Tag Archive for: FA

Norfolk FA Sign Up Replay

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Norfolk FA Sign Up Replay: The Football Development Centre at Flegg High Ormiston Academy in Norfolk, known as the FDC @ Flegg, is one of three facilities run by Norfolk County FA. Elliot Pride, the FDC @ Flegg Development Officer oversees the full size 3G pitch at the site, managing everything from accounts, bookings and even getting hands on with maintaining the pitch. Assisting Elliot in keeping the surface looking and playing at its best are synthetic specialists Replay Maintenance.

“I’ve been here since we opened the facility 18 months ago and in that time, we’ve made great strides in getting the local community involved with football” explains Elliot. Term-time the pitch is used in school hours by the pupils, then at evenings, weekends and during school holidays Norfolk FA take over offering pay & play, walking football, County 5IVES and a range of pitch hire slots. “We’re lucky to be supported by a number of local clubs who use the pitch for training and matches. The pitch see’s roughly 25-30 hours of play per week, with that figure increasing year on year.”

Norfolk FA Sign Up Replay

A County Partner to Norfolk FA, Replay have been involved with the maintenance of the FDC’s since the original facility opened in Norwich eight years ago. “We were pleased with the work and results achieved with Replay there, when the installer-provided maintenance expired on the Flegg pitch we decided to formulate a contract with them to maintain all three centres.” The service agreement see’s Replay conducting six Revive® visits per year to remove contaminates and de-compact and rotate the infill which is then regraded and dressed back into the surface. This results in enhanced porosity and improved playing characteristics.

“Communication with Replay is great. I have a calendar showing the planned visits for the coming year which gives me plenty of notice to liaise with the school to ensure the pitch is free. On visit days, the operators are normally here by the time I arrive at 8am, getting on with the job and are normally away by midday. Following the visit, we then get a report detailing the work conducted, infill levels etc. We also receive weekly emails to submit our hours of play which then generates an ‘actual hours’ figure, from which we can work out how many hours of in-house maintenance we need to conduct.”

Final word from Elliot, “It’s great to have Replay in conducting a deeper clean every couple of months, topping up the brushing and debris collecting we do ourselves. Although the surface is relatively new, it’s important to consider that they only have a limited lifespan so working hard now to keep the pitch in good condition, should help to keep it safe and playable for years to come.”

For more information, visit: www.replaymaintenance.co.uk

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FA Groundsman Awards Open

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FA Groundsman Awards Open: Each season The FA runs a nationwide competition to find the Groundsman of the Year.

Now in its 15th year, the Award was set up to recognise the contribution of these unsung heroes of the grass roots game and encourage the development of groundsmanship.

FA Groundsman Awards Open

These annual awards provide a great opportunity to recognise and reward Club Groundsmen at Step 7 (Kent County Premier Division) and below. The majority of football in this country is played at grassroots level, and quality pitches are therefore essential for the development of football at every level.

Grassroots groundsmen, the vast majority of whom are volunteers, play a huge role in ensuring pitches are in their best possible condition, week in, week out. The Awards were set up to recognise the contribution of these ‘unsung heroes’, who work in all weather, all year round, to make sure that thousands of matches can take place on a high standard of playing surface.

Any club wishing to nominate their groundsman need to complete the nomination form and return this to Darryl Haden, Football Development Manager at the Kent FA no later than Friday 2nd March 2018. Nomination forms can be submitted via email at Darryl.haden@kentfa.com or via the post to:

Darryl Haden
Football Development Manager
Kent FA, Invicta House
Cobdown Park, London Road
Ditton nr Aylesford
ME20 6DQ

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FA Take Advice From City Groundsmen

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FA Take Advice From City Groundsmen: Sports bodies across the UK are taking advice from Gloucester.

More than 18 months after the city council agreed to commit to improve pitches across Gloucester, council bosses say there has been a major improvement.

FA Take Advice From City Groundsman

And there has been input from some of the nation’s greatest groundsmen at the most high-profile grounds.

The RFU, FA, and England and Wales Cricket Board have held pitch improvement workshops with clubs and groundsmen here in Gloucester, including an event at Kingsholm Stadium, which was led by the head groundsman of Twickenham stadium, Keith Kent.

In January 2016, the council agreed to undertake a new playing pitch strategy to turn their pitches around.

Since then they claim they have seen a 40 per cent improvement.

The report added that with commitment from city council officers, and representation with sporting interest groups such as Sport England, Active Gloucestershire and Aspire Sport and Cultural Trust, now the Football Association is developing a national case study based on Gloucester’s approach.

Gloucester City Council’s cabinet recently approved a report which stated that more people in the county are getting involved in playing sport.

Councillor Lise Noakes (C, Barnwood) said: “It’s exciting the progress that we’re making.”

Adam Gooch, principal planning officer at Gloucester City Council, said in a report: “The delivery of the playing pitch strategy is having a positive effect on sustainability in Gloucester, providing a framework for the protection, enhancement and provision on playing pitches and ancillary facilities in the city over the next 10 years.

“It will also set a good foundation for the ongoing consideration of playing pitches through future updates to the strategies.”

Terry Haines is a member of the Gloucestershire Playing Fields Association.

He said: “My impression is that things have improved but there’s a challenge to maintain them when the [council’s] resources have been reduced to almost nothing.”

He added the future of the pitches depends on “people doing something” to make sure the pitches are suitable for playing on.

But Martin Townsend, who is director of rugby for Old Centralians RFC at Saintbridge Road – which is maintained by White Horse Federation on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council – said his pitch needs improvement.

He said the pitch gets flooded when it rains, and if the team is playing when that happens, the pitch is out of use for four weeks.

“The standard of the pitch is terrible. When the school got moved here the White Horse Federation were supposed to have provided us with a decent playing facility,” he said.

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