How Head Groundsman PAUL BARNETT went from keeping Scarborough fair to
Making Gretna green again ...
MY career started in my home town of Scarborough where, at the age of 16, I started working for Scarborough Town FC on a YTS placement. Two years later the Head Groundsman left the club and I was asked to maintain the pitch until they found a replacement. That never happened and I was left in charge of the stadium pitch for 13 years. I left Scarborough in 2001 to join Sunderland FC, hoping to take my career to the next level. I was looking after pitches at their Academy of Light with seven other groundstaff. However, that lasted only 18 months as Sunderland were having a bad season and were relegated from the Premiership. Unfortunately, this resulted in groundstaff being made redundant, and, sadly, I was one of them. My move to Gretna FC came in June 2003. I heard about the position from a friend, who happened to be one of the bosses at Scarborough. He rang me up to say that Gretna were looking for a groundsman and that they were interested in me. I saw this as a great opportunity and was happy to join them two weeks later.
Due to the timing of my appointment, I only had four weeks to prepare the playing surface for the first friendly. The pitch was being maintained by the manager before I became Head Groundsman. The playing surface was still young and needed some attention quickly to have a strong sward for the start of the season.
I am pleased to say that the pitch has been playing its part over the last 3 years as Gretna have progressed through the divisions. They are now ready for
the First Division and then, hopefully, the Premier League. We are in the process of redeveloping
the ground to make way for two new stands to meet SPL standards, which require a 6000 seater stadium. This meant knocking down an old stand and adding 20 metres to the width of the existing pitch. This will allow us to move the pitch over during the season, still retaining the same pitch dimensions, and for a new stand to be constructed on the opposite side coming 20 metres on to the existing pitch. All this work was due to be completed by 5th August, so we had to move quickly to organise contractors for a start date as we only received permission in mid May.
Diary of works:
Contractors removed old stand and terracing down to a sub level of 350mm.
Hellens Sports started preparation works to bring area to right height of 100mm off the surface.
Par 4 Irrigation started putting in extra irrigation pipes and pop up sprinklers around new area.
Drainage works lateral pipes at 5 metres apart with main drain fix on to main pitch drainage.
Preparation ready for 35mm thickness turf to be laid.
All works were carried out within three weeks. The pitch was laid and fertilised with a 12.0.9 + 2%Fe two days later. We watered the new turf and our first cut was five days later at 32mm, the same as we cut the main pitch.
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