Sheep take over groundsman duties

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Sheep take over groundsman duties: Although it’s hard to find many silver linings in the heavy clouds pressing down on us at the moment, one positive part of lockdown is the natural world taking back what’s been nabbed by humanity.

Whether it’s herds of wild goats taking over Llandudno, or deer roaming the estates of East London. Now, an enterprising decision to get sheep cutting the grass at a Welsh rugby club is the latest in animal-based good news that should brighten up your day, at least a little.

The BBC reports that the flock of sheep in question have been moved onto a Welsh rugby pitch during the lockdown. Brecon Rugby Club decided that, while sports fixtures are on hold during the coronavirus crisis, it would be a great idea to rent their pitch to the club’s chairman Paul Amphlett. Amphlett is also a shepherd and has a flock of sheep who need ground for grazing. So not only will Amphlett paying to rent the pitch serve to drum up some well needed dosh during the club’s fallow period, it also helps save on the maintenance fees for the pitch. He told the BBC” “the club needed to find a way to make and save some money during lockdown, I said I’d pay rent if they let me graze my sheep on the pitch.” He continued: “this in turn allowed us to keep our 73-year-old groundsman safely tucked away and also saved us some money on fertiliser.”

But how’re they actually doing on the job? The club’s coach Andy Powell said, “the sheep are doing a good job, the grass is nice and green and healthy.”

Amphlett, who’s come out of retirement as a paramedic to work on the frontline during the coronavirus crisis, is relieved to have his beasts cared for while he’s on duty. He told the BBC, “they need to be looked after because if they roll onto their backs they often can’t get back up.” I mean in fairness to the sheep, that’s inclined to happen to any of us at the best of times.

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Greenkeepers’ caution on golf’s return

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Greenkeepers’ caution on golf’s return: Golfers were warned to expect “inevitable disappointment” when they were able to return to play whenever government lockdown restrictions are eased.

Only essential maintenance has been permitted, often by stripped down greenkeeping crews, since the decision was taken to shut the doors on clubs on March 23.

Images spread across social media over the past few weeks have shown courses looking striped and fantastic during the spring sunshine.

But the reality, when getting up close, will be areas – such as rough – that have not been as closely monitored as teams have stuck to guidance issued by governing bodies and worked with limited numbers.

Speaking during a Talking Shop webinar held by the British & International Golf Greenkeepers’ Association (BIGGA), a panel of course managers urged caution.

“It’s expectation. They (golfers) are going to come back and they’re going to think that everything is fantastic,” said Scott Reeves, Leyland course manager and BIGGA chairman, when asked what the biggest challenge was going to be on the resumption of golf.

“(The perception will be that) The course has been empty, so the greenkeepers must have all been beavering away making everything absolutely perfect in their absence.

“We’re going to have to manage that. We’ll have to manage the expectation prior to opening, or partial opening, communicate effectively and, once they are on site, explain and build relationships back up again with golfers.

“There’s going to be inevitable disappointment.”

Andy Ewence, course manager at Woking, explained he had stopped using twitter when the lockdown began to temper expectations.

“We can keep the surfaces looking OK, fairways, greens, tees, but it is the strimming, the rough, the weed spraying,” he said.

Ewence continued: “The problem is there’s what you’re doing and the golf course down the road could be doing something totally different and the members speak.

“It’s going to be hard one. One golf course might look absolutely outstanding that have had most of their staff there, and the other one doesn’t. Going from public, private, exclusive, they are all going to be different.”

Craig Haldane, golf courses manager at Gleneagles, said communication – and doing it at the right time – would be absolutely crucial in getting everyone on side.

He added the possibility of full crews not being able to return for some time even after reopening, because of various restrictions that would still be in place, meant greenkeepers would also have to moderate their own expectations.

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The time to make pitches perfect

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The time to make pitches perfect: Croke Park pitch manager Stuart Wilson has revealed one positive from the break in GAA activity, a revitalised and reinvigorated pitch at GAA headquarters.

And Wilson, who has previously worked at the Aviva Stadium and Arsenal’’s Emirates Stadium, has insisted that club and country grounds nationwide can similarly benefit.

