Demain’s the name

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Demain’s the name: When the name of the Professional Groundman of the Year was announced at the IOG Awards Dinner in November, there was one man in the huge function suite in the National Motor Cycle Museum, in Birmingham, not paying too much attention.

Vic Demain, Head Groundsman at Durham County Cricket Club, in Chester-le-Street, was basking in the warm glow of success, having seen his team named Professional Cricket Grounds Team of the Year earlier in the evening and he had to be nudged to get on his feet to go collect the award.

“I looked to the stage and there was my name on the screen and my first thought was that this can’t be right, it has to be a mistake. But it slowly sunk in and I went up and collected the award,” recalled Vic.

To be fair to him his surprise had a degree of justification. A cricket groundsman had never won Professional Groundsman of the Year while, a mere six years before, Vic was a groundsman working in recreational cricket.

“My name is now engraved on the Cup alongside a host of legends in the world of groundmanship. Everyone on it is so deserving and I feel I shouldn’t be included among them, that I’m a bit of an imposter.

“That said it’s been absolutely brilliant. I still haven’t come down and I have to pinch myself that it’s happened,” said Vic, speaking to Turf Matters in his first interview since his success.

The story of how Vic came to join luminaries of the industry is remarkable and one which should provide inspiration to anyone who has been knocked back, got up, got knocked back again, yet still rose to the top of the tree.

He left school at 16 in Faringdon, located between Oxford and Swindon, and took up an apprenticeship at a local building company. Apprenticeship completed Vic launched his own business which he ran for 20 years until the housing market crashed in the mid-90s and his company folded.

“I’d always been a lover of cricket and was the sort of guy every club wants. I’d cut the grass, I’d do the fixtures, my wife would make the teas, I’d take coaching courses. Anything, so long as it was involved with cricket. On the field I wasn’t very good, but I was really keen and made the most of what limited ability I had. I just loved the game,” he explained.

Looking for employment, ideally in cricket, he applied for and eventually, at the second attempt, got the job of Cricket Manager on a private estate, where he learned rudimentary groundsmanship.

“I knew nothing about it whatsoever, and remember this was before the days of internet, so I got out and spoke to the old boys who were looking after their own grounds, and learned a lot from them.

“After about four or five years we got the ground up to Minor Counties’ standard and Buckinghamshire played there. It really was the best job in the world.”

Until the next set back.

“We had a change of management and the new manager decided that cricket was costing the Estate too much money and took the ground down the contractor route. I was made redundant.”

Next step was to Milton Keynes and Campbell Park working for a contractor but a yearning was growing for his own ground and when he saw an advert for a job at Uxbridge Cricket Club. He jumped at it and fortunately for Vic they jumped at him and it was there that he spent the next seven seasons as Head Groundsman, a ground where Middlesex played a number of games

Now this next bit is all-important for those of you feeling that life has passed you by and stretching out ahead is not so much a potential pathway to success, but a rut.

“It was the wet summer of 2012 and Nottinghamshire came down to play Middlesex. It never stopped raining, but we worked diligently and while we didn’t get a result in the end, we did manage to get quite a bit of play.”

Keep reading…

“At the end of the season Nottinghamshire were looking for a Deputy Head Groundsman and I thought, I’ve got no chance as I’d not worked at that level, but decided to throw my hat in the ring anyway. However, I’ve been told that when the Director of Cricket saw the applications and noticed the Uxbridge connection he said, ‘That’s the guy I want because when we went to Uxbridge they worked so hard to get the game on’,” said Vic. 

It’s a lesson for everyone.

“I try to impress upon people that if you work hard, put in the graft, don’t hide in the shed when conditions are bad, and always been seen to be doing your best, someone may notice you. That’s exactly what happened to me.

“Honestly, I was about 50 at the time and was beginning to think that it was time to start winding down a little, but my career has really taken off in the last five years. Look whats happened to me, these last five years have just been crazy. You couldn’t plan for it.”

The final piece in the career jigsaw came in 2015 when he applied for the vacancy at Durham.

“I guess I’m one of those people who always wants to test themselves and I wanted to work at the highest possible level and for me, at Durham, the biggest attraction of all was that I knew in 2016 there was going to be a Test Match. There are not many Test Grounds and not many people who have done a Test Match so for me that was huge.”

