Red lines in Middelburg
The psalmist sang: The boundary lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. In Middelburg for the Craven Week, those lines are red.
On the first day at HTS Middelburg they were white – visible but not obvious on the frost-brunt field. The lines have been red ever since – more obvious on the frost-brunt field.
Do the laws allow this?
Yes.
Law 1 lays down what lines there should be, solid and dash, but not how they should be marked – not the dimensions, not the material to be used and certainly not the colour.
Mostly they are white, but I have also seen a ground where the lines were cut into the turf. and there was a field in Gharies up in the dry West Coast where there were rocks on the field. One massive rock obtruded into the field and the touchline there was chipped into the rock.
The custom is that lines are white, which would not work at all on a snow-covered field. There is no reason why various colours can not be used and there has even been a suggestion that lines of varying colours should be used for television watchers so that they know where on the field the play is taking place.
The red lines in cold Middelburg are working.
