According to the Met Office, December was one of the 10 wettest months since records began 115 years ago. Nice weather for ducks, but not so good for groundsmen struggling to keep football pitches in a condition suitable for playing ‘the beautiful game.’

No surprise then that the last few weeks have been a particularly busy time for Truro City Head Groundsman, Arthur Parsons, and his team. Even in normal conditions, it can take the best part of three days work after each match to prepare the Treyew Road pitch for the next one. But the recent heavy rainfall means that it’s taking up to five days at the moment to roll, fork, drain and generally repair the playing surface.

Arthur says: “I’ve never seen it so bad, I’ve never seen so much standing water on the surface. In the last three months there have been lots of times when the pitch was so wet that we couldn’t even go on it to start work"

The procedure for repairing the surface involves Arthur and his team – Mark, Adam and Ray - laboriously forking and lifting the surface to let the water drain away. Then divots and even the occasional rabbit hole have to be individually repaired. Finally, the surface is rolled.

And all that rolling adds up to a lot of miles travelled. Mark reckons that rolling the pitch with the small sized roller – a larger one can’t be used when the ground is wet as it would just sink into the surface – involves walking a total of around 12 miles.

The main priority, of course, player safety. Arthur, who was a referee himself for many years, says that’s what officials look at first when a pitch inspection takes place. Could a player’s foot get caught in the mud and cause a twisting injury? What about players going in for a tackle and sliding uncontrolled into an opponent on a slippery surface?

Then the officials will look at whether the pitch will allow the ball to roll properly and bounce sufficiently. If not, then a postponement could be on the cards.

So the next time you’re at Treyew Road, spare a thought for Arthur, Mark, Adam and Ray who labour during the week to make sure that we can all enjoy the spectacle on a Tuesday night or Saturday afternoon.

Arthur sums it up very simply: “I’ve got a great little team – everybody is prepared to do their bit.“

That's non-league football in a nut-shell.