Tag Archive for: groundsman

Bridesmaids Win Groundsman Award

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Bridesmaids Win Groundsman Award: Everyone connected with both Boreham Wood and Arsenal Football Club, would like to congratulate our groundsmen Daniel Hunter and Declan Robinson on winning the very prestigious and Nationally awarded ‘groundsman of the year’ award.

The dedication, skill and application shown by these two very committed grass and soil technicians come rain, wind or shine, has meant our incredible pitch is prepared to an incredibly high standard.

After the decision was made to restructure our pitch four seasons ago and after improved investment was put in over the last three years, our hard working lads have finally been rewarded.

They have in truth both spent years knocking on the award panels door and gone close to winning this prestigious award on so many occasions, today’s news means we couldn’t be happier for these two very dedicated groundsman.

Well done Dan and well done Dec, you deserve the title of ‘groundsman of the year’.

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Hastings Groundsman Scoops Award

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Hastings Groundsman Scoops Award: Hastings United’s surface- and its architect- recognised in FA Groundsman of the Year Awards.

Grass. It’s often something we take rather for granted, isn’t it? But creating a fine surface for football doesn’t happen by chance; it involves a great deal of back-breaking work and an incredible amount of skill, which is why the FA honour those who have proved incredibly good at it. So stand up and be honoured Simon Rudkins of Hastings United- and a number of your BetVictor Isthmian colleagues!

Yesterday at St George’s Park, Simon- who recently left his role at Pilot Field after many years of incredible service- was honoured as Isthmian League Groundman of the Year. He was also the runner up in the national competition for Step Three and Four, which is why he’s holding two trophies in our image (borrowed from Simon himself, thank you).

Much credit also goes to Andrew Facey of Maldon & Tiptree, who was the Isthmian runner up, and Derrick Matthews of Hayes & Yeading United, who came third. Both Brian Quinnel of Bognor Regis Town and Andrew Ward of Wingate & Finchley were highly commended in in the Isthmian League category and the Step Three and Four awards.

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Trophy For Alfreton Groundsman

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Trophy For Alfreton Groundsman: Alfreton Town’s Rob Brooks picked up the third place trophy in the National League category at the FA Groundsman of the Year Awards.

Boreham Wood claimed first place with Chesterfield in second.

The Impact Arena is widely recognised up and down the country for its stunning surface and being one of the best non league surfaces outside the football league.

With the likes of Nottingham Forest, Mansfield Town and Burton Albion using the surface for their youth teams, the Impact surface was recently selected to host the England U18s as they face Korea Republic in September.

We send our huge congratulations to Rob for his amazing hard work throughout the season and during the close seasons. His commitment and dedication to his work has been recognised with a fantastic award as our pitch surface gains even more recognition!

The Groundsman of the Year awards is a nationwide competition for non-league football groundsmen.

The awards recognise the contribution of these unsung heroes, who work in all weather, often as volunteers, all year round, to make sure that thousands of matches can take place on a high standard of playing surface and with a very limited budget.

The FA has a panel of judges – professional groundsmen themselves – who look at the quality of the pitch while also taking into consideration the skills and knowledge of the groundsman, their ambitions for the pitch, the resources available, how often the pitch is used, and the amount of time they are able to work on the pitch.

Chairman Wayne Bradley on Rob’s award:

“Congratulations go out to our groundsman, who continues to provide the impact arena with a playing surface to grace the game at a testing range of both local and international levels. We are all at Alfreton Town football club, quite rightly very proud of Rob Brooks ( the groundsman) who continues to set the bar to the highest standard in playing surface presentation.”

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Groundsman Pleas To Dog Owners

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Groundsman Pleas To Dog Owners: A football club groundsman has slammed irresponsible dog owners for not picking up their pets’ faeces, which has been left scattered across a village field which is used to host matches.

Long Ashton Football Club stalwart Davy McGimpsey believes the amount removed by players is ‘nothing short of disgraceful’ and it is a problem the club faces ‘every week’.

