Tag Archive for: Pitch

Gillingham To Replace Pitch

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Gillingham To Replace Pitch: Gillingham have taken the decision to replace their current playing surface with a hybrid pitch, leading to the rescheduling of two home fixtures.

The surface of the Priestfield pitch has been problematic for some time and the club have now decided to act.

Their home game against Peterborough United is the last on the current surface before renovation work begins, this Monday.

Chairman Paul Scally confirmed the work is to be undertaken and that negotiations are underway about moving the home league match against Blackpool and finding a new venue for their Checkatrade Trophy game against Tottenham’s under-21s.

Mr Scally said: “Work is scheduled to begin on Monday.

“As a result of the work, which will take little over a fortnight, our home match against Blackpool will have to be rearranged, while our match against Totteham in the Checkatrade Trophy will have to be played at another venue.”

Manager Steve Lovell was delighted with the news.

He said: “It’s fantastic news for us as coaching staff and our players that we will have a brilliant pitch to play on in the next couple of weeks. The type of football I like to play will be one that we will hopefully be able to produce at home, as well as away.”

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Match Off After Pitch Vandalism

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Match Off After Pitch Vandalism: Ongoing damage at Putaruru’s Totara Park is angering the community and sparking fears public access could be restricted.

In the latest incident a vehicle damaged the football pitch so badly that the Rangers team had to cancel its final game of the season.

Manager Derek Roberts, who has been with the club since the 1960’s, said although not the first time vehicles have damaged the grounds, it was the worst he had seen.

South Waikato District Council parks and reserves manager Phil Parker said the damage was “frustrating”.

“Staff and contractors find this behaviour equally annoying as park users,” he said.

“Our staff and contractors work hard to maintain our parks, reserves and sports grounds for our community and to see them treated with such disrespect is very frustrating.”

Parker said prior to the latest incident the council’s contractor was due to begin the bi-annual turf renovation programme.

“This will continue, however, obviously, this part of the grounds will now require some additional work and effort,” he said.

He said the ongoing damage was costing ratepayers.

“Sadly this is not an isolated incident,” he said.

“There is a cost to ratepayers to repair this kind of damage which is unfortunate, but the greatest cost in this instance is that the Putaruru Rangers had to forfeit their last game of the season. That’s really disappointing.”

Parker said the council was disappointed that the actions of a few people were ruining things for the majority.

“Those responsible for this vandalism should be held to account. Unfortunately without eyewitnesses that is close to impossible,” he said.

“We would encourage anyone who knows anything to contact the council or the police.”

Senior Sergeant Jason Henderson said he wasn’t aware of any reports being made to police.

“We haven’t received any report as yet. That is quite often the thing, if we don’t know about it we can’t actually do anything about it,” he said.

“More often than not we find people don’t want to bug the police because we are already busy and all the rest of it but if there is a trend and it is annoying people then we need to know so we can look into it.”

Henderson said such incidents could lead to public access being restricted to such facilities.

“These people will end up ruining it for everyone,” he said.

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Giant Sinkhole Appears On Pitch

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Giant Sinkhole Appears On Pitch: A football pitch in Mexico has been become unusable after a giant sinkhole formed in the centre of the field.

The incident is thought to have occurred after the pipes under the water sprinkler system apparently started leaking.

The affected pitch, in Cuajimalpa de Morelos, now sports a gigantic sinkhole, well over six metres deep.

Fortunately, no one was playing on the field at the time when the hole first appeared – with no injuries as yet reported.

The affected area is home to several power towers and had to be cordoned off to prevent further incident.

Meanwhile, another sinkhole was also reported in the nearby area of Bosque de Canelos.

According to official sources, the hole occurred in a private residence close to a 13-storey block of flats.

The sinkhole is also believed to have formed following an underground pipe leak.

An 18-metre tree was also damaged as the sinkhole formed, according to local media.

An investigation by the local water authorities is ongoing.