“I think you’d be disappointed to see any bad pitches this year because there’’s going to be lots of time without activity on them and if people are doing the right work, then it should be a very good year for GAA pitches,” said Wilson, who confirmed that Croke Park is currently thriving.

That is partly down to the absence of games since the All-Ireland club camogie finals on March 1 and partly to an overseeding process undertaken immediately after those games which was complemented by the use of germination sheets.

“The pitch has just got better and better week by week and to be honest with you I’ve never seen the Croke Park pitch look as good in April,” said Wilson.

That may sound like a waste given the likelihood of a total wipe-out of the summer schedule, due to the COVID-19 crisis, but there’’s still the possibility of the ground hosting games later in the year.

As such, plans to install a new Croke Park pitch in autumn have been put on hold.

“Obviously now work like that is going to be totally put on hold,” said Wilson. “We just don’t know what’’s going to happen. There still could be matches played later on in the year. It hadn’t been actually finalised but there was a potential pitch replacement at the back end of the year, at the end of the Championships. We obviously can’t go ahead with anything like that now because there’’s the potential for matches to be played throughout October, November and even December. I haven’t heard anything on it because I think there’’s obviously more important things going on but things like that will probably be postponed, yes.”

What it all means is a likely clear run of inactivity throughout most of 2020 for Croke Park and the rest of the GAA’’s club and county grounds.

While unexpected, Wilson said the break is badly needed after a ’’shockingly wet winter’’ that left many pitches around the country ’’badly beaten up’’ following heavy usage.

“I often compare the situation to a player, let’’s say a player is asked to play four or five matches a week with another training session or two thrown in, that player is going to be fatigued and won’t be able to continuously perform, they’ll simply need a rest,” he said. “Pitches are the exact same.

“You’’re dealing with something that’’s living, a grass plant is living, if you’ ’re constantly using it and beating it, eventually it’’s going to die.”

That’’s why most club grounds and plenty of county grounds too have sandy goalmouths or artificial surfaces in front of the goaline. Now after just weeks of inactivity, goalmouths are green again around the country.

Wilson’s advice to those who tend pitches is to mow them two to three times a week, to a height of ’’anything between 30mm and 50mm’’. For the record, Croke Park is cut to a 30mm height all year round. That much alone, he says, will be a big help.

“By doing that you’re promoting the density of the pitch because the grass will thicken up. Instead of growing up, it will start to grow sideways too, filling in all of those gaps. The problem is when people leave their pitches long and then go in and cut it and absolutely hack the grass down, that’’s really, really stressing a pitch. If you’’re cutting it consistently, just nipping it, just taking the top off, you will see an improvement in the quality of the pitch without a doubt.”

When restrictions ease, Wilson suggests broader renovation plans for club and county grounds that might include: over-seeding with 100 per cent ryegrass, an application of top-dressing, fertilising with a control release fertiliser, aeration works like tining, slitting or linear aeration ’’to open up the soil and let it breathe and let the roots go down’’, and weed control.

“From listening to John Horan, I think it’’s going to be a good while before GAA pitches see any activity,” said Wilson. “So I do believe that people will be able to work on pitches, once the current restriction on only essential maintenance is loosened obviously. I think the key is that people are ready to go, that they’ve got a plan in place to renovate their pitches.”

Back at Croke Park, Wilson and his three full-time staff are splitting their shifts and ghosting through the stadium.

“I don’t know how to describe it, it’’s bizarre to be honest with you,” said Wilson. “We’re fortunate that the pitch is in fantastic shape and whenever action starts back, we’ll be ready and raring to go.”

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Grounds never looking better

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Grounds never looking better: Grass roots sports, at least in name, have a dependence on the surface on which they’re played.

That’s why grounds maintenance across the Province has been deemed essential during lockdown – so that our golf courses, cricket squares and sports pitches are fit to play on again when it is deemed safe to do so.

One person with a bigger task than most is James Devoy, head greenkeeper at Donaghadee Golf Club where there is nearly 100 acres to maintain.