But Durham wasn’t a job for the feint hearted. The pitch was well known to be damp and bowler friendly. Also the club was experiencing financial difficulties, brought about by the contractual obligation when Durham became the latest addition to the County Championship in 1992 that the Riverside be developed as a Test and International venue. This is a part of the country not regarded as a cricketing hotspot.

“I started in March 2015 which was too late to do anything with the pitches. When I arrived I was concerned about the poor grass coverage on the pitches. We are lucky that we have a big square but five or six of those pitches were not going to be usable until July.

“The other issue I faced was that, for me, Nottingham had been the furthest I’d been north. I’d been used to working around the London areas which has a completely different climate. My pitch at Uxbridge was probably the most batsman-friendly you’d ever see so, in order to get the bowlers interested, I’d leave 10-12 mm of grass on each pitch.

“I tried to do that at Durham in my first season but the ball was going around corners and the batsmen were not happy at all. The one thing about that season was that the cricket was hugely entertaining for the person buying a ticket. No game ended in two days, but we had a lot of three day games and every game we played ended in a result.”

It wasn’t until the end of that first season that Vic finally got a handle of the pitch, and not before he sought the sage-like advice of the very man who would know.

“I couldn’t fathom out how pitches always seemed to be a on the damp side despite me trying to dry them out. All I could come up with was that water was coming up from underneath the surface. So what I did was track down Tom Flintoft, Head Groundsman here 30 years ago. He’s a lovely guy and I’ve spoken to him a lot since. I asked him if there was chance that my theory was correct and straight away he said to me that there was more water under the square than there was in the River Wear!”

Knowing the issue and resolving the issue are two completely different things however.

“In the short term there is really nothing you can do outside of digging up the pitch and putting in a membrane to prevent the water reaching the wicket but with our financial constraints that wasn’t going to happen.” Vic’s appreciation of what he was dealing with coincided with an instruction from the ECB to all Head Groundsmen that pitches should be more spinner friendly and the change to the toss rule which gave visiting Captains the option of bowling first.

“With the history at Durham no-one was ever going to say they were going to bat first so our pitches simply had to change. What I did was shave all the grass off and got them to be flat, white and reasonably hard so, after a game or two, we actually did see the away team wanting to bat first. The bowlers weren’t too happy and maybe it wasn’t as exciting cricket for the paying public. Perhaps there is still some middle ground to be had,” said Vic, who did become a hero to Keaton Jennings, who based on the amount of runs he has scored on Vic’s pitches, has since opened the batting for England.

Oh, that Test match and the reason Vic took that leap of faith north.

It was against Sri Lanka in May 2016 and to be honest that leap of faith Vic took in moving north looked decidedly misplaced when the week before a Sri Lankan team, shorn of its legendary batters and bowlers who had retired, were twice skittled out cheaply at Headingley in a match which barely lasted three days.

“People were saying that on our traditionally bowler friendly pitch that it could all be over in two days, but luckily England won the toss and batted, putting on over 400. Then having added to the run of low scores and being forced to follow-on the Sri Lanka’s showed some real mettle and batted well to overtake England’s first innings total and the match went into a fourth day.

“It was a reasonably good Test and all the reports were positive, but it was cold, mid-May, the weather wasn’t great and crowds weren’t huge.”

It tended to sum up the plight of Durham.

At the end of 2016 the financial problems came home to roost. Despite finishing fourth in the First Division Durham were relegated for financial reason and, to really kick them when they were down, they started each competition of the 2017 season on minus points.

The Board was removed and a new one put in place led by Chairman Sir Ian Botham, who has used his profile and contacts within the game to pull Durham through these immensely difficult times.

“A lot of people were very concerned about their jobs. My staff were worried, we were all worried and it was one thing after another – bad news after bad news after bad news – so, 12 months later, to be able to take these two wonderful awards back to the club was just fantastic.

“We knew that we were up for Headland Amenity Professional Cricket Grounds Team of the Year. We’d been short-listed along with Hampshire, as we had been the previous year when we lost out to Essex, so I was hopeful that we might have a chance. I was hugely delighted when we won not just for my team but for Team Durham back at the club – all the staff.

“It was brilliant for my small team – my Deputy Mark Patterson who has been at the club for over 15 years; Ben Hall, who has been here for eight years and for Amy McKewan, who is in her second season here and doing her apprenticeship. My coming in just three years ago was difficult for us all. I was joining a team which was already established and for Mark and Ben they had only ever worked for one boss and become used to doing things one way. I was never going to be the same and change is difficult to deal with, particularly with the wider issues going on.