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Valladolid Pitch Investigated

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Valladolid Pitch Investigated: An investigation has been opened by La Liga into Real Valladolid’s pitch following their defeat by Barcelona on Saturday, which has been described as “deplorable”.

Players had to replace clumps of turf that became dislodged during the Spanish champions’ 1-0 win at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla.

The pitch was relaid on Tuesday and began to tear up early in the game.

“There were areas that seemed more like a beach,” said Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets.

“It’s incredible that no-one from La Liga felt they should come and check the grass. You can’t play on that.”

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said: “It was deplorable.

“I hope those in charge get their house in order and fix this, because it was lamentable.”

La Liga issued a statement after the game to confirm it is investigating why the pitch “did not meet the minimum conditions demanded by the competition”.

Real Valladolid are playing in La Liga for the first time since 2013-14 after winning promotion via the play-offs last season.

Manager Sergio Gonzalez said the club had done “everything they could” to get the pitch ready.

“We were the last team to get promoted and we’ve had issues getting the pitch ready on time,” he said.

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AMS Expands Into Pitch Mowing

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AMS Expands Into Pitch Mowing: Automated Managed Services Ltd (AMS) is the UK’s official distributors for Belrobotics robots and offers a contract based robotic maintenance service solution for turf care. With the aim of building on its undoubted success in the golf industry, AMS is kick-starting its expansion into sport pitch/field care with upcoming installations at Barking FC and Halesowen FC.

These football clubs will be home to the new BigMow Connected Line robotic mower, released into the UK market in April of this year it will be showcased at this years SALTEX show. Its features include a large working area capacity of 24,000 m2, up from the 20,000m2 coverage offered by its predecessor the BigMow Classic. Design improvements to the shell/body design contribute to low noise level output of 52db. It has five sonars used to navigate its surroundings and to perform effective obstacle avoidance. A Belrobotics smartphone app has also been introduced to allow customers to programme mowing schedules and monitor performance.

AMS Expands Into Pitch Mowing

With 45 plus robot locations across the UK, a single BigMow robotic mower can mow a pitch 5 to 7 times per week and imposes no stress to the grass due to its lightweight design. It has 15 razor sharp blades that trim the top of the grass into tiny clippings, which then decompose quickly acting as a natural fertiliser. This in turn reduces the need for chemical fertilisers and frees up personnel to focus on other aspects of pitch care. The BigMow’s manicure style mulching also means there is no green waste to collect, store or remove.

Additionally due to a regular mowing schedule, the grass roots grip is strengthen allowing better anchoring into the soil. Creating a denser sward that is better resistant to wear and tear. This means frequent traffic areas like goalmouths become more shear resistant due natural ample continuous grass growth. With the overall quality of the pitch becoming softer and more homogenous, results in a better ball flight, shot accuracy and playing experience for users.

AMS’s automated maintenance service solution requires no capital outlay and is run on an affordable monthly service contract.  Sport facilities with limited resources can also benefit due to the availability of turf care grants, meaning cash strapped facilities can also reap the benefits robotic mowing provides. A typical robot mower installation involves the install of a docking station and a perimeter wire.  The docking station is where the robot goes to recharge and the perimeter wire emits a magnetic field acting as an underground boundary to guide the robot.

“We’ve had a lot of keen interest from grassroot sport facilities over the last few months, which have lead to installations at Hitchin Town FC and Old Halesonians RFC. With several other installs already in the pipeline, the potential benefits of redeploying personnel to other tasks, operational cost savings, overall health benefits to turf and the availability of grants offered by the FA, ECB and the RFU, are just some of the reasons robotic mowing is fast becoming a desirable turf maintenance option. “  Philip Sear Managing Director of Automated Managed Services Ltd

Visitors to Saltex 2018 at NEC Birmingham, October 31st – 1st November, can see the BigMow Connected Mower in action at Stand A090 or alternatively visit www.automatedmanagedservices.com or call 01462 676 222 for more information.

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