The 38-year-old, who lives in Glastry on the Ards Peninsula, makes a daily 28-mile round trip to maintain the golf course.

He said: “It’s essential. If this wasn’t being done the course would become overrun and unplayable. It would turn to pasture very, very quickly. It would be difficult to recover.

“Normally there’s a team of five greenkeepers in total and a part-time guy, but three of them are furloughed at the minute and our part-time guy is off until we’re back to normal … if there is such a thing.

“There’s two of us in to do it. It’s a big undertaking. We’ve just under 100 acres here.

“We’re doing reduced hours at the minute. We’re in every day from seven in the morning and finishing about two.

“Normally the tees and aprons would be cut twice a week, the rough would be cut once a week and the greens would be cut every day. All that is getting done just once and the rough is getting cut every other week.”

Asked if he was ever tempted to play the course given that he’s the only one there, he said: “I’m not actually. We’re being pretty strict at the minute, no golf at all.

“There’s nobody allowed to play the course, there’s people walking it every day, but there’s no golf and there’s no dogs.

“It’s been more than four weeks since anyone has played the course.

“It could be ready to go as soon as the lockdown is lifted. We’re maintaining the course to a high standard.

“The amount of people who have commented on the condition of the course being very good.

“We could open tomorrow if necessary. The only thing would be the greens mightn’t be up to speed. A week would bring them back up to standard.”

He continued: “It certainly makes it easier to maintain with there being no play on it.

“We don’t have a morning routine, we don’t have to set the course up for play. We’re not changing the holes every day, we’re not moving the markers, we don’t have to cut the greens every day.

“The height of the greens are up. Our greens are at five mill, whereas normally at this time of year they’d be down to three.

“That saves the greens, it keeps them healthier because the grass is longer.”

Asked if the dry weather has posed problems, he said: “It has a bit. It’s good in the sense it’s still a bit cold so the growth has slowed down a bit. But yes, the dry weather means we’re watering greens several times a week.

“It just means we have to manage the greens a bit better, keep an eye on them.”

James said the job of a greenkeeper was not normally an isolated pursuit but it has taken on a more eerie feel recently: “When the course is busy with golfers you’re seeing people all the time.

“You have guys who go out every morning at eight o’clock religiously. We know they’re going to be on the course and we adjust our work to keep ahead of them.

“At the minute, it’s just the two of us. It definitely is strange, you’re not having to plan your day around golf. You can do what you want when it suits you.

“It allows us to cut the rough a bit later. As any keen gardener knows it’s better to cut your grass when it’s dry and not first thing in the morning when there’s dew on it.”

Up until very recently Dean Simpson was one of the only people allowed into Wallace Park.

The Lisburn Cricket Club groundsman was permitted into the park to carry out work on the cricket pitch while others were locked out, a situation that has since changed with parks being allowed to reopen across Northern Ireland.

Dean said: “It’s a very, very eerie place when you’re on your own. Normally it’s very, very busy, there’s a lot of footfall around the park.”

Of the work being carried out he said: “We’re really just keeping a lid on things. We’re cutting the outfield and keeping the square at bay. If it gets away from you, you’ll never play whenever the doors open.

“Therein lies a problem because we have very little income. Senior members still pay their subs but we’ve 150 youth members and it’s difficult to charge the wee boys subs when you’ve nothing to offer them.

“We’ve lost income there, there’s no bar revenue, it’s hard to go and ask sponsors for money given that they’ve their own difficulties.

“There’s reduced income so you’re just trying to do the basics to keep on top of things until, maybe, hopefully, this thing will lift in July and maybe allow a few friendlies.

“The danger you have too is if you lose the full season you might lose those youth members.

“You could also lose older ones coming to the end of their careers, who think it is a good time to retire.

“All in all it’s not going to be good for the sport if we have to go a season without playing.”

He said conditions are perfect for the start of the season: “Despite the wettest February on record we’re now having the best build-up to a cricket season in terms of weather that I can remember.

“The grounds would be perfect for the start of the season. Normally you’re running about trying to get covers on.

“From a personal point of view, the way things are going it’s hard to see much cricket.

