Keeping it
IN THE FAMILY
Some would say that groundsmanship isn’t just a career - it’s a vocation. But, despite the huge variety of career choices on offer, there’s still a steady flow of school leavers and students enrolling on college courses and apprenticeships in the turf maintenance industry each year. And, regardless of the competition from other sectors, individuals are still giving up their careers in other industries to become groundsmen and greenkeepers.
Everyone who is involved in the profession is aware of its rewards and draw-backs and none more so than those who’ve grown up around it.
PITCHCARE asked three groundsmen, and their
fathers, to explain what it’s like having groundsmanship in the family.
Father: Chris Parry Head Groundsman, NEC Harlequins
Son: Matt Parry Trainee Groundsman, The Concorde Club Day Release - Merrist Wood College
Chris Parry
“From the age of four I use to walk alongside my grandfather whilst he prepared cricket wickets and marked out football and hockey pitches. He looked after the 11-acre Leicester YMCA sports ground which our house backed on to. When I turned 12, he trained and entrusted me to drive the tractor and use the trailed gang units. From then on I was hooked on turf. Grandad retired in 1978 after 25 years in groundsmanship and it was around that time I met Keith Kent. At the time, he was a groundsman at Leicester City’s training ground, just over the fence from the YMCA. I spent all my spare time helping Keith who taught me a great deal about maintaining football pitches. I was also interested in plants and
trees and at one point wanted to join the Forestry Commission but left school and got a four-year apprenticeship as a trainee gardener/groundsman with the local authority, attending the local horticulture college on day release. The combination of learning and earning suited me. I’ve never given a thought to any other career, despite spending six months unemployed in 2002. My goal was to be a Head
Groundsman, preferably at Leicester, and even though I deviated into horticultural maintenance for 9 yrs, I got there. I love my job, the prestige, the pressure, the challenges and the job satisfaction of producing an awesome surface.
I’m pleased that Matt has shown an interest in groundsmanship. As a child, he loved being at the training ground, or Filbert Street, with me so it came as no surprise that he wanted to follow in my footsteps. He’s already had a good insight into sports turf maintenance but I feel he now needs to learn about other people’s ideas and working practices. I want him to be trained by someone else other than me.
He’s a sensible and conscientious person and I know he’ll work hard and do his best. The advice I’ve given him is to listen to what people tell you, learn from them and learn from your own experiences.”
Matt Parry
“I’m 16 years old and recently started work as a trainee groundsman at The Concorde Club at Heathrow. Dad got his first job as a stadium groundsman when I was seven and I didn’t really realise at that point what he was doing. I just
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68