The Picasso of St Paul’s: Scott MacCallum meets Dene Hey, who has made his mark since arriving in the UK from South Africa.

When it comes to rugby union there is no-one around at the moment to touch South Africa. They have won the last two World Cups and some of their players are the very best to be found anywhere.

It might come as more of a surprise to learn that there are some top operators from among the Boks when it comes to being a Grounds Manager too.

Dene Hey, pictured, is the man who proves the rule. Dene is Grounds Manager at St Paul’s School, in Central London. He took up the post two-and a-half years ago and has since been working hard with his cosmopolitan team to ensure the pupils and staff at the school have the very best sports surfaces and surroundings.

He is also a man who treats his grounds is the same manner as an artist treats a canvas. More on that later.

“As groundsmen we are always focused on the rugby or football pitches and want them to be as fantastic as possible. But at a school there is more to it than that – the rest of the site has to match up,” explained Dene.

“That was a big thing for me. I’ve worked with people in the past where they are so focused on the pitches.

But they are actually the last thing that anyone sees when they come to visit. What parents and pupils, and potential parents and pupils, see first is the entrance and the drive up to the school.”

To make the point Dene references his own first visit to the school.

“The first thing I noticed when I walked on site was the lack of colour variety. Everything in the grounds was green,” said Dene.

“That is nothing not a reflection on anyone who has worked previously, but more of a personal observation.”

Showing that he is a man of action as well as talk, that driveway into the school has been transformed over the last couple of years, making the most of the mantra that you only have one chance to make a first impression.

“As you drive in, the entrance is now bordered by playing fields on the left and a parking area on the right and we now have a flower bed separating the road from the parking spaces,” described Dene.

“We replicated this by installing raised beds along the entire length of the driveway which created a divide between the sports pitches and the main access road.”

Added to this, the team has built four new flower beds, developed new walkways, established wildflower meadows, and redesigned an entire section of raised beds to complement the landscaping around the new prep school building.

“Beyond these projects, we have also refreshed nearly every flower bed across the site, adding more seasonal colour to brighten the grounds.”

A man with a genuine attention to detail, Dene also noticed something else on his first visit.

“It was little things. The pitches were being watered, but the surrounds weren’t getting much water, or much attention,” he said admitting that he is a perfectionist with high OCD levels!

St Paul’s School was founded in 1509 and takes its name from St Paul’s Cathedral. It’s on a 43-acre site on the banks of the Thames, in Barnes. The list of alumni includes writers, John Milton and Samuel Pepys; Edmund Halley, of Comet fame, and more recently, scientist, Magnus Pyke; Nicholas Parsons; Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne; historian, Dan Snow; actor, Rory Kinnear and comedian, Hal Cruttenden.

The site that Dene inherited is not the easiest to manage, as half of the grounds are leased from Thames Water, meaning that, under the terms of the agreement, there’s certain work that cannot be undertaken.

“There are weight restrictions, we can’t put down any fertiliser, or any chemicals. The fields actually sit on top of a reservoir, so we have to deal with a lot.”

It does means that these fields are not where Dene and the team want them to be, but they do what they can to make them work.

“We’ve started with a rye and micro clover mix to help get nitrogen back into the soil. We use Agrovista for a lot of our products,” revealed Dene, who added that they don’t have drainage and irrigation across the site, but only on some parts of the school-owned pitches.

“Our fields are split into two. We’ve got four pitches on the one side of the school, which is on our land, then on the Thames Water side, we’ve got another six pitches.

Rugby runs from September to the end of December. January until March is football and then from March until July, the pitches transform into the outfield for the cricket, for which there is an astro turf strip, laid two metres to the side of the main pitch.

One of Dene’s aims has been to work with the coaching staff and Heads of Sport to get them more understanding of what can happen if you play on pitch which is borderline playable. It is a part of the job with which Grounds Managers up and down the country have to deal but Dene has built a good relationship and understanding with his colleagues.

“You can easily damage the pitch for the next month, and the next few matches, if you were to take a chance on a pitch. They now understand that it’s sometimes best to sacrifice one game for the benefit of the next four games.”

