Palletts installed


Grading the pallets


concert for Gay Pride and the GB Rally. We also had a banquet dinner on the 4th October and it was this dinner that was causing us the biggest dilemma. The Wales v Azerbaijan WCQ was on the 12th October and training for both teams would have to be catered for, potentially on the 10th and 11th. There was also a Barnardo’s Half and Full Marathon in the event schedule on Sunday 9th. This involved 7500 people running down into the stadium and around the pitch through the day. The banquet event was an evening affair and so the catering tents, staging, lighting towers, flooring, carpets, tables and chairs had to be removed afterwards, all completely gone by midday on the 5th. Effectively this gave us three and a half days to piece together half the modular system, grade the surface and turf it, to my mind a virtual impossibility. Long in advance, I’d liased with the commercial department and event organisers and we reached a happy compromise. This agreement meant that we could import four fifths of the modules in advance, and turf just under half the surface prior to the banquet. With everybody organised, we started reinstating the modules for the second time this year on the 22nd September, just 18 days after it had been removed. I have tried to retain the same lads on each move, allowing them all to gain the knowledge and experience of piecing the modules together successfully. From the forklift and lorry drivers to the teams laying in the modules, everyone now works competently. 12-hour shifts aren’t the best at any time,


but there is some great camaraderie now, even between the day and night shifts.


All the modules were in place by Friday teatime and the blocks had been placed around the completed pitch area. We had left out about 1250 modules in total for the banquet, some off the North end and the rest in front of the tunnel. These two areas were for the catering tents, welcome area and concert staging.


When we were finished, SF Hodgkinson graded the laid area and Hendriks laid just over 4500 square metres of turf. The turf this time is a mix of tall fescue and smooth stalk meadow grass. We have chosen this mixture because the pitch has to withstand a fairly hefty fixture list of four rugby internationals and at least ten training sessions in November. Lee Evans had flown over to Holland to view the turf, and was extremely pleased with its quality. He even brought some back, though I doubt if he’s the first to bring grass back through customs from Amsterdam!


The turfing was down with a few days to spare before the banquet organisers started their event build. On Wednesday 5th October, I arrived at the stadium at 7am, to find that virtually none of the banquet event had been de-rigged, (just what you need when you have just a few days to get the pitch ready for a World Cup Qualifier. There were two lorries loaded and on the way over from the storage site and about twenty men turning up at 8am to get started. Although the original de-rig was supposed to be completed by noon, the event organiser had subsequently told me that apart from


flooring everything else would be gone through the night.


Anyway problems are there to be solved and we set the lads on various tasks to help the event organisers get their equipment out of the stadium.


The first concrete blocks


were removed at 1.30pm and the last event lorry was clear of the stadium for 3.30pm. By the time the day shift were changing over to the night shift only 300 modules had been laid.


The nightshift worked


tirelessly and by 6am Thursday there were about 40 modules and about 60 blocks left to place in. Derek Crane arrived on behalf of SF Hodgkinson to do the final surface grading at 7am. Although we were finishing the corner area off, we brought up some steel ramps and helped Derek to get the tractor and stone rake up on to the modules. He started to grade while we finished the corner area. The first turf lorry arrived at about 10am and by 2pm the first turf was being rolled out. Derek continued to stone rake in front of the turfing team and our day shift lads, cleared rubbish and swept up around the pitch and seating. At 11.45am Friday


morning the last turf was cut in at the edge of the pitch and now Lee and Steve had the unenviable task of getting the newly laid turf ship shape for the following week’s game.


Lee managed to move the


Wales training session to Tuesday morning, with Azerbaijan training that evening.


The game itself went well, Ryan Giggs scoring two cracking goals. The turf lines still showed on the cameras


on the North end, but the turf laid the week before had married in nicely. The next events start in November, with four Saturdays of international rugby. Each of these games are preceded by a training session for each team, and I believe the Welsh squad will be looking for at least a couple of extra training sessions as well.


I will write an update on how this turf coped with these events at the end of November, after we have taken the whole system back out for a two-month schedule of Motocross, concerts and parties.


Given the nature and scale of events at the Millennium Stadium, it is quite hard to envisage another suitable operating system. The modular system has major benefits, in allowing virtually any event to be hosted at the venue. When you think that this year alone, there will have been 4 sell out concerts, three different motor sports as well as a full programme of football and rugby to name but a few events in the annual calendar. It has been a tremendous


year, and I would like to personally thank the haulier Mark Rees, Ace Site Services (forklift drivers), Linde Severnside (forklifts) as well as Lee, Steve (Assistant Groundsman) and all the staff, who have given up their time to help on the pitch moves. We are now looking at the gradual replacement of old modules, so that the system can be revitalised.


The full version of this article can be read on Pitchcare.com


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