“But three years on we’ve got there and our Award is a rubber stamping and recognition for what we have achieved. I think part of the reason we got the award was our ability to produce what we have done under financial constraints.”

An hour listening to Vic and you can fully understand why he also picked up the Ransomes/DLF Johnsons Alex R. Miller Groundsman of the Year award. His enthusiasm and drive are infectious and he possesses a can-do attitude which has survived through a number of career disappointments.

Five years on from the last of those disappointments, and a time when he was considering looking for a job to ease himself into retirement, he sits alongside the very best groundsmen that this country has produced.

Whether he believes it or not, he fully deserves that honour.

Vision of the future

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Vision of the future: Laurence Gale finds out what’s behind Gloucester City Council’s successful PPS Initiative.

As an ex-local authority manager, I fully understand many of issues councils are facing in the light of the Government’s tight rein on council budgets and, notably, understanding the frustrations of many practising Parks Managers who for many years have been forced to reduce service delivery in their parks and amenity open spaces.

However, to combat these cut backs, councils are now seeking new ways of working and obtaining funding from other sources. Without doubt the National Lottery and Heritage Funding Schemes have helped enormously in recent years, with millions of pounds filtering down to councils who have been savvy enough to understand, and learn quickly, how to make the most of these funding opportunities.

Another way of saving money and operating effectively is by working with new partners who are willing to take on the maintenance and management of some of the land assets. For example, in recent years we have seen local councils pass on this responsibility of these to town and parish councils and local sports clubs.

However, this can only be achieved, after investing in a detailed survey and consultation with many organisations, sports clubs and evaluating current working practises and costing of any proposed schemes.

This usually is achieved by the process of the council formulating and producing a Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS) to evaluate the way ahead. This strategy is usually set between 5-10 years depending on the size and scale of the project.

The existence of a robust and up-to-date PPS will enable informed and evidence-based decisions and actions to be made across a range of agendas including sports development, strategic planning and planning applications, educational provision, funding, facility and asset management, public health and the management and maintenance of provision of high quality playing pitches and playing fields to meet the sporting needs of local communities. All local authority areas should have an up-to-date PPS. By providing valuable evidence and direction a PPS can be of significant benefit to a wide variety of parties and agendas.

A recent visit to Gloucester gave me the opportunity to meet up with a very forward thinking local authority which has initiated its own PPS and is now starting to see the fruits of its labours. In terms of having a vision, they now have a set of local projects to improve the delivery of better pitches and facilities in the Gloucester area.

I met up with two of the lead officers who have been working on the PPS, David Pritchett, Open Spaces

Strategy Officer, and Adam Gooch, Principal Planning Officer. Their PPS runs from 2015 -2025, a 10 year programme. Now well into its second year the council is starting to see the benefits of its actions, with plenty of improvements to the maintenance and management of its pitches.

Since the PPS was adopted in January 2016, improvements in some form or other have been made to over 40% of playing field sites. This includes things like verti-draining but also reconfiguring pitches to provide for the community’s needs.

One of the main reasons for the success is the Delivery Group, which meets at least every six months and has representation from Sport England, FA, RFU, ECB, England Hockey, Active Gloucestershire and Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust. The relationships they have built have been instrumental in developing a very positive and focussed partnership in delivering the aims and objectives of the PPS.

The key aims of the Gloucester PPS are:

  • To protect the existing supply of sports pitches for meeting current and future needs.
  • Secure tenure and access to sites for high quality, development minded clubs, through a range of solutions and partnership agreements.
  • Maximise community use of outdoor sports facilities where there is a need to do so.
  • To enhance outdoor sports facilities through improving quality and management of sites.
  • Adopt a tiered approach (hierarchy of provision) for the management and improvement of sites.
  • Work in partnership with stakeholders to secure funding.
  • To provide new outdoor sports facilities where there is a current or future demand to do so.
  • To achieve this, the PPS makes the following strategic recommendations: a) Secure planning gain for playing pitches from housing growth; b) Rectify quantitative shortfalls in current pitch stock; and c) Identify opportunities to add to the overall stock to accommodate both current and future demand.

