FED up with a pitch which starts the season pristine but quickly degenerates into a bare and bumpy dustbowl, BAA are set to install an artificial surface at the ground.

Club president John Doran hopes to start the $700,000 project next April as one of Bermuda's oldest football clubs adopts one of football's newest technologies.

He said: "It's the way we want to move the club forward - it's more than 100 years old. We are trying to ensure its future and it's something Bermuda really needs.

"We use the pitch nearly all the time now anyway. This will allow us to use it 24/7. We won't have to shut it down in the summer. We are looking at having football day camps - it would be great to have them in a central location."

It's a pricy project but some of that cash will be recouped by hiring the pitch out.

BAA Wanderers played on one of the new style pitches on a tour to Montreal a few years ago and were impressed with it.

And now artificial surfaces are steadily making a comeback all around the world after a false start in the 1980s when they were synonymous with silly bounces and horrible carpet burns for those rash enough not to wear protective clothing.

But the new surfaces not only resemble grass - they actually beat it in many ways.

Doran said the new technology means defenders needn't fear they would need a skin graft if they launched into a sliding tackle.

Indeed the artificial surface will be kinder on the body than the natural one in Bermuda which has notoriously tough grass.

"There are actually less burns than with grass. You won't get that which is nice."

Some artificial turfs send up black plumes of rubber particles which have caused breathing problems but Mr. Doran said the Swiss technology his club was going for didn't have that problem.

But there are significant ongoing costs. Although the initial foundation will still be good in eight years time, the top surface will have to be replaced at that time at a cost of another $400-450,000.

Not that the present arrangement is cost free. The club spent more than $40,000 re-seeding its pitch last summer but it soon disintegrated and looked more like a farmer's field. "It was a bit of a nightmare," admits Doran.

After a summer of not being used it is looking good again but Doran said it would not last. This season the pitch is likely to be used by at least seven adult football teams plus several youth teams and four rugby teams.

"Come October or November that field is going to be awful again - with no grass on it."

The field, which now has a slight slope, will be flattened out when work begins next year.

"It only needs to guys to come over and install it. A local company will do the excavation. The underlay is like a jig-saw puzzle - a few of our guys will probably help out."

He said the idea of a synthetic pitch had surfaced under previous club president Jon Beard but had been stymied at board level before he managed to get it pushed through.

"Obviously I am excited about getting this going."

Now the club is lobbying members and corporate donors for funds.

"We will put up a big plaque - everyone who donates gets their name on the plaque."

Meanwhile work has yet to start on putting in artificial turf at Gym Field in Prospect although BFA chiefs are hopeful work can start this year.

Its understood bids are now being gathered for excavation work at the site which will be widened and lengthened before a full-size pitch is put on it.

"They will probably have it done before ours," conceded Doran.