AScientists at a Bingley firm have taken on their toughest ever challenge - to make sure the grass stays green beneath the proposed new roof at Wimbledon.

Green-fingered experts from the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) have been part of a multi-disciplinary team working on controversial plans to bring an end to wet days at the world's leading tennis tournament.

Earlier this week, officials from the All England Club unveiled the plans for the 5,200 sq metre folding concertina to cover the centre court.

And today STRI head of turf grass biology Dr Andrew Newell insisted the roof - due to be in place in time for the 2009 championships - would work.

"We have got to ensure that the environment for the grass is as good, if not better, than it is now and that has been the design ethos behind all this," he said. "The whole aim is to actually improve the surface."

The STRI, located on the St Ives Estate above Bingley town centre, has been working with the London club for more than half a century.

But Dr Newell, who has been involved with Wimbledon for a decade, admitted the roof challenge - which has occupied experts' minds for more than a year - was the toughest yet. The roof will be 16 metres above the playing surface and can close within ten minutes.

"It is definitely a difficult one because if you look around at other stadiums where they have put a roof over grass it shows what can go wrong," he said. "Wimbledon cannot afford for this not to work - so they have gone to a lot of effort to ensure that it will.

"If you look at the Millennium Stadium (in Cardiff), there are lessons to be learned there that if you have got a natural pitch, you cannot afford to neglect it. You have got to give it the conditions it needs, such as enough light."

And the sun is the key to the new roof at Wimbledon, explained Dr Newell, because it has been specially configured to mix the rays of light.

"A lot of people would have eggy faces if it didn't work," he joked. "But then the club wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't going to work. We are more than 100 per cent sure that it will."

And - more than that - Dr Newell predicted the quality of the grass and its performance could improve because the roof can be used to protect the grass from major downpours.

"The roof will become part and parcel of the club's facility to protect and maintain the court," he said. "It has been fantastic to be involved in this project - after all, who doesn't talk about the grass at Wimbledon when it comes to June? And I get to do it for a living."

Dr Newell stressed there were no plans to grow a special species of grass for the new, covered centre court, with the emphasis being on keeping the conditions identical to the other courts.

"The only reason we would change the grass would be to improve it," he said. "We are testing grasses for Wimbledon here in Bingley all the time, and if better grasses become available we will change it. Wimbledon might be a traditional club, but it is not going to stand still."