Since the PPS was adopted the following projects or tasks have been completed or are being implemented by the Delivery Group:

  •  A range of improvements have been made to priority sites by the NGBs and/or sports clubs. In some cases this has included a visit from a specialist FA/RFU ‘Pitch Improvement Advisor’; this tends to be where the NGB funds the assessment and improvement measures in the first year, with a commitment from the club for the two following years.
  • Improvements works undertaken to pitches so far include top-dressing, verti-draining and over-seeding. Sites that have benefitted are Gala Wilton, Gordon League RFC, Hucclecote Playing Fields, Saw Mills End Playing Field, Longlevens Recreation Ground and Waterwells Sports Centre.
  • The FA, RFU and ECB have offered training courses for grounds men and women of Gloucester sports clubs to enable improved skills for maintaining and improving playing fields in the City and will continue to do in the future.
  • The Council has also worked closely with the local County Sports Partnership, Active Gloucestershire, in preparing workshops with local schools, to explore opportunities for increased community use of educational facilities.
  • A new multi-sports hub is being developed to the north of the city on land owned by the University of Gloucestershire and the City Council. This will include two 3G pitches, the first of their type in the city.

Looking ahead to the future, the Delivery Group has recently completed an Interim Review of the PPS to make sure it remains up-to-date. This has been endorsed by the City Council and will ensure that decisions are based on up-to-date evidence and reflect the needs of the local community.

Council Officers continue to work with the NGBs to identify priority clubs that would benefit from increased security of tenure on pitches that are in City Council ownership. This will enable those clubs to bid for funds for the improvement of pitches and/or facilities direct from the NGBs or Sport England. Whilst in the early stages, opportunities are currently being explored with Tuffley Rovers for changing rooms at The Lannett. i) Gloucester City FC has submitted funding bid to the FA’s Football Stadium Improvement Fund (FSIF) to assist towards the implementation of the new stadium.

To maintain the momentum that has been built up, and to ensure improvements to pitches continue in a sustainable way, the Council are also looking into a new ‘pitch improvement programme’. While in the early stages, the aim will be for the City Council and wider PPS Delivery Group to support sports clubs in undertaking improvements to pitches and facilities they use. One option being considered is based around community grants.

To date the Gloucester Playing Pitch Strategy is gaining momentum and has been looked upon favourably by Sport England, The Institute of Groundsman (IOG) and the Gloucestershire FA.

Matt Boucher, of the Gloucestershire FA, spoke well of the work being done to date.

“The Gloucester City Council PPS Delivery Group has been a pleasure to be involved with from developing the strategy through to now actively delivering. As the strategy was being developed it was clear that the quality of the pitches within Gloucester were poor and improving the pitch quality was going to be a key part of the action plan.

“Gloucestershire FA and the IOG have worked closely with Adam, Dave and the rest of the delivery group to review a number of local authority owned pitches and provide an increased level of maintenance. A year on and it is great to see some of the improvements at certain sites, feedback from clubs has been really positive,” explained Matt.

Say Goodbye To Standing Water With Apex Soil Solutions

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Say goodbye to standing water with Apex Soil Solutions: There is always a conflict of interest when it comes to golf. Course Managers like to get as much air under their greens as possible, but golfers detest the disruption it causes to the surface. Apex Soil Solutions have been working in the industry to demonstrate the revolutionary Vogt GeoInjector. Here’s how they are changing the future of soil management.

How can you ensure greens are well aerated without the Course Manager and his team facing the wrath of the club golfer?
The Vogt GeoInjector system offers minimal disruption to the playing surface. In most cases the green is brought straight back into play, keeping everyone happy. An “average” size green of approximately 300 m2 takes us as little as five hours to complete. Decompaction without disruption. Aeration without aggravation!

What is the process and how do you stop standing water?
The process is completed in one motion with just a single probe. We penetrate the soil beyond the root size to a depth of one metre. We inject 100psi of high pressured, compressed air into the ground. While the probe is inserted into the ground, a natural underground void is created and then back filled with Terramol to the surface, creating a permanent drainage soakaway.

What depths can you reach and how fine are your tines?
The diameter of our injection probe is 25mm and can go to a depth of one metre.

Recovery times will vary depending upon time of year, weather conditions, and make-up of the soil profile but how long are the recovery times – thinking about those club golfers?
Once the process has been completed the green is ready to be played on immediately.

The equipment is equally adept at handling tree roots as it is aerating golf greens. Can you explain how your piece of kit works to achieve success in both areas?
The process is very similar. We fill the cavities with organic fertilisers, such as enriched Biochar to improve tree performance and stimulate root growth.

