Book a grass sports pitch
To book your preferred pitch, email sports@ansa.co.uk with the day of the week your league plays and the time (morning or afternoon).
We allocate pitches for the new season after the end of the old season. All teams get informed of their allocation at the same time.
Receiving a pitch allocation
We will email all current contacts and give a deadline to respond.
The email will have details about pitch allocation, terms of use, pitch sharing information and prices. You must respond accepting the terms of use by the deadline to secure your allocation.
How pitches are allocated
There is high demand for pitches across Cheshire East. Priority is given in the following order:
- Teams who renew their allocation from the previous season
- Existing clubs who are expanding
- Finally new clubs will be allocated any available slots
If we are not able to allocate your first choice we keep a note of your preference and if this becomes available throughout the season we will contact you. If you do not respond within the deadline of allocations you may lose your allocation whether you are an existing team or not.
Changing a pitch size or allocation
Let us know after the current season has finished if you need a new pitch size for new teams next season.
Season dates
We try to make the pitches available for the end of August but there are occasions when we will not be able to open the pitches before the first weekend in September. This can be due to time restrictions and weather, but we will confirm details as soon as possible to all contacts so they can inform their league.
The season ends mid-May but all teams will be informed of this date during the second half of the season.
Mid-week fixtures are permitted during September and from April through to the end of the season
Fixture clashes
The majority of pitches are shared and teams are informed of this during the allocation process, it’s important to send your fixtures through as often as you receive them to ensure they are added to the weekly schedules, if there is a clash this will show up on the schedule and both teams will be contacted with an available pitch to use as an alternative, whichever team moves on this occasion the other team will be asked to move should a further clash appear. Cup games do take priority in clash occasions.
Fees and payment for pitches
Invoices are sent out once the season has started with terms of payment within 28 days, your team is informed of the cost of hire before the season begins to help raise the fee’s required.
If a site has changing facilities there is a cost to us regardless of whether these are used or not and therefore we must charge additional fees for having facilities available to you. Other sites without changing facilities are available at a lower cost.
Non payment of invoices
If teams do not pay their invoice the league will be informed that their allocation has been removed and we will also request that the team do not play on our facilities as a visiting team until payment has been made. Your debt will also be passed to the debt recovery team.
Training on pitches
We don’t permit organised training sessions on the pitches over summer or during the season. This is because we need to give the pitches time to recover and to allow for any remedial work to take place. The number of training sessions we would need to make available would cause overplay on the pitches and risk damaging them.
The pitches and surrounding green space areas are public open space and can be used for an informal kick around. But anyone using a pitch informally would have no guarantee the pitches would be cut or marked. They could not move anyone on who may be using the space, and there would also be no access provided to changing facilities.
If a club chooses to use an open space for organised training under the guise of an informal kickabout there is the potential they could jeopardise their insurance if someone was to get hurt. On the unfortunate occasions when someone does get injured and we’re contacted by insurance companies the first question they ask is confirmation that the club had permission to use the pitch.
Pitch marking and cutting
Our teams start the mowing season in April through til October, but this is weather dependent. The mowing rounds are on a fortnightly basis and no specific dates can be given to when a specific pitch will be cut. The team do have a schedule and if any areas are missed due to access issues or the weather, they will catch up on these areas before starting on their next fortnightly routes.
We mark out pitches for fixtures we are informed about. If you have a fixture for the weekend you must inform sports@ansa.co.uk by 12 noon on the Tuesday prior to the weekend fixture. With nearly 60 pitches across Cheshire East we do not have the capabilities to mark all pitches out on a Friday.
Pitch closures and weather
During the winter months we keep a keen eye on the pitches and the weather. Occasionally we close pitches because bad weather is predicted and then the weekend turns out OK - we are sorry when this is the case. There are also times when bad weather in the week means the pitches aren't safe to play on at the weekend, even if the weather gets better.
We try to tell teams about closures on a Thursday to provide time for them to re-arrange a fixture or find alternative pitches.
Pitch maintenance
Posts are removed during the close of the season to discourage use in the goal mouths which are the high maintenance areas of a pitch.
Unauthorised visitors on pitches
On occasion you may find cars left in the car park due to a member of the public having gone dog walking. We do appreciate that you cannot wait all day for them to return, so if you can leave a contact number for the car owner to contact someone to open up the gates it would be much appreciated. You must however lock the gates after you leave the site to stop any other unauthorised visitors accessing the site.
Should the visitors seem more than an unsuspecting dog walker and do not leave when requested or you do not feel comfortable asking them to leave, please contact Cheshire East Contact Centre on 0300 123 5500 and email Sports@Ansa.co.uk.
Leave the site but do not lock the gates.
Page last reviewed: 14 July 2022
Thank you for your feedback.