Earning his Spurs...
Tottenham Hotspur Grounds Manager, Darren Baldwin, is playing a pivotal role in the club’s new stadium and training facilities.
These are exciting times for the North London club as Tom James finds out
T
ravel north of the bright red heartland that is Arsenal and a swathe of blue washes London as derby rivals Tottenham Hotspur, the Gunners’ understudies for so long, assume dominance on their ‘patch’. Just by the White Hart Lane headquarters, the scene is one of fading grandeur - decaying buildings and shop premises, many closed and shuttered as the local team buy up property. This is a township in transition, however, as Spurs join their Premiership counterparts in starting afresh with a brand spanking new stadium that will match any venue in that league. Are the Hotspurs about to enter a golden era not seen since the league and cup double days of Blanchflower, Jones and Mackay in 1961? Their original club emblem - the cockerel - that once perched atop the main stand, greets visitors through the main entrance today as a poignant reminder of past glories. Harry Hotspur, from whom the club is said to take its name, was famed for his riding spurs and fighting cocks, and the sculptured metal icon carries a fearsome prong on its leg to remind us that this is no tame bird. Another Harry has taken command here of late and, on current performances, is on track to repeat history. ‘To dare is to do’ - the club motto - seems highly appropriate when speaking of Harry Redknapp.
The rising fortunes of Spurs come at a time when those spearheading turfcare are more prominently positioned than they’ve ever been. The media is interested in what grounds managers have to say and they are growing more influential at boardroom level.
That burgeoning profile, particularly at the high end of sport, is bringing those that tend the top
footballing surfaces into sharp relief as the onus of responsibility spreads and deepens. A respect for grounds managers is gathering path though, seen nowhere better perhaps than at Tottenham Hotspur, where that role embraces crucial aspects of management at a club that has gone from bottom of the Premier League to a worthy fourth in just 18 months, landing them a place in the Champions League for the first time. Some may argue that, wherever Harry Redknapp hangs his hat, success will follow sooner or later. Man management is his strong suit certainly - the ability to nurture the differing personalities and sensibilities that are the hallmark of a Premiership football squad - so too is a shrewd judgment of his fellow managers’ make-up. But, behind the man, there’s the support team that has to deliver the quality of playing surface that players, managers and the public demand. Charged with that task is 37-year-old Darren Baldwin, whose responsibility it is to oversee White Hart Lane’s stadium pitch as well as the increasingly complex training facets of the club. No stranger to success himself, Darren has
previously bagged the Premiership Groundsman of the Year crown and is busy developing a fruitful relationship with both club chairman and manager, whilst also playing a pivotal role in the plans for the club’s new stadium and £30m training development now underway north near the M25 orbital motorway. Darren cut his teeth in the industry at 18 (one’s tempted to add ‘at only 18’ but, in turfcare, it seems grounds professionals leap straight out of the cradle and on to the grass) when he joined the support team at Highbury, after spending a brief stint working for Thames Water on leaving school. After six years with the Gooners, he walked into White
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