This invention concerns a recreational surface for games such as soccer, hockey and American Football for example and also horse-racing tracks for example.

The conventional surface for such activities as mentioned above is turf. Normal turf, whilst highly satisfactory under ideal conditions does have some serious disadvantages. In dry seasons or times of drought it can become very hard with risk of injury to falling players. In wet seasons it can become waterlogged making it unpleasant to use and very susceptible to damage. In very cold conditions it can become frozen and again hard and injurious.

Ideally a recreational surface for these purposes should be compliant under all conditions.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a recreational surface of grass which overcomes the problems associated with conventional turf.

According to the present invention a recreational surface comprises grass growing on a coherent substrate of compliant material having substantial voidage therein, the voidage being filled with a root zone

growing medium, and the roots of the grass penetrating the root zone growing medium.

The root zone growing medium may comprise sand, loam, peat, other organic material or mixtures thereof.

The substrate may have a topping of up to 5 cm of particulate material forming a planting medium.

It consists of a commercial root zone/top dressing mixture or an appropriate blend of sandy loam topsoil and root zone sand.

For guidance a mixture of sand and loamy ^' sou ^~ should produce the following sieve analysis BS 1377:75:-

Sieve size (mm) % by mass passing-

2.0 98-100

1.0 95-100

0.5 65-100

0.125 10-100

0.063 2-5

The organic matter content should be in the range 1-4% and typically 2%.

The substrate may comprise rubber crumb bonded together with a suitable binder and may have a thickness of 5-50 mm for example.

The crumb may be sized from 2 mm - 20 mm.

The crumb may be of SBR, EPDM, natural rubber or mixtures thereof, and may be comprised by recycled vehicle tyres or perimeter seals.

The binder may be a polyurethane resin.

The grass may be grown from seed sown onto the substrate or topping or provided by turves laid on the substrate.

The grass will be selected in accordance with intended use and may be a perennial rye-grass for soccer or fescue for golf, for example.

The invention will be further apparent from the following description, which concerns by way of example only, the preparation of one form of recreational surface embodying same, and with reference to the accompanying drawing which shows a cross-section therethrough.

An area of land is treated to destroy any plant seeds therein and covered with a layer 10 of graded crushed stone which may incorporate land drains 12 if required. The layer 10 is blinded with blinding sand. A layer of root zone sand 13 to a depth of 200 cm is then spread over the layer 10. A layer 14 of rubber crumb bonded together by polyurethane to a depth of 25 mm or thereabouts is then put down. This layer is formed by mixing the rubber crumb with a liquid polymer and laying before polymerisation is complete, to join the crumbs into a coherent but compliant mass having substantial voidage therein.

The crumb may be of a mixture of Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) and natural rubber derived from vehicle tyres and will have sizes in the range of from 6 mm - 10 mm.

The voidage in the compliant mass is then filled with a root zone growing medium comprising a mixture of sand and loam.

The root zone growing medium is introduced into the interstices by spraying in the form of a slurry or by brushing or with the aid of vibration.

A layer 15 of commercial root zone/top dressing forming a planting medium is then spread over the layer of rubber crumb to a depth of 2 cm or thereabouts.

The planting medium is then sown with a suitable grass seed such as a perennial rye-grass typically Master, Trubadour or Barclay.

The seed is allowed to germinate and the grass 16 grow to maturity such that its roots penetrate the root zone growing medium in the interstices of the layer of rubber crumb before the surface is brought into use.

It will be understood that the surface remains compliant under all weather conditions on account of the resilience of the substrate.

It is anticipated that the grass surface will be "self-healing" in that even quite serious surface damage will be confined to the sand layer and not destroy the root matrix within the rubber crumb.

It will be appreciated that it is not intended to limit the invention to the above example only, many variations, such as might readily occur to one skilled in the art, being possible, without departing from the scope thereof.

Thus grass seed may be sown onto the surface of the rubber crumb and a sand dressing applied after germination.

Again, conventional turves may be laid onto the substrate and the turves may then be top-dressed with sand, or other particulate material.

Yet again, the grass and compliant substrate may be presented as tile-like units for laying for instant use, for example indoors or for repair of a damaged area such as a golf teeing ground or goal mouth area.