Mention QPR and Luton in the same sentence to football fans of a certain age and they will almost immediately think about artificial pitches and the complaints from other teams about the allegedly unfair advantage that these two teams (among others) gained from having Astroturf or something similar. In 1981 QPR were the first professional team in England (and possibly Europe) to use an artificial pitch for League football and their first opponents, Luton, followed suit with their own ‘plastic pitch’ in 1985. The teams meet again (on grass I believe) this weekend.
Interestingly, the term ‘plastic pitch’ was originally used to refer to a waterlogged cricket or football pitch. So it appears that teams like QPR and Luton, fed up with boggy and soggy playing surfaces, installed their ‘plastic pitches’ to overcome the problem of, er… ‘plastic pitches’.
Up until then top-level professionals had had to endure the same types of conditions as their pub league counterparts. Your average (and we were very average) Sunday League player was unable to emulate their Saturday heroes’ skill levels, but, given a squelchy surface just like those of the Kenilworth or Loftus Road, they could certainly copy the 20-yard sliding tackles that proliferated throughout the Football League at the time. Perhaps this is why the sliding or 50-50 tackle is still regarded fondly by a lot of British football supporters: on the old pitches, even the best player might need an extra touch to control a pass that had lurched off of a divot, thus inviting a crunching tackle. It was the one thing fans saw professionals do that they could almost realistically expect to be able to do themselves. Now that playing on mudheaps or sandpits has been consigned to history (in the professional game anyway), passes are more accurate so the opportunities to put in a ‘reducer’ are, well, reduced.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised at QPR being among the artificial pitch pioneers. After all, their manager, Terry Venables, had co-authored a 1973 novel called They Used to Play on Grass, which describes a game at Hampden Park on an artificial surface. Two years later and Derby County were reportedly considering adopting the American style artificial turf. “Something must be done about our pitch,” said chairman Sam Longson as he sent club officials down to the Crystal Palace Sports Stadium to have a look at what they had there.
Nothing came of that, but another straw was put on the camel’s back in February, 1977 when QPR had had to postpone a match due to a water-logged pitch at Loftus Road. Their efforts to protect the pitch had included pumping hot air under a huge pitch cover; unfortunately the noise made by the pump motors had upset local residents, so they had had to switch them off.
Almost four years later, and with the FA still highly sceptical, the first league match on an artificial surface took place on Tuesday 1st Sept 1981. QPR lost at home to Luton – so much for the home advantage. Luton fans spent some of the time chanting “We want grass”, even though Luton were themselves considering going Astro. Manager David Pleat had been at an Exeter match during pre-season and when asked if he was scouting any players replied that he’d give them 200K for their pitch. Andy King of QPR got himself in the record books as first player to score on the surface, but Luton hit back with Ricky Hill getting the winner to claim a 2-1 victory. Luton would go on to promotion, with Rangers finishing 5th – but reaching the Cup Final where they lost (on grass) at Wembley to Spurs.
SteveTLooksBack 