strict financial budgets. The stadium pitch receives a good budget for the renovations and seasonal maintenance but there isn’t the money at present to reconstruct the pitch properly. Over the last 14 years, goal areas have
been reinforced with fibre sand, and even hand sown with Desso, small out field problem areas have been excavated and refilled with newer root zone material and additional drains have been installed in certain areas both east to west and north to south across the pitch. With the advent of machinery such as
the Koro, the vegetation has been stripped off each May and the root zone ameliorated with further sand or rootzone. This has happened nearly every season for the last ten years. The ability to ‘turn over’ the upper profile, creating air space and removing compaction certainly provides the newly sown grass with the best chance of
establishing well during the summer’s closed season. The problems at Molineux don’t usually arise until mid winter when evapotranspiration is negligible and rainfall is high. At this time certain areas of the pitch are unable to cope with excessive moisture and this, coupled with a gentle fall from the southeast to the northwest pitch corners, means that water has to travel right across the surface when field capacity is reached. During inclement weather there are usually a few occasions when games are close to being called off. The club has invested in a rain cover system, which is worth its weight in gold but, even with this in place, heavy rain in the hour or two before a match can still waterlog the surface, very quickly bringing about a postponement. With all of the above and more to consider the following works were
decided upon for this 2006 renovation, with the pitch contractor Derek Crane and the Wolves Groundstaff working in conjunction for much of the work to keep costs down to a minimum.
AT Molineux the surface vegetation was Koroed off to a depth of 15mm and 250 tonnes of 70/30 rootzone (supplied by Mansfield Sands) was spread evenly to a depth of 15mm before the area was power harrowed to a depth of 100mm. The ground was then generally levelled using a grading bar, locally levelled and consolidated using a massive 4 metre wide stone rake.
Once completed, 20 cubic metres of concentrated fibre rootzone was spread through the goal areas and one or two other areas of concern, and this was worked into the surface with the power harrow and then stone raked again to attain our final levels. The fibre
33
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 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80