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Does anybody know what level of football the Dog & Duck is fit to host according to ground grading regulations? Is it graded for Step 3?

Am I also right in thinking a mesh fence or similar will need to be added to the barrier around the perimiter of the pitch if we are to play at Step 4?

I think for step three it will need a turnstile that will allow for segregation as well as extra toilets in the event that crowd segregation is necessary. No doubt there will ve lots of other daft regulations regarding the colour of concrete and the number of beer raps in the club house

The D&D is up to southern league standard already.
Me and some others worked our butts off to make sure that we would qualify.

BartonRaz wrote:Does anybody know what level of football the Dog & Duck is fit to host according to ground grading regulations? Is it graded for Step 3?

Am I also right in thinking a mesh fence or similar will need to be added to the barrier around the perimiter of the pitch if we are to play at Step 4?

Grounds are only graded for the specific level trying to be achieved, i.e. Step 4 in our case. The inspectors don't look at the highest grading a ground can achieve in its present state. As Bob said, we have the grading for Step 4, but it wouldn't be assessed for Step 3 until we apply for promotion to that level.

I imagine we wouldn't meet the criteria for the Step 3 grading at this moment in time, but have no doubt it could be relatively easily achieved. We looked into the potential for the D&D before agreeing to the groundshare with Wellingborough, and I believe it would be possible to get it up to Conference North/South level, although that would take a fair amount of work and considerable investment.

Given that Bedford Town were in Step 3 only 2/3 years ago and having been there a few times, as Dave said we would need to do some work to achieve Step 3 grading
The 1st one I can think of is we would need to remove the yellow barriers around the floodlight columns with the nice removable front rails for electrical inspection purposes and replace them with a Red And White Traffic Cone.

Ground grading for step 4 states:

1.13 Public Address System
A public address system must be provided which is clearly audible in all areas of the ground which can be occupied by spectators.

Does this mean that the D&D system is going to be upgraded because at the moment only about half of the spectators can hear anything

icm wrote:
Does this mean that the D&D system is going to be upgraded because at the moment only about half of the spectators can hear anything

How have you worked out 'only about half'? Just curious as I've never witnessed any surveys. ;)

icm wrote:Ground grading for step 4 states:

1.13 Public Address System
A public address system must be provided which is clearly audible in all areas of the ground which can be occupied by spectators.

Does this mean that the D&D system is going to be upgraded because at the moment only about half of the spectators can hear anything

What about if the PA system is audible from all parts of the ground when the wind's in the right direction, does that count ;)

Has the club up the road got Latimer park up to step 3 standard?

Olly wrote:Has the club up the road got Latimer park up to step 3 standard?

No, it's not even Step 4 standard. But don't forget that the rules are applied differently to different clubs on different days of the week, so I doubt it will prevent the Ploppies from being promoted.

As Dave has pointed out the grading system can be a bit of a minefield and open to interpretation.
With any promotion there is a twelve month period of grace to get work do if necessary.

As it stands the D&D will meet step 4 standards, but who knows what changes the FA may make in the meantime.