A playing field is a field used for playing sports or games. They are generally outdoors, but many large structures exist to enclose playing fields from bad weather or to provide seating stands for watching the sports. Generally, playing fields are wide expanses of grass, dirt or sand without many obstructions. More recently, some types of field have begun using a synthetic grass-like material called AstroTurf, some fields are also covered with snow, but its use is often controversial. Today a lot of fields have Next Turf, ProGreen or Field Turf. These Turfs are filled with rubber and/or sand.
There are a variety of different commonly used fields, including:
- American football field
- Association football (soccer) pitch (field)
- Australian rules football playing field
- Baseball field
- Cricket field containing the cricket pitch
- Lacrosse field
- Rugby league playing field (pitch or paddock)
- Rugby union playing field (pitch or paddock)
In other sports, the field of play is called a "court":
- basketball court
- tennis court
- volleyball court
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or field:
“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of today. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)