Over 100 Years of Twickenham‘s Hallowed Turf
Twickenham’s pitch has seen over a century of history, with a lot of action and some unlikely interest from Fantastic Mr Fox.
1908
Pitch laid and waiting
Billy Williams having bought up ten Twickenham acres for £5,572.12s.6d in 1907, the area for the pitch was raised above flood levels of the nearby Duke of Northumberland’s River. In October 1908, a reporter from Athletic News visited and described how the local council were holding up the stadium build. Foundations for stands in the east and west were already in place and he described the pitch, which was already laid, as having turf of the best quality, able to withstand any amount of wear and tear.
1909
Pitch debut
The first ever match was played on the hallowed turf when, that October, Harlequins beat Richmond 14-10. Adrian Stoop the eponymous legend of their ground and England war hero Ronnie Poulton showed the lasting effect they would have on dynamic back play.
1910
The Twickenham pitch was in pristine condition for the first international, when England ended a 12-year losing streak to Wales by securing an 11-6 victory.
War Horses Grazing
While World War 1 raged, rugby was suspended, and Twickenham Stadium was used as part of the war effort, horses grazing on the pitch in readiness for battle, and the ground used as a store.
1920s –2003
On your marks, get set, go!
Local schools competed on the pitch in an annual borough sports day, the event eventually moving to St Mary’s University when work had to be done to the pitch. One of the last surviving London borough sports, it is still sponsored by the RFU each year.
1939 – 45
The Twickenham pitch lay idle, as the stadium became a Civil Service depot for the duration of World War 2 and sustained minor bomb damage.
1959
The Twickenham Jubilee celebration match saw combined national teams treat the crowd to a spectacle on the pitch, as England & Wales beat Ireland & Scotland 26-17.
1950s to 2014
Mass baptisms in huge pool
For more than 60 years, an annual three-day Jehovah’s Witness Convention took over the stadium each summer. Among the thousands attending from across the globe were many from Trinidad & Tobago, Australia, Japan and even Russia. Many came in traditional dress and each year saw hundreds baptised in a huge pool on the pitch. The convention eventually moved to London’s ExCel.
1990
No standing
The Hillsborough disaster prompted the RFU to unilaterally decide that there would be no more standing beside the Twickenham pitch, as the stadium went seated in its entirety.
2003
You can’t always get what you want
The Twickenham pitch was covered for the stadium’s first ever concert when, as part of their worldwide Licks tour, the Rolling Stones returned to where it all began. The August concert was a 50,000 sell-out within two hours. A second concert was then set up for September, the RFU having permission for three concerts a year.
2005
Let there be light
The first two lighting rigs arrived to help grow grass in the north-west corner where there was little sunlight. With the wraparound total enclosure and the new South Stand the rigs were gradually increased to 10.
2008
Helping Heroes
More than £1million was raised for the charity Help for Heroes when World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio came out of retirement to lead the Help for Heroes team to a 29-10 victory over an International XV led by former Wales star Scott Gibbs. There were 52,254 in the stands to watch the action on the pitch.
2012
Tearing up the turf
The Top Gear programme featured car rugby on the Twickenham pitch before it was taken up to be replaced with a state-of-the art version
All sewn up
The RFU invested around £1.2m in a new Desso Grassmaster pitch. This saw strands of artificial grass sewn 20cm deep into the pitch at 20mm intervals, making up some 3% of the pitch. This works by giving the real grass roots something to wrap around, much like placing iron rods in concrete. The pitch also drains at 5 – 6 inches, or 127 – 152mm of rain in an hour.
2018
Carry Him Home
On the Armistice centenary anniversary, a group travelled from Twickenham to the World War 1 Belgian battlefields. Among them were two former England captains, John Spencer and Lewis Moody, who placed soil removed from the Twickenham pitch into the grave of England captain and legend Ronnie Poulton, whose reputed last words, when hit by sniper fire, were “I shall never see Twickenham again.” A box of soil from his grave was then buried beside the pitch on Army v Navy day, the anniversary of Ronnie’s death, and marked for all to see. Players continue to run out over it at every match.
Twickenham Wildlife
Before the Desso pitch was installed, ground staff would find foxes had buried whole sausages and burgers in the pitch and once an entire pigeon with its tail feathers sticking out. The strangest burial, under the centre spot, was a pound of butter.
In 2000 at New Year they found a fox had attempted to bury a partly chewed leather wallet. It was returned to the owner, who had lost it in the toilets at the Varsity Match, and it contained the cash for his party’s minibus home.
The Twickenham foxes often lie warming themselves at night under the lighting rigs but the Harris hawk, formerly employed to scare off pigeons, has become a thing of the past. Two wild Peregrine falcons have, for the past two years, called in for a supper of pigeon pie, tossing their leftovers onto the turf.
During the anthems at England v Scotland in 2013, groundsman, Ian Ayling, tried to subtly usher a fox off the pitch, the startled vixen having leapt from the middle to the lower tier and trotted out in front of the 82,000 crowd. Ian and security staff eventually persuaded her out of the north-east corner gates.
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