“I think whenever this lockdown is lifted it’s not just going to be an open house where everybody is going to go back to doing what they were doing before.”

Normally at this time of year Pollock Park in Lurgan would have been transformed from a rugby ground to a cricket one.

However, this year it’s been a matter of playing it by ear for groundsman Kyle Geddis.

He explained that he was simply keeping things ticking over rather than carrying out any major work at the ground: “There’s been no rugby played since the start of March, there’s not going to be any cricket played for a good while, so the powers-that-be have decided there’s no point spending six or seven grand if the pitches are going to be alright for the next season anyway. It could be September before they’re played on again. We don’t know.”

Kyle, one of three groundsmen, said: “The work we’re doing is fairly straightforward. We fertilised the pitches last week and the grass would be cut once a week just to keep it down.

“It is a lot easier to maintain when there’s no one playing on it. You don’t have to mark the pitches every week, you don’t have to repair divots or ruts.”

He added: “The one consolation if there’s no cricket season would be that we don’t have to take the lights and the posts down.

“Though if it needed to be turned around it would only take a day to do it. The square is in good nick. It was reseeded at the end of last season.”

The club is one of a number of sporting organisations in the Lurgan area, who as part of Lurgan Aid Group, are putting together care packages every week to be delivered to those who need them in their communities.

Davy Wilson is one of the volunteers helping to keep Larne Rugby Club in pristine condition.

He said: “We’ve about 18 acres here. There’s four or five of us who do it all voluntarily.

“They come out different days and if they’re ever out together they’re more than two metres apart. They’re able to work away isolated.

“We’re totally self-sufficient looking after the grounds. We don’t get any financial help from the council or other bodies.

“We always have them pristine. There’s three pitches and two training areas plus all the surrounding areas plus the clubhouse. There’s a lovely setting here by the lough.”

He added: “I remember my first season here there was a silage harvester going round and the grass was about three foot tall when you were doing pre-season training. Times have moved on.

“I wouldn’t say it’s helped or hindered having no play on the pitches. There wasn’t long to go in the season. We’ve always worked at them rain, hail or shine so whether or not there’s play on it doesn’t make a difference to what we do.”

Hubert Watson has been president and chairman of Dollingstown FC, but that doesn’t mean he’s shy when it comes to tasks like watering the goalmouth.

He’s been busy at Planter’s Park during lockdown maintaining the pitch for the Premier Intermediate League club.

He said: “Once I knew that it was going into lockdown in mid-March, I contacted Clive Richardson who does all our ground works during the close season.

“We’d already scheduled him for the end of May to do the work, which gives us June and July to allow the grass to grow.

“I gambled and I went ahead and did it in March.

“If football comes back, which I think it probably will at the end of June, one season will roll into another, you might have a three-week gap or something. It wouldn’t be long enough to do what needs to be done.

“So I got Clive in the next week. I got it vertidrained, I got 50 tonne of sand on it and I got it completely reseeded.

“They did all that in a couple of days then I put eight bags of fertiliser on it to help it green up, although it would need a bit of rain.

“We were lucky we got that work done in March.

“Whether clubs would still be allowed to do that I don’t know.”

Explaining what is being done on a weekly basis to look after the ground, Hubert said: “All I do is go down every other day and water the goalmouth because that’s as far as the hose will reach. There’s taps at each end of the pitch.

“The goalmouth is the hardest part to get the grass to grow.

“I’m going out on my own, so no one is getting hurt.”

Dollingtown were in third place in the Intermediate League when the season was suspended: “It’s the highest position we’ve ever been in our 40-year history.

“We were in a great place mentally, physically. We’re in the semi-final of the Intermediate cup, one step away from the National Stadium.

“I never would have dreamt 21 years ago when I came to Dollingstown we could see a team running out at the National Stadium.”

He said: “The players are desperate to get back, it’s hard for them.

“They can’t meet together and do their training together. They’re all out doing their own exercise but it’s not the same intensity.

“I’ve been at this 45 years. I eat, drink and sleep it, but as the man says ‘there’s bigger issues out there’.”

