Ha’ Way THE LADS
Sunderland FC are under new management, albeit temporary. Laurence Gale MSc catches up with his old mucker ‘Bally’ and talks to Head Groundsman Adrian Partridge about life at the Stadium of Light
I
was very pleased to hear the news of Kevin Ball’s appointment as caretaker manager at Sunderland Football Club. I have known Bally for many years, originally working with him whilst I was Head Groundsman at Fratton Park in 1983-84.
Since that time I have kept an eye on his career. He was an established player at Sunderland from 1990 to 1999 and joined the club’s coaching team when he stopped playing. This recent step up is a massive opportunity for him albeit, initially, a short term one.
So, during a scheduled visit to see Adrian Partridge, the Head
Groundsman at the Stadium of Light, I was hoping for the opportunity to see Kevin again. Very kindly, Adrian was able to make the necessary
arrangements, we met briefly at the club’s Academy, a very impressive set up with a range of top quality, specialist conditioning equipment and facilities. Kevin was in his office, and we had an enjoyable reminisce about the old days. However talk soon came around to what he would like to achieve in the last remaining games of the season. His aim was to instill some confidence in the players, increase their work rate, improve team spirit and, above all, turn their fortunes and bring about a long awaited win, especially at home. We also talked about pitch quality and what he expects from the playing
surfaces. Having been at the club for well over 16 years, Kevin is very much aware and appreciative of the commitment of the groundstaff to provide the best surfaces possible. However, like many other clubs, the interests of the players often come before pitches. Kevin is well aware of these issues and is one manager who will be keen to support the needs of his groundstaff, especially knowing that quality surfaces increase player skill levels whilst at the same time reducing the incidence of injury.
SIX groundstaff are employed to maintain both the stadium pitch and the academy ground facilities. Head Groundsman Adrian Partridge is based at the Stadium of Light and works mostly on his own, but he can call on help from the academy staff if and when required. Glen Campbell (not the Rhinestone cowboy) is the Head
Groundsman at the Academy where he manages a team of four staff - John Gutteridge, John Richmond, Chris Hudson and Mark Sleightholme, each having well over ten years service with the club.
Both the stadium and academy are relatively new facilities. The Stadium of Light was opened in 1997 and the Academy of Light opened its doors in March 2003.
Stadium of Light
The Stadium of Light is a modern wrap around stadium that seats 49,000 people. Like most new stadiums the presence of air and light has been dramatically reduced. The club recognised the problems of shade several years ago and purchased an SGL lighting rig that helps Adrian maintain grass growth during the winter months.
However, like most new technologies, they can often bring added problems. The heat generated from the lights warms up and dries out the soil, the temperature is often three degrees warmer than other areas resulting in five times more grass clippings being collected from the treated area than from the remainder of the pitch. Even in the depths of winter Adrian has to irrigate regularly and apply some nitrogen based fertiliser. The lighting rigs are very
manoeuvrable allowing Adrian the opportunity to position them around the pitch as and when required. They need to be in situ for a number of hours to achieve results and, although weather and fixtures can affect their use, Adrian would not be without them. Although other areas of the country have been very dry, the north east has had its usual wet winter. The stadium pitch has been multicored on a regular basis during the wetter months to a
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