As many of you will have seen yesterday the pitch had a white appearance in places and John McEnroe would have been in his element when chalk dust appeared to rise up every time the ball bounced or was passed over the surface.
The chalk dust was in fact ice and very nearly caused the game to be called off. Some thing that has only ever happened once in the history of Pride Park and that was due to rain water logging the pitch.
As many of you will know, the playing surface at Pride Park has under soil heating to ensure even the lowest temperatures do not put the game in jeopardy , maintaining a temperature high enough to make the surface ice free and not a danger to the players.
In what looks an exercise in money saving the decision to lower the temperature on the under soil heating had been made. Unfortunately the outside air temperature around and inside Pride Park on Friday night plummeted to minus 6 degrees. Only on Saturday morning was the lowered temperature noticed but by this time the frost was already in the ground.
The under soil heating was then raised and luckily for the Rams the pitch was passed fit to play just hours before the game. However the site of a white ting to the pitch could be clearly seen, as well as the icy spray when the ball bounced or rolled on the surface. This is something that has never before been seen at Pride Park and for those old enough, had rarely been seen at the old Baseball Ground since the mid 1980's when under soil heating was installed at the old ground.
We wait with anticipation for the next round of money saving ideas at Pride Park but having said that the voucher for a programme costing just one pound was welcomed by Rams season ticket holders, as was the lowered price of £2.50 for a bottle of cider, although yesterday a large mug of steaming Bovril was more in order...