He said the issue at Long Ashton’s Community Centre, where the club plays and trains, is ‘major and dangerous’ and he is urging people to ‘clean-up their act’.

Davy said: “The problems with dog poo left on the pitch is worse now than it has ever been.

“It has become an issue before training and we have to pick up a lot of the waste before we can even attempt to play.

“We have had to stop matches due to faeces being left on the field, and I couldn’t count the amount we had to pick up on one hand before a game in July.

“Genuine dog walkers clean up, but this is an epidemic.

“We’ve invested in a shovel to get it all up and ‘no dog fouling’ signs have been installed at the centre to help tackle the problem.”

Davy first took to social media to address the issue in April, but some owners have paid scant regard to his plea.

This prompted Davy to question if dogs should be banned from the field.

The football club’s players, aged 16-60, compete with clubs from across the West Country, and members practice on Tuesday evenings at the centre during the summer.

He continues: “The other issue is dog poo is normally left right by the community centre’s play area.

“People need to understand how dangerous this is, especially if children end up picking it up.

“There are dog bins dotted around the centre, and, for whatever reason, some people don’t think about using them.

“It’s just not nice, and there are now people in the club who just refuse to pick it up.

“It annoys us, this group is something great which runs in the community, and it is not the centre’s problem to deal with.

“It’s simply unacceptable, and it begs the question, should dogs be allowed on the village field at all?”

In addition to its pleas to dog owners, the club has also put a ban on plastic bottles in an attempt to reduce waste on the pitch.

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Tributes For Former Groundsman

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Tributes For Former Groundsman: Tributes have been paid to the former head groundsman of Bangor on Dee racecourse after he passed away on Wednesday, July 10 aged 82.

John Malam, who will always be associated with the North Wales course, where he was affectionately known as Mr Bangor on Dee, was from the neighbouring village of Overton on Dee and began working at the track back in 1971.

The Leader’s horse racing reporter Arthur Shone said Mr Bangor on Dee never really went away after that first day, with the family name still going strong with both his sons now taking care of the track.

He said: “Horseracing was his life and Bangor on Dee racecourse was the centre of his world. In 1980 he was promoted to head groundsman following the retirement of Tom Osborne and continued in this full-time position until he retired in 1997.

In his final year as head groundsman the racecourse was awarded the Neil Wyatt Award for ground staff, an award I know that made him a very proud man and especially of his team, which he always referred to as ‘his lads’.”

Mr Malam was restless in retirement and continued to support his beloved Bangor on Dee racecourse and carried on for many years afterwards as stable manager and running the yard on race days, often in this role he would arrive first thing in the morning to have a coffee with his team.

Arthur Shone added: “I have known John Malam for over four decades as a friend and I always used to enjoy his company, he also used to build the fences at Aintree racecourse and on certain courses between the flags.

“In fact, he shared my passion for point to point racing and was very knowledgeable about the sport he loved, he used to describe the sport as real racing.

“I have so many happy memories of the man, one was at the now defunct Flagg Moor racecourse out in the wilds in the Peak District that used to have one meeting a year on Easter Tuesday, a racecourse that used to hold a members race over stone walls, with a spare change of clothes mandatory due to the adverse weather changes at the track.

“I arrived early at the meeting and met up with John who was about to walk the course in glorious sunshine, so I dug out my wellingtons and joined him half way around it rained of biblical proportions, when we got to the last hundred yards there was hail stones followed by a snow blizzard.

“John turned around to me said, “This is what point to point racing is all about” – I remember having to get my car towed off the racecourse at the end of the meeting, happy times.

“He will be sadly missed by his many friends in racing, which I was happy to be counted as one of them.”

The Malam family tradition continued when his eldest son Andrew became head groundsman at Bangor on Dee when his father retired in 1997, a position he still holds today and in 1991, Andrew’s brother Brian started as assistant groundsman to his brother and remains part of the team to this day.

Lifelong friend and racecourse manager Jeannie Chantler said: “His hard work and dedication are his legacy. Thank you, John, from all at Bangor on Dee racecourse.”

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