Whilst sewing continues the boards are moved approximately 2m to the side ready for when the new layer of mat is turned the right way up.

A closeup showing the stitching joining the two layers of mat together.

A closeup of the edge of the mat.

Meanwhile a light raking of the surface takes place.

A closeup of one of the housings for the valve feeding a sprinkler. The circle to the right of the housing is where the sprinkler head will emerge.

Looking towards the Western terrace showing the raked surface still to be filled with matting.

Approaching one third of the way across viewed from a hospitality box.

We re-join the action following the Bank Holiday weekend.    To achieve the required levels more sand had to be delivered.   This meant that smoothing out the surface continued through parts of Tuesday and Wednesday.
Early on the morning of Wednesday 30 May a container full of rolls of matting was delivered to site.   The container was unloaded by hand and work began on laying the mat on the Shed side of the pitch.   Rolls are laid lengthways along the pitch.   By Thursday afternoon about a third of the pitch had been covered in matting.