In an ideal world when is the best time of year to carry out a programme of aeration?
The GeoInjector can be used at anytime of the year but works best when there is moisture in the ground. We would not advise injecting in frosty conditions. The process can easily be incorporated into a Course Manager’s maintenance schedule between autumn and spring.

Do you have any advice for Course Managers in dealing with the membership prior, during and post an aeration programme?
The GeoInjector offers a service that is quicker than many others and offers minimal disruption to the green and play. The technique is innovative and from our experience most members that have been briefed on the process, welcome the programme, as it does not require a re treatment. The long-term benefits far out weigh the small period of time the green is out of play.

Apex is a new name to the industry. Can you tell us a little about yourselves?
Apex Soil Solutions is the sister company to Apex Tree Surgeons, a well-respected company which has been operating since 2002. With a varied client list including tree consultancies, golf courses, and councils we noticed an increasing demand to source alternative methods to improve trees in decline. We partnered with German company Vogt, who manufacture the GeoInjector to offer the solution to the rest of the UK.

There are some well established names within the aeration sector and in golf particularly, customers do have brand loyalty, what techniques do you employ to ensure that potential customers are aware of what you offer?
Although there are a multitude of companies that offer soil management solutions, we don’t just scratch the surface, the solutions are found deeper than that. Our product injects deeper into the problem area, breaking through grounds that have previously not been reached. This access allows us to combat problem areas more successfully, which have seen exceptional results.

What is it about Apex and the equipment that you manufacturer that means a potential customer should include you in their list of options?
The versatility of the product provides a solution to many issues where part solutions have been made previously, or where processes were lengthy, caused disruption, and were not completely reliable. We are extremely passionate about the product and the positive impacts it will have on professionals within the industry.

What are your aspirations for the company over the next five years?
We are keen to market our products throughout the Country and work within all industries that will benefit from this application. Apex Soil Solutions aims to leave all of our clients with 100% satisfaction of our products and services. We believe we can successfully support Course Managers.

Where can people see the equipment if they are interested?
We will be exhibiting at BTME in Harrogate at the end of this month. Our full range of injection equipment will be on display and our expert staff will be able to answer your questions.

We will be holding a demonstration day in the upcoming months to showcase the equipment and allow people the opportunity to see the equipment in action. If you are interest please do not hesitate to email us or visit us at the BIGGA event.

Six Nations: How the grounds staff are preparing

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Six Nations: How the grounds staff are preparing

For many sports fans it is the most exciting time of the year. The NatWest Six Nations is a celebration of sport and while non-rugby fans can wonder at what on earth is going on – particularly at scrum time – for those in the know each inch over the gain line, or steal from a line-out is celebrated like the winning goal in the round ball game. The six stadiums used are some of the finest in all sport and the pitches, which take some of the greatest hammerings around, are more often than not immaculate.
Turf Matters has spoken to the six people responsible for creating those surfaces.

Scotland: 

Name: Jim Dawson

Role: Head Groundsman

Composition of Pitch: Desso GrassMaster

When was it laid? Spring/Summer 2014

What work will you be doing between Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations?

Over-seeding, utilising pitch lights and plenty of rest… fingers crossed!

What development or innovation has had the biggest impact on your work in the last five years?

Desso grassmaster has been a game-changer, changing all of our maintenance schedule and increasing pitch usage.

What keeps you awake at night?

Uncontrollable weather the night before a big match!

How has your job changed since you took over as Head Groundsman?

We have a bigger pitch team allowing use to undertake more detailed work both on the international pitch and training pitches. As mentioned before, the Desso has meant major changes to our maintenance and lots of learning!

What piece of equipment, yet to be invented, would make your life so much easier?

Fully automated machine to do divoting.

What is your favourite memory for a previous Six Nations Championship?

2017: Winning all three home games.

What is the best thing about a Six Nations Rugby match in your city?

Scottish passion, the fans and hopefully beating England!

What would you like to say to your fellow Six Nations Head Groundsmen?

Have a great series and enjoy the atmosphere!

 

England: 

Name: Keith Kent

Role: RFU Head Groundsman

Composition of Pitch: Desso GrassMaster

When was it laid? Summer 2012

What work will you be doing between Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations:

Depending on what the weather is doing we will cut the pitch at least once every day. Aeration is carried out to keep the top surface open in case of any heavy rain at that time of the year. The lighting rigs will be out on the pitch.