He added: “I don’t think the Premier Intermediate teams are too badly affected with expenses, there’s very few pros in this league. The crowds aren’t bringing in that much of a revenue.

“Our biggest income would come from advertising around the ground. We’d normally invoice our sponsors in March or April, I didn’t do it because that’s the last thing businesses need to see now.”

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Foxes keep groundsman busy

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Foxes keep groundsman busy: A brush with the local fox population is keeping Leeds Rhinos’ groundsman Ryan Golding busy during the coronavirus crisis.

Most of Rhinos’ 150 employees have been placed on furlough, a form of paid leave, but Golding is among a handful still working – and vulpine pitch invaders are giving him plenty to do.

“They are a nightmare,” Golding said of the four-legged hooligans.

“They live near the railway track, in all the bushes there.

“On a night, when they are scavenging for food, they come into the stadium and they always dig in the same place on the pitch.

“They are digging bones into the pitch – I am finding bones all the time.”

The urban foxes are sometimes spotted on the terraces after games, which is one reason why cleaning crews are brought in so quickly following the final whistle.

Golding hopes fencing will deter the pests and noted: “It’s a unique problem, with it being an inner-city stadium.

“You

wouldn’t have a problem like that on an industrial site, it’s just another thing we have to deal with.”

On the other hand, the foxes do keep Emerald Headingley’s pigeons – another traditional groundsman’s enemy – at bay.

“They are stalking around the pitch on a night, waiting for the pigeons to land,” Golding reported.

“There are feathers everywhere! On a morning I have to go around picking pigeon carcasses up.

“It is like a war zone, but they don’t go near our feed, fertilizers or chemicals, which is good.”

Even without the foxes, Golding has his hands full restoring the pitch to its usual glory following unprecedented rainfall last winter.

“My assistants have been furloughed, so it’s just me,” he said.

“I am having to look after all the stadium and all of Kirkstall [Rhinos’ training base] on my own.

“It is challenging, but it’s quite enjoyable – it is taking me back to when I was younger, getting my hands dirty.

“It is very negative circumstances, but it is what it is – there’s people dying, so you can’t really moan.”

The last few months have been tough for Rhinos’ ground crew who, as well as looking after Headingley, had to cope with flooding at Kirkstall.

Golding recalled: “We had a record three months of rainfall – around 300-350 millimetres.

“That is a hell of a lot – and it wasn’t necessarily the weather, it was the timing.

“We always seemed to get downpours the night before games and the morning of.

“We weren’t really getting any luck and the game where it turned was the double-header [when Headingley staged Rhinos’ Betfred Super League opener against Hull immediately after Castleford Tigers had faced Toronto Wolfpack].

“We had a lot more rain than expected after the first game.

“I had two choices, to leave it as it is and have a slow surface, or take it on the chin and make it a fast one.”

Rhinos scored 154 points in their three home games after the loss to Hull and Golding added: “People say it looks like a beach, but it plays really well.

“That’s something I had to discuss with the management team, Rich [Agar, Rhinos’ coach] and Kev [Sinfield, director of rugby].

“I am not bothered what people say if it allows us to play fast rugby and get two points.

“That’s what we did, we applied sand quite regularly to make a fast, stable surface to enable the players to gain purchase – rather than it turning into a mudbath.”

The break has allowed Golding time to work on the pitch, but – with no clear indication when rugby will resume – he explained: “I don’t want to throw everything into recovery yet.

“It’s a bit like a finely-tuned athlete, you don’t want to hand it all the supplements and everything it requires now because it’s going to keep needing that.

“It is a sand-based surface so it drains very quickly and leaches nutrients very quickly, so I have to be careful with what I am applying.”

Life won’t get any less hectic for Golding – and his team – when the season eventually resumes.

Midweek matches are likely as Super League clubs race to make up for lost time, but Golding has no concerns over having to prepare the ground for multiple games in a short space of time.

He stressed: “I don’t see it as a bad thing.

“You get some groundsmen who are very much ‘keep off the pitch’, but I wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for the sport so let’s get as many games on as we can and get back to enjoying sport.”

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