Dene has made a positive impact everywhere he has gone since arriving on these shores with his wife in September 2018, initially as a Workshop Manager for the Chelsea Motorcycle Group.

While a skilled mechanic, and champion motorcyclist himself, he had always hankered for an outside role, having worked briefly as a groundsman at the Durban Sharks Stadium, in South Africa, prior to leaving for the UK.

Of course that was prior to experiencing the delights of the UK weather!

Getting back to groundsmanship, he took an apprenticeship at The Spencer Club, a sports club in South West London, before gaining a position as a groundsman at King’s College School, in Wimbledon, where he stayed for just under two years.

From there it was to The Lensbury Resort, initially as a Senior Groundsman, before being promoted to Head Groundsman a year and a half later.

Ten months after that he was of to his current position at St Paul’s meaning he’d gone from Apprentice to Grounds Manager in less than five years – impressive by any standards!

“When the position became available for The Lensbury, it was perfect as we’d just moved to Teddington and it was a mile from my front door. SoI would either cycle or take my electric scooter to work.”

“It was a big change from King’s college and, because The Lensbury is close to Twickenham, they are often chosen to host international teams which are playing there. They stay at the hotel and use the facilities.

“There is a heavy weights gym, a full size swimming pool, two rugby/ football pitches – one full size, one 90 metres long, and then they’ve got grass tennis courts, clay tennis courts, and the hotel grounds themselves.

During the autumn internationals Dene could catch up with his compatriots in the South African team, as each of England’s opponents would stay at the hotel for a week before moving on to be replaced by the following week’s opposition.

“It was a really cool experience and it taught me a lot about dealing with coaches and how to handle certain situations.

“I got to meet some really great people in the industry including Jim (Buttar) from Twickenham, who has been a massive help in my career – a nice guy to have in my corner,” he said.

“Working with international teams there’s also no room for error. You know they want the best and they’re paying top money, so you’ve got to give them international sport quality. Anything less isn’t going to be accepted,” said Dene, who also threw in the fact that he’d also hosted Manchester United who visited twice before the 2023 FA Cup final.

His time at The Lensbury was also key to his professional development as it gave him an appreciation of working in the multi-sport environment which he now has at St Paul’s.

He has worked hard to bring his ideas and working practices into his new role and to bring his team along with him.

“It has meant changes from how they operated previously, when standards and expectations were perhaps not quite so high.

“Since I came on board I have changed or tweaked quite a few of the working practices. I think any manager who comes into a new role will want to do things their way as they know they work. It’s then the challenge to bring the rest of the team on board, but I’ve got a really good team behind me that works hard,” said Dene.

“Since I started we’ve managed to get an extra member of staff while we are currently looking to recruit another gardener.” The team is from all across the globe – and London!

“We’ve got Marcin Szczupak, who is from Poland; Blake McKay, from Australia; Miguel Bosman, who is another South African, and Dave Green, who is local. We also have Abigail Woodford, our Head Gardener.”

Their boss has certainly come a long way since he first started work at the Sharks ground in Durban, not long before he and his wife decided to relocate to the UK.

“If I’m 100% honest with you, when I started this job there, I didn’t realise just how much went into it. I knew absolutely nothing about turf and I knew absolutely nothing about sports pitches.

“I actually thought that somebody rocked up on a Friday, cut the grass and marked the pitch. Then everyone arrived on the Saturday, watched the match then everyone went home and the stadium would shut for the rest of the week. That’s honestly what I thought.

“So, it was nice to stumble upon an industry which I had no idea about, but which I now absolutely love.” That passion and love for the job shines through from Dene and he has an interesting way of thinking about the job.

“I believe that we’re almost like artists in a way and the pitch is our canvas. It gives us a way to express ourselves. It’s that feeling you get when you’ve cut a pitch and you’ve put in perfect stripes and you’ve got nice bright white lines.

“It’s just the satisfaction for me. Little things like hedge cutting when you get that perfect cut and it just looks incredible.

“To me, it’s all art. Our way of expressing ourselves. I don’t have a pencil and a canvas, but I’ve got a mower and some grass.”

Could anyone put it any finer?