What development or innovation has had the biggest impact on your work in the last five years?

The Desso GrassmMaster pitch has changed our lives! It’s the best hybrid pitch system in the world in my humble opinion. In all of my career I have never known a pitch that can withstand so much usage.

What keeps you awake at night?

The removable paint used for logos!

How has your job changed since you took over as Head Groundsman?

The new pitch five years ago has changed my job for the better in so many ways. We host more events but it also allows me to do my second favourite job which is visiting community rugby clubs up and down the whole of England, offering advice and hopefully help to other groundsmen out there.

What piece of equipment, yet to be invented, would make your life so much easier?

A magic wand that would make the grass grow in the winter like it does in the summer. And a grass seed that grows in the dark and the cold!

What is your favourite memory for a previous Six Nations Championship?

It’s hard to pick a specific game, but perhaps France in 2015 here at Twickenham. It was a fantastic game with 12 tries in total (the final score was 55-35 to England).

What is the best thing about a Six Nations Rugby match in your city?

The whole event is something so special. The atmosphere at all of the games is amazing.

What would you like to say to your fellow Six Nations Head Groundsmen?

I wish them all a very successful tournament with good weather, great pitches and the hand of friendship to them all.

 

Italy: 

Name: Valeriano Bernardini

Role: Agronomist for CONI Servizi spa, consultant for FIGC and FIR

Composition of Pitch: Ryegrass + Bermudagrass (from November to April only as root system)

When was it laid? End of July, 2017

What work will you be doing between Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations?

Routine work and overseeding.

What development or innovation has had the biggest impact on your work in the last five years?

Growing lights.

What keeps you awake at night?

Low turf density

How has your job changed since you took over as Head Groundsman?

Worry and preoccupation.

What piece of equipment, yet to be invented, would make your life so much easier?

Possibility to easily adapt the microclimate for optimal growth of the turf.

What is your favourite memory for a previous Six Nations Championship?

Italy v France 2012.

What is the best thing about a Six Nations Rugby match in your city?

No free seat in the stadium.

What would you like to say to your fellow Six Nations Head Groundsmen?

RUN!

 

Wales:

Name: Lee Evans

Role: Head Groundsman

Composition of Pitch: Desso GrassMaster

When was it laid? September 2017

What work will you be doing between Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations?

We had a boxing event on the pitch prior to the Autumn Series. This decimated the surface, so we have had to carry out a thorough renovation immediately after the Autumn Series.

What development or innovation has had the biggest impact on your work in the last five years?

Lighting Rigs/Technology – Grass cannot survive in our stadium without supplementary lighting.

What keeps you awake at night?

Some of the events our Venue Sales Manager, tries to shoehorn into our schedule!

How has your job changed since you took over as Head Groundsman?

I have been Head Groundsman at the stadium for 14 years – the job is unrecognisable to what it was then. A portable palletised pitch with grass that used to start dying back after six weeks in the stadium – to a fantastic Desso Grassmaster stabilised surface with supplementary lighting.

What piece of equipment, yet to be invented, would make your life so much easier?

A full pitch lighting system that somehow is suspended above the pitch, no wheels and no obstacles, a pipe dream alas!

What is your favourite memory for a previous Six Nations Championship?

I have been fortunate to witness three grand slam triumphs in our stadium. They were all very special.

What is the best thing about a Six Nations Rugby match in your city?

The atmosphere in the city is something special. As a teenager I used to go to Cardiff to watch the rugby (in a pub, couldn’t get tickets). 250,00 people descend on Cardiff on a six nations rugby match.

What would you like to say to your fellow Six Nations Head Groundsmen?

Keep up the good work!

 

France:

Name: Anthony Stones

Role: Grounds Manager Stadefrance ITURF management

Composition of Pitch: Desso GrassMaster

When was it laid? December 2015 and Desso was installed January 2016

What work will you be doing between Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations?

We will have nine lighting rigs on the pitch as the stadium has no sun at this time of year. Depending on the weather we may have the undersoil heating on. Regular mowing three times per week. Two liquid fertiliser applications will be made and one granulated fertiliser application will done between the two matches that we have this year.

What development or innovation has had the biggest impact on your work in the last five years?

I have a couple of things the seegrow lighting rigs have been a massive help and the air2g2. I am also now looking at fans to help with air flow.

What keeps you awake at night?

Weather. You never stop looking at the weather.

How has your job changed since you took over as Head Groundsman?

Learning a new language since I moved out to France. The main thing to remember is that it’s a team effort and not just the headman that makes a great pitch.

What piece of equipment, yet to be invented, would make your life so much easier?

Not sure on this one. I have lots of ideas.

What is your favourite memory for a previous Six Nations Championship? England winning the tournament in my first year at Stadefrance.

What is the best thing about a Six Nations Rugby match in your city?

Atmosphere – the rugby crowds are great.

What would you like to say to your fellow Six Nations Head Groundsmen?

Good luck guys and may the weather be kind to us all.

 

Ireland:

Name: Majella Smyth

Role: Head Groundsman

Composition of Pitch:

A Desso GrassMaster Hybrid

When was it laid? It was constructed 2013

What work will you be doing between Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations?

Mininimal renovation has been done to the pitch.

What development or innovation has had the biggest impact on your work in the last five years?

Desso Grass Master Hybrid/SGL Grow Lights.

What keeps you awake at night?

Weather conditions.

How has your job changed since you took over as Head Groundsman?

Technology.

What piece of equipment, yet to be invented, would make your life so much easier?

Lighting systems that would leave no impact on the playing surface.

What is your favourite memory for a previous Six Nations Championship?

Ronan O Gara drop goal 2009.

What is the best thing about a Six Nations Rugby match in your city?

The buzz the excitement and the impacted of visiting supporters.

What would you like to say to your fellow Six Nations Head Groundsmen?

It’s a calling, not a job, plus your pitch is now for international scrutiny when it goes live.

The World’s Best

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The World’s Best: Laurence Gale goes back to university to discover what has made Loughborough the world’s best university for sport

Loughborough has been named the best sporting university in the world in the global QS higher education league table. It is actually the first time the annual QS World University Rankings by subject have included a list of the world’s best places to study sports-related subjects and Loughborough ranked joint-first with the University of Sydney, Australia.

This is a fantastic testament but fully justified by all the hard work done by both staff and graduates over the last 60 years. The ethos of the university brings together exceptional athletes, facilities, coaching and research expertise with extensive partnerships with major sporting organisations, such as Sport England, RFU, ECB to name a few.

 

Loughborough won the title in recognition of its unparalleled role in the triumph of the British Olympic and Paralympic teams at Rio 2016.

Over 80 students, graduates and Loughborough-linked athletes travelled to Rio to participate in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the Olympic competition they secured 12 medals, including five golds, and if Loughborough University was a country they would have finished 17th on the medal table. Similarly during the Paralympic competition Loughborough-linked athletes secured a further 22 medals, signifying that Loughborough would have finished 10th in the Paralympics medal table if they were a nation.

With a total of plus 15,000 students on campus, coupled with around 400 performance student athletes, the university is a busy place to be during term times.

The World’s BestA total of 71% of students at Loughborough University regularly participate in sport at least once a week – Sport England Higher Education Sport Participation and satisfaction Survey for 2015/16.

From alumni to collaborative partners, and organisations that use campus as their HQ, Loughborough University is associated with a number of household names.

Some of the most celebrated names in sport have studied at Loughborough including Sebastian Coe, Paula Radcliffe, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and Sir Clive Woodward.

Loughborough University is home to the country’s largest concentration of world-class facilities across a wide range of sports, they include an indoor athletics centre and outdoor stadium, sports halls and all-weather pitches, a 50-metre swimming pool, squash, badminton and netball courts, an indoor tennis centre and outdoor courts, and state of the art fitness centres.

The grounds and gardens are maintained by the university’s own in-house grounds maintenance team consisting of 12 full time groundsmen and  20 full time gardeners of which two are fully trained  arborists. These teams are supervised by Managers William Relf (25 years’ service) who oversees all the sports facilities while Karen Setchell (32 years’ service) manages the gardening teams.

Will and Karen took over the running of the department in 2016 when the previous Estates Manager Mark Freeman retired.

The sports grounds team are split into three teams of four, one solely looking after all the Cricket facilities on campus, whereas the other two teams are split by geographical areas and cover a multitude of sports facilities.

The gardening team consists of five working teams, each with their own areas to manage and maintain. The Arborist team (one man and one woman) maintains all mature trees, two heritage woodlands and plantations on the site.

As for natural grass pitches the university provides thirteen senior natural grass pitches – six football, four rugby, one American football and one lacrosse. The pitches are renovated and topdressed every year using compatible sand dressings, applying between 60 and 100 tonnes per pitch.

Loughborough is also the home of the ECB National Cricket Academy and boasts some of the best cricket practice and playing facilities in the world.

The facilities include: Two natural grass cricket squares and outfields, sixteen outdoor cricket natural grass net areas (on Ongar clay), eleven artificial wickets (five outdoor and six indoor) Complete full size indoor net areas with full bowlers run up and wicket keeper area.

The university also provides some of the finest indoor and outdoor athletics facilities in the country. This includes the indoor High Performance Athletics Centre (HIPAC) enabling athletes to train and perform in the best environment available.

A new dedicated Athletics throwing arena is currently under construction and will be ready in the new year.

Tennis is exceptionally well catered for with 17 artificial courts of which, three are overhead irrigated American Fast Dry outdoor clay courts.  Three outdoor acrylic courts, Four indoor acrylic courts, four Plexipave indoor acrylic courts, plus two tarmac courts. The World’s Best

The university also has several full size artificial pitches on campus, all having different playing characteristics and maintenance requirements.

In the past many artificial surfaces were sold on the back of maintenance free advertising. This is just not the case at Loughborough. Will and his team spends nearly as much time on their artificial surfaces as they do on natural surfaces. The university has spent a lot of money investing in specialist brushing and vacuum machinery to keep these surfaces clean.

As for the tennis courts these are brushed daily while the American fast dry courts are again brushed daily, the frequency being dependent on use. This will usually be twice a day when busy. Generally, they are dragmatted with a rubber dragmat across the line of play, followed by another with a brush in the line of play.

They are then watered, using the pop up automatic irrigation system, to damp down the clay ready for play. It usually takes about an hour and half for one man to complete all the daily work on the three clay courts.

The courts also require topdressing twice a year, regular supplementary dressings throughout the season to maintain levels and a regular rolling programme.

A recent visit enabled me to meet up with Will and walk around the campus to see some of the latest industry developments going on. Will was keen to show me the new reinforced cricket pitch trials, where a number of his existing Onga and Boughton loam pitches and net areas have been sown with some artificial fibres simulating a SIS Grass/Desso style hybrid pitch system.

The results have been amazing with a dramatic reduction in wear and foothole damage, while ball bounce and turn has not been adversely affected.  Two colours of yarn have been tried, a green one and a brown one to see which one is ascetically pleasing to coaches and players.  It will be interesting to see how these pitches respond and recover from their end of season renovations. Will also said, that many of the players had not even noticed these fibres.

We then went on to see another ECB backed trial, that began last June, which saw three drop-in pitches installed into the universities cricket square.

Each pitch is contained in three steel trays, the object of the project is to be able to transport and use the pitch in a large capacity stadium, thus having the ability to play a cricket match at a different venue. Early signs are good, the 200mm deep trays are performing well. It is now a case of progressing to the next stage. Transporting and installing the pitches at a national stadium, and then play an international match on them?

Will was then keen for me to see the new throwing arena being built, that will house an outdoor covered throwing facility to accommodate javelin, discus and hammer athletes. This purpose built training centre will enable athletes to train all year round. The World’s Best

Just driving around the campus, made me realise how big and busy this place is, wherever you looked, there was a different sport activity going on.

One of the busiest times for Will and his staff is during late spring, when they have to change over from a winter sporting calendar into the summer feast of sports. This work also includes having to undertake spring renovations on some of the pitches.

Renovations are carried out on a rotational/need basis, and generally involves a programme of work that involves scarifying, aeration, topdressing and overseeding with some pitches getting a few weeks rest and recuperation.

Having a large fleet of machinery helps enormously, the ability to get around the campus quickly is paramount, all the teams are given a John Deere Gator to help transport themselves, machinery, tools and materials. Will also has a modern cutting fleet of ride on mowers to help cut the grass efficiently. A laser guided Kombi line marking system also saves time when marking pitches on a weekly basis.

The university have also invested in their own sprayers and aeration equipment to ensure they are able to carry out this work promptly and when they choose too, instead of waiting on contractor time frames.

As ever, Loughborough is definitely up there with the best Universities when it comes to managing and maintaining its estate, however, with so many top sports performers based at Loughborough expectations will always be high and the main driver for the grounds team to deliver